You CAN teach heart.

You Can Teach Heart

Hey Y’all,

Coach Brian here.

Today’s blog post is about something that’s been on my mind for quite some time. There’s a popular phrase in the BJJ community: “You can’t teach heart.”

I’m here to tell you—that’s BS.

Heart Can Be Built

You can teach heart. Grit. Tenacity. And it starts with the small things.

Let’s be real—Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is HARD. The first hard thing you ever did as a human was stand up off the ground. And now, here you are, back on the ground, learning to move your body in ways you never have before—sometimes even upside down—with another person trying to control you. Yeah, it’s tough. But as I’ve learned in life, the most worthwhile things usually are.

Think about it.

When you were a baby, you started crawling. The more you did it, the more confident you became. Then, you noticed everyone around you standing and walking, so you tried. And you failed. But I bet your caretakers encouraged you. So you tried again. And again. Until one day—you did it. And the first time you stood up, oh man, the crowd went wild.

That’s how heart happens.

The Process of Building Heart

You didn’t stand up and run a marathon on the same day. It took time. Practice. A lot of failures. You learned to walk before you could run. You ran a mile before you tackled a marathon. You built confidence over time. And each time, you pushed yourself a little further, a little faster. As your body adapted, your mind did too.

That is heart.

We build heart in small increments, not giant leaps. Do the hard workout. Push through the extra reps. Take failures and setbacks as constructive input. Keep showing up. Keep trying. Keep getting a little better, consistently. That’s how you develop heart.

You already know it’s going to be tough. You already know you’ll have to be tough. And you are tough. You prove it to yourself every time you push through something difficult. Every time you fail and try again.

But if you quit early, skip the reps, or take the easy rounds… well, maybe you can. But most likely, you can’t.

Train Smart, Not Just Hard

On the flip side, training at full throttle every round, always surviving by the skin of your teeth, isn’t building heart—it’s just survival mode. You need those hard, grind-it-out rounds, but if you never experience success in training, you’re not building confidence, and confidence is part of heart.

Most of your live training should be playful. Take the pressure off. Have fun.

Think about lions—the King of the Jungle. The baddest cat to walk the earth. Lions don’t learn to fight when they’re fighting for their lives. They learn as kittens—playing, wrestling, developing skills in a low-stakes environment. They keep it playful until it’s time to do what lions do.

Your training should be the same way.

And if you’ve been at this for a while? Let the new people work a little.

—Coach Brian