If you trained jiu-jitsu his whole life, why would you trade punches on fight night against a striker?
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of using one's strengths in situations instead of engaging in risky behavior that goes against one's training.
Royce Gracie's quote suggests that if someone has dedicated their life to mastering jiu-jitsu, they should leverage that skill on fight night rather than choose to engage in a risky stand-up fight with a striker. It highlights the importance of utilizing one's strengths in competition and not compromising one's training for the sake of conforming to conventional expectations.
In practice
During a martial arts seminar, to encourage practitioners to focus on their unique skills.
I like guys who know how to implement a strategy. The ones who make a fight look easy. But there's no easy fight, even if you win in 30 seconds, that only means you were able to execute your strategy correctly and induced your opponent to make a mistake. Those are the champions. That's why they are the champions.
Martial arts in general were not made for a tournament, for points system. Martial arts were made to defend yourself in the street fight situation, not to score points.
The greatest tribute you can to pay to my father is to continue to train and share Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, remembering to never lose sight of the fact that what you do off the matt counts more than what you do on the matt.
I believe in pure jiu-jitsu. That's what I've done in the past.
A black belt only covers two inches of your ass. You have to cover the rest.
There's something about taking the path of least resistance that makes a lot of sense. But at the same time, we have to figure out which things in life are worth struggling through.
Vice is perhaps a desire to learn everything.
Every morning between 9 and 12 I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just sit for three hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing. If an idea does come between 9 and 12 I am there ready for it.
If you're not perfectly conscious of yourself, that self can be tyrannical; in relationship to others, anyone can become a tyrant. That's why no one can be a Superman. You have to go beyond yourself with a 'third eye' - self-awareness - because the one thing you cannot flee is yourself.
I have met with some of them - very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools.
The only real difference between a wise man and a fool, Moore knew, was that the wise man tended to make more serious mistakes—and only because no one trusted a fool with really crucial decisions; only the wise had the opportunity to lose battles, or nations.
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