What I want for my students …

I may be over-stepping; but I do admit to wanting more for my students that that which they may have come looking for at my Academy. 

I want them to lead them to a deeper understanding of BJJ than I have myself. I want them to have joyful and happy relationships in their lives. I want them to be financially successful. I want them prevail in difficult times. I want them to be healthy, to be excited about their lives, to be adept at living a full and meaningful life. 

In my Academy, the study and practise of the art, is in many ways a metaphor for how to live our lives. Sadly, such is not the case in many other schools. 

The term Academy, is originally derived from the word Hekademia, which was a place in Greece sacred to the goddess Athena - the goddess of wisdom. It has since come to refer to a place of learning, where presumably, wisdom is also acquired. 

I have never aspired to running a martial arts club - a gym - or a hang-out for a disrespectful cadre of fighters … my preference is to hold to the original idea … an Academy; where ideas take hold and lives are shaped for the better.

• JBW