First time on the mat: I finally got to try Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Family

Mar 30, 2026

Today I tried Brazilian jiu-jitsu for the first time at Roger Gracie Academy in Al Barsha.

To be honest, I’d been making my way toward this for a long time. My kids have been doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu for three years now, and all this time I’ve been close by, but almost as if on the other side of the glass. I dropped them off, waited, watched, picked them up. I saw them grow, get hooked, change. But I never stepped onto the mat myself.

And today I finally did.

I’ll be honest right away: the first class was really tough. Much tougher than I expected. From the outside, it can sometimes look like something technical, almost calm. But when you’re inside it yourself, you quickly realize it’s a serious workout. You get tired almost immediately. Your breathing gets thrown off. Your body feels almost separate from you, especially if it’s been a long time since you did anything like this. And at some point you realize you can’t just “push through on grit” here. It very quickly shows you what shape you’re really in.

But that’s exactly what makes it so honest.

What I liked is that Brazilian jiu-jitsu isn’t about showy strength. It’s more about attention, control, patience, and the ability not to panic when things get hard. And it was hard there. Very. Both physically and, in a way, internally too — because you immediately come face to face with yourself, with no excuses. Without the usual adult role of the one who has everything under control. On the mat, you’re just a beginner. And strangely enough, that’s a useful feeling.

What hit me even harder, probably, was something else. After this class, I looked at my kids in a completely different way. When a child has been doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu for three years, it’s no longer just an after-school activity. It’s work. It’s discipline. It’s repeating the same things over and over. It’s learning to endure, to lose, to reset, and to step back in. When you watch from the sidelines, you think you understand it all. But when you go through even one class yourself, you start to respect that path so much more deeply.

And I caught myself thinking that I really want to stay with this. Not because I suddenly decided to become a fighter overnight. But because there’s something right about it for life. Especially now, when I want to rebuild myself: body, mind, routine, discipline. Less fuss, less inner noise, more simple, real things. Movement. Air. Work. Kids. Sport. Repetition. Slow progress.

And this weekend we’re already heading to competitions with the kids in the emirate of Fujairah. For them, it’s an important event, and for me, it’s one more chance to look at all this not just through the eyes of a parent who dropped them off and sits in the stands, but with a little more understanding of what they’re going through.

In short, today was my first step. Tough, awkward in places, definitely not heroic — but real. And apparently, very timely.