There’s a curtain of bamboo poles suspended from a seven foot high frame on the grounds of the Museum of Fine Arts in Kaohsiung. It runs in a straight line for about ten yards and then forms a series of swirls that creates a maze. Imagine a curtain of giant wind chimes and you’ve got the idea.
I sat watching my kids weave and blast through the curtain amazed at their relentless energy. There were other children doing the same thing but mine were really giving the old bamboo what for. I’m not bragging. Everybody’s different. Later, while the boys were climbing trees, I saw an elderly couple walking along the bamboo curtain. They weren’t smashing through it, however. Theirs was a very different sort of energy. Mellow, gentle, soft, but they still moved the bamboo. It seemed to me they enjoyed what they were doing, like the kids had enjoyed themselves. I guess in some quantitative way they did the same thing the kids did but more efficiently, with less energy.
Jiu jitsu is the same. We bring different energy to it and over time our energy changes. Jiu jitsu, however, has in it a quality that surpasses the novelty that is the bamboo curtain. This quality brings you back to the mat and leaves you lying in bed late at night thinking about it. Thinking about efficiency and energy and balance.
Train and Sustain.
For Those Who Roll 