This is Jockel Podcast number 293 with Echo Charles and me, Jockel Willink. Good evening, I come good evening.

Hicks and Gracie approached me and asked me if I wanted to train with him. Yes sir. At that time I was a

Blue Belt Jiu Jitsu, a lean 225 pounds. I worked out every day and had been training Jiu Jitsu hard for

about two years. I competed at the Blue Belt level and won many competitions. I trained daily in

San Diego with Dean Lister, a future world champion and with many other highly skilled Jiu Jitsu

practitioners. I was focused and motivated and determined. But none of those things mattered.

Hicks and who was 40 pounds lighter than me made me feel like a child. The effortlessly controlled

my movement, isolated my limbs and submitted me over and over and over again. I fought hard.

Applied technique after technique, made adjustments, tried to surprise him, used all the strength

and trickery and skill and effort I could muster. My resistance was futile. There was nothing I could do.

Nothing. When he was bored with my pitiful attempts at survival, we stopped sparring and talked

for a bit. He asked me about seal training. He related to the warrior culture of my occupation.

He also gave me an assessment of my Jiu Jitsu. You do a good job staying calm and bad positions.

That is an important thing. Soon the class was over. We shook hands and I thanked Hicks and for

his time and for his knowledge. Over the next few days, I thought about what he had told me.

You do a good job staying calm and bad positions. That is an important thing.

I realized that this did not only apply to Jiu Jitsu. It applied to my job and the seal teams as well.

You are going to get put in bad positions. The enemy might get the upper hand. You might be outnumbered

or outgunned. Panic will destroy you. You have to stay calm. That was only the beginning of the

correlation I began to see from Jiu Jitsu to combat, to leadership, to business, and to life itself.

As I continued to learn Jiu Jitsu and progress in my seal career, Jiu Jitsu taught me much,

but it was Hicks and's words that initiated my journey. The principles of Jiu Jitsu can be applied

...