The Jiu Jitsu Mind is the Eye of the Storm 

So I came very close to being struck by lighting in the middle of the Panama Bay yesterday.  I was imagining if I did get hit, I’d probably only hear a loud pop and a flash and then everything would go black.  Hopefully I’d either fall on top of my board or someone would swim to me and save me from drowning.  

Thankfully none of that happened.  What did happen was a feeling of sharp, yet calm, attentiveness and a call to action.  An immediate plan of how to escape.  I imagine it would be how a samurai felt when rushing in to battle: not spastic, adrenaline-filled rage, but reactive, and focused.  Like being the calm in the eye of the storm. 

It started off as a normal SUP surfing session at the break right in front of the gym, Las Bovedas.  It’s a perfect, gentle waist to head high wave that breaks both directions and is best for longboarding (even better for Stand-Up Paddling).  It’s about a 300 yard paddle to the break from the shore and over looks the historic old city of Panama.

I was purely focused on the break while paddling out.  Keeping an eye out for the next set and trying to if there was anyone else out in the line-up.  There wasn’t.  A set came through and as I watched a wave break towards shore I noticed the sky.  Grey-ish, yellow, low-hanging thunder clouds.  The type you just know to be lighting.  You can feel it in your stomach.

Immediately I was filled with a rush of panic.  Here I sat, 300 yards of shore, standing atop a board, holding a carbon fiber paddle (later my google search for is carbon fiber a good conductor for lighting the best answer being, yes, extremely).  No sooner do I stand there in full "fight or flight mode", a flash of lighting immediately followed by a loud crack and rumbling of thunder.

First reaction: throw the paddle and jump down to my knees to get as low as possible.  Another flash, crack, boom!  It was at this moment when my heart beat started to slow.  I started running through a checklist of possible options and ways to get myself safe.  Totally calm, sharp, and aware of the dangers of my situation. Only thinking of how I can get myself out of it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The paddle, I decided, was a little too expensive to ditch, and I thought it was okay as long as I kept it flat and low against my board.  So I just put my head down and from my knees paddled as hard as I could for the beach.  As lighting flashed and boomed around me, I stayed calm, kept my breathing rhythmic and before I knew it, I was back to shore.

How does this relate to jiu jitsu?  For 7 years now I have been training and consistently have been put in terribly uncomfortable, dangerous positions.  People much bigger and stronger than me trying to choke me and pop my limbs.  I could have very easily panicked, ditched paddle, and let the adrenaline get the best of my cardio making the paddle back in twice as hard.

Just the opposite, I could have been overly-calm.  “No way I’d get hit by lighting”  “Carbon fiber probably isn’t conductive”  That’s the kind of dangerous lack of thinking that gets people killed.

In jiu jitsu this equals:  I’m on bottom in mount, panic, try to push the person off or roll and get submitted.  Or I’m on bottom in mount, way too relaxed, let the person advance position even more and, again, end up getting submitted.

So in the middle of a lighting storm, standing on a board holding a lighting rod, in the middle of the ocean, I am most thankful that I have jiu jitsu in my life and I maintained my jiu jitsu mindset in the middle of chaos.