BJJ Is Magic, and Most People Are Muggles
The Mat Is a Portal
The other night I was watching Harry Potter with my wife and our youngest daughter.
They were wide-eyed.
I was smiling.
And somewhere between the sorting hat and the first spell, I realized:
This is what jiu-jitsu feels like.
It’s not a sport.
It’s not a workout.
It’s a hidden world—with its own logic, rituals, and power.
And most people have no idea it even exists.
Most People Are Muggles
They walk around thinking the world is flat.
That fights are about punches.
That strength is about size.
That tension can’t be turned into technique.
They don’t know that a calm, unassuming person could fold them like laundry in seconds.
And it’s not arrogance—it’s just how invisible BJJ is.
To train jiu-jitsu is to walk with a secret.
To carry a kind of magic that doesn’t show in your posture or your voice—until it’s too late.
Hogwarts = Your First Academy
Walking into a jiu-jitsu gym for the first time feels a lot like arriving at Hogwarts:
Everyone knows something you don’t.
There are rules, but no one writes them down.
There’s gear, rituals, hierarchies, and legends.
You start as a white belt—just like a first-year wizard.
And at some point, you learn how to roll… and it changes everything.
The mat becomes a classroom.
Every tap, every scramble, every escape—an incantation.
You start to learn how to read a fight before it happens.
The Houses Are Real
Just like Gryffindor and Slytherin, BJJ has its “houses.”
You’ve got the aggressive guard-pullers.
The flowy half-guard surfers.
The pressure wizards.
The cool, technical assassins.
Each team, each gym, has a vibe.
A style.
A philosophy.
And like Hogwarts, you don’t always pick your house… sometimes it picks you.
Technique Is Spellwork
You don’t just “do a triangle.”
You layer it.
Setup.
Angle.
Timing.
Pressure.
Rhythm.
It’s not about brute force—it’s about leverage and awareness.
Just like magic.
A good roll feels like a duel—not in anger, but in artistry.
Two minds, two bodies, testing theory in real time.
And when someone hits something clean?
It’s spellwork.
You feel it.
You respect it.
You nod, smile, and tap.
So Why Doesn’t Everyone Train?
Because magic is invisible to most people.
Because it’s awkward and hard and humbling at first.
Because you can go your whole life not knowing this world even exists.
And if you’ve never felt it—you might never believe it’s real.
But once you do?
Once you’ve been inside that room…
Once you’ve seen a smaller person control a bigger one with calm, coiled skill…
Once you’ve learned to breathe when someone’s crushing your ribs?
You can never unsee it.
You’re not a muggle anymore.
Fatherhood Made Me Want to Pass It On
Maybe that’s why I’ve come back to the mat.
After injury.
After burnout.
After years away.
Because this kind of knowledge—the kind you earn with breath and bruises—is worth passing on.
To my kids.
To the men rebuilding.
To the people who feel small and want to feel strong again.
Jiu-jitsu is magic.
And we need more quiet wizards in this world.
Flow. Fight. Fatherhood.
Don’t be surprised when the spell is a breath.
Walk the line between softness and strength
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