Grounded Ramblings: BJJ Mindset

https://crishgindungo.com/category/my-blog-in-english-version/

https://crishgindungo.substack.com/

If the street was where I found the value of Jiu-Jitsu, the dojo was where I paid the tax.

I had fallen in love with the effectiveness of grappling, so I committed to the training. But I had walked into a “School of Hard Knocks.”
The pedagogy was prehistoric. It was the “sink or swim” method.
Warm up until you vomit. Learn a technique for five minutes. Then spar until you die.

As a white belt, I was fresh meat. Upper belts didn’t see a training partner; they saw a grappling dummy. They ragdolled me. They smashed me. There was no flow, only force.

And my body, now in its 40s, began to keep the score.
I remember my rib snapping, a sharp, searing pain that left me struggling for every breath.
I remember the torn meniscus, the knee swelling like a grapefruit, locking up as I tried to chase a suspect over a fence weeks later.
I remember the fingers, permanently swollen, looking like crooked twigs.

I would limp into the station for a night shift, hiding my limp so the Sergeant wouldn’t put me on light duties. I’d tape my fingers together to hold a pen. I was learning to control others, but I was losing control of my own physical integrity. I was breaking myself to learn how to not break others.

https://crishgindungo.com/category/my-blog-in-english-version/

https://crishgindungo.substack.com/

Finding My Way Back to the Mats

While I was juggling two jobs, parenthood and the slow, grinding reality of a life in a new country, something remained constant: martial arts. Karate, especially. It had been my anchor since my teens, and it wasn’t going to be different now.

I had to find a dojo. Quickly.

When I stepped onto the mats in Australia for the first time in years, something unexpected happened: I remembered everything. It’s true what they say about riding a bicycle. I was rusty, yes, but the foundation was still there. My hands still knew where to go. My feet still understood the movements.

I trained at several dojos before I settled at UMMA (Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts) in the eastern suburbs. I spent four years there, training in both Muay Thai classes and in a second class which was a mix of different martial arts thrown in a blender, with focus on Karate and its plethora of katas with increasing difficulty as we moved up ranks.

It was at UMMA that I had my first real encounter with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I didn’t understand it at first. It looked like wrestling, like two fighters embracing each other on the ground. But I was slowly learning to trust the process, to accept that there was more than one way to win a fight.

This dojo became my second home. Not because the training was easy, it wasn’t, but because it was honest. There was no financial stress thoughts, depression or loneliness out on the mats. There was only what my body could do and what my mind would accept. There was only the focus on becoming better, learning the next technique, the next person willing to spar with me and test what I’d learned.

Episode 7 –  is a reflective, seven-chapter story about how mandatory military service in Portugal transformed my understanding of discipline, endurance, and purpose.

I recount being conscripted in 1991 into the Regimento de Artilharia de Costa (RAC) the Coastal Artillery Regiment charged with protecting the Lisbon and Setúbal coasts. Although nervous about leaving my wife behind, I entered a world that broke me down to rebuild you stronger.

The story links the Army to my upbringing and karate background, showing that hierarchy and hardship mirrored the structure my father instilled and the discipline of martial arts. That clarity and mental stillness, once learned, later powered me through immigrant life, working two jobs, surviving heartbreak, and changing careers at 40 to become a cop.

I close by rejecting the idea that the military “cost” me anything. Instead, Iargue that it gave me everything: resilience, simplicity, and purpose. I left uniformed service to become a father, not out of regret, but out of love carrying the same discipline into every inspection life still sets before me.

Full episode available on:

https://crishgindungo.substack.com

And on my Offical Website:

https://crishgindungo.com/

Song: Besomorph & Arcando & Neoni - Army [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/Army
Watch: http://youtu.be/4EDOIftYA4A

You can spend years training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You can spend thousands of dollars. You can travel across the world chasing academies. And still end up nowhere, learning nothing, because you are learning the wrong way from the wrong people.

This is the story of how I stopped chasing flashy techniques and started learning body mechanics. This is the story of how I found what I should have been taught on day one, the right teaching method.

Also available @

https://www.youtube.com/@CrishGINDUNGO/podcasts

https://crishgindungo.com/how-my-karate-lineage-exposed-the-biggest-lie-in-martial-arts-episode-11/

https://crishgindungo.substack.com/p/how-my-karate-lineage-exposed-the-biggest-lie-in-martial-arts-episode-11

Check out new blog episode 5:

I Competed in Bare-Knuckle Tournaments. Here’s Why I Switched to BJJ

Available on:

https: //crishgindungo.substack.com/

And on my Offical Website:

https://crishgindungo.com/

Episode 4 – How Martial Arts Saved My Mental Health
In this episode I connected past trauma and mental health struggles with martial arts as a coping mechanism, healing tool, and framework for rebuilding my sense of self.

Full episodes available on:

https://crishgindungo.substack.com

And on my Offical Website:

https://crishgindungo.com

Grounded Ramblings Podcast Blog - AKA Grappling With Logic Facebook Page - Episode 3

Why I Switched to Jiu Jitsu (And Why You Might Too)In here I show how I came to Jiu Jitsu indirectly and slowly rather than in a straight line, highlighting detours, resistance, and eventual acceptance of grappling as part of my path.

Full episode available on:https://crishgindungo.substack.com/

And on my Official Website:https://crishgindungo.com/

Episode 2 – From Shotokan to Kyokushin
In this episode I describe starting in Shotokan Karate, then moving to Kyokushin as I searched for a harder, more authentic, full-contact expression that matched my inner spirit.

Full episodes available on:

https://crishgindungo.substack.com

And on my Offical Website:

https://crishgindungo.com

Episode 1 – Jean-Claude Van Damme & the spark
In this first episode I talk about how watching Jean-Claude Van Damme lit my initial fire and passion for martial arts, turning movie hero worship into real-life training and aspiration.

Full episodes available on:

https://crishgindungo.substack.com

And on my Offical Website:

https://crishgindungo.com