Flávio Almeida: in jiu-jitsu you never lose, you either win or you learn
On the Elaine Talks podcast, the Gracie Barra black belt talked about the value of mistakes and said he came to see competition as a tool
Flávio Almeida used a saying that many people in the gym know to explain how he sees defeat. The Gracie Barra black belt was a guest on Elaine Talks, a podcast recorded in Portuguese. He talked about the role of mistakes in learning and about what competition came to mean for him.
Almeida said that in jiu-jitsu you never lose: you either win or you learn. He said people should learn to value mistakes, because a mistake is the only path to real learning, so that one day you get it right.
He came to see competition as a tool
In the same talk, Almeida said he changed the way he looks at tournaments and at what they leave in the people who compete.
He said he came back understanding that competition was a tool and no longer a goal in itself. For him, the purpose was less about the result, the gold, silver or bronze medal, and more about the person you became while chasing that big goal.
The clip from the interview, in Portuguese, is on VF Comunica’s Instagram.
Who is Flávio Almeida
Almeida is a fifth-degree black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr. and one of the main teachers at Gracie Barra. According to the team, he is the co-founder of eight schools in Southern California and the Phoenix area, and he has promoted more than 30 black belts.
As a competitor, he was a world champion at blue belt in 1997 and at brown belt in 1999. He also won silver at the 2007 ADCC in the under 88 kg division. Later, in the masters division, he won his weight class and the open class at the 2016 World Master. Today he also teaches the classes of Gracie Barra’s GB3 curriculum, together with Marcio Feitosa and Braulio Estima.
Life after competition
What happens to an athlete when the tournament calendar stops setting the routine is a topic Almeida often talks about. In a recent Instagram post, he wrote that when he retired from competition he had a hard time keeping the same rigor and discipline in training.
Do you agree with Flávio Almeida? What has a loss taught you in jiu-jitsu? Tell us in the comments.
