basic skateboarding tricks can take just as long. For some, even stand-
ing on the board can prove to be difficult.
Ultimately, it comes down to the individual in either sport. It takes not
only a great deal of willpower, but also an unwavering desire to learn
through failure. “They’re both individual sports. You obviously need
a partner to train jiu jitsu, but when you’re out there competing, it’s
you versus them,” Knox said. “It’s similar when you’re out skating and
trying to land a trick on a rail or something.”
Both skateboarding and jiu jitsu require a great amount of attention to
detail. Both jiu jitsu techniques and skateboard tricks require continual
refinement and adjustment. The smallest mistakes can be the differ-
ence between success and failure. “You have to keep drilling things.
You have to keep doing armbars and stuff before you get it down. It’s
the same in skating; you can’t just do a trick once and think you have it
wired. You have to keep doing it or you’ll lose it,” said Knox.
Satava noted how skateboarding and jiu jitsu require the same degree
of attention to technicality and patience for refinement. “The learning
process is similar in both. There’s a technical analysis of what you’re
trying to do,” Satava said. “In skating, you keep adjusting it until you
nail the trick. Once you get it, you keep raising the level. Can you do it
again? Can you do it over or off something? Can you chain it together
with other tricks you’ve already mastered? If you think about jiu jitsu,
it’s the same: can you do an armbar? Can you hit it on a blue belt or
a brown belt? On a big guy? On a fast guy? Can you connect it to a
sweep attempt or guard pass?”
In Pursuit of Self
Jiu jitsu practitioners and skateboarders share one fundamental, defin-
ing characteristic; their independent nature. Undoubtedly, the two sports
have a team and social aspect, but both are inherently individual sports.
As Knox said, jiu jitsu competition is very much “you versus them.” Skate-
boarders fight similar battles, but against obstacles such as rails, ramps or
gaps. “Jiu jitsu and skateboarding are similar communities. At their core,
both sports are independent,” Satava said. “You always have a team or
crew, but when it comes down to performance, it’s mostly on you.”
What draws people to these pursuits? While team sports attract one
type of individual, individual sports such as jiu jitsu and skateboarding
attract another type entirely. These types of people thrive on being the
lone wolf, but more importantly, on another deeper trait; individual ex-
pression. Simply put, jiu jitsu and skateboarding provide athletes with
an avenue to express themselves creatively.Take any two jiu jitsu competitors and you’ll find unique twists on tech-
niques, each suited to the practitioner’s physical attributes and person-
ality. Take another two and you’ll see drastic variations in style. Just like
jiu jitsu practitioners, no two skateboarders are exactly the same. With
thousands of tricks and things to skate and an even greater number of
skaters out there, the possibilities are similarly endless. Everyone does
tricks a little differently or views the things they skate in a new way.“You look at skateboarding and everyone has their own style. In jiu
jitsu too, you’ve got guard players; there’s open guard, spider guard,
half guard and you have top players, leg draggers and so on. The two
sports are so similar once you start breaking it down,” said Knox.One and the Same
Jiu jitsu and skateboarding exist in the same world and in similar spac-
es. Both sports were born out of outlaw roots, with jiu jitsu coming from
no-holds-barred combat sports and skateboarding coming from the
punk rock scene. Balance, strength and toughness are requisites in the
two sports as well (luckily for athletes, both sports do an outstanding
job of developing these traits). Learning to skateboard or to do jiu jitsu
is similar in that it requires a great deal of attention to detail, a mind
for technical adjustments and most importantly, an unshakable drive to
improve. Finally, jiu jiteros and skaters flourish due to the independent
nature of their chosen sports and because of the freedom of expres-
sion they are providing by pursuing them.With so many parallels, clearly skaters can learn from jiu jitsu and jiu
jitsu practitioners can learn from skateboarding. “The two are so similar
that skating has helped me view jiu jitsu through a different lens and
vice versa,” Satava said.“I KIND of KNEW WHAT ALL THE TRICKS WERE BECAUSE of THE TONY
HAWK’S PRO SKATER VIDEO GAMES, BUT I WAS JUST FASCINATED BY IT ALL
AND EVENTUALLY, I FOUND TIME TO PICK UP A BOARD MYSElf” - JON SATAVA