Marcelo Garcia is considered by many as the pound for pound greatest of all time in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This belief comes from winning gold at ADCC four times and even getting a silver at ADCC in the Absolutes category under 77KG. Not only a fantastic competitor, but his style completely changed BJJ forever.
His use of positions such as butterfly and X-guard influenced thousands whilst his friendly personality is also admired by many. Here are some of his best quotes when it comes to training BJJ in both a physical and philosophical sense. If you want to learn more about Garcia’s BJJ philosophy and teachings, you can find his book here.
1. “I never say I am better than anyone, but I know I love Jiu Jitsu more than anyone”
2. “The more you attack, the more your opponent will make mistakes”
3. “When you are a beginner in Jiu Jitsu nothing makes sense to you for a while. But then at that moment you really learn one technique, a whole world opens up to you”
4. “I came to the conclusion through my own experience that if you want to be good at Jiu Jitsu, you need to train Jiu Jitsu as much as you can”
5. “Everyone is the same for the first two minutes. Everyone has a chance to win. But after that, you start to separate physically and mentally”
6. “I always try to attack. While I’m on the offensive, my opponent can do nothing but defending”
7. “There is a limit with how strong you can be or how fast you can move. With Jiu Jitsu on the other hand, there’s no limit! So why are you going to waste time with other things when you could be developing your technique further?”
8. “I wasn’t a good student and even now I never say that I am better than anybody. I love the energy and that it gets deeper the more you study”
9. “You gotta give 100% If you really want something you’ve got to give 100% not 80% because it’s just going to waste your time. Know what I mean?”
10. “I was never for winning championships. My happiness always came from the pleasure I had simply being on the mats, testing myself against others”
11. “Some day is just going to be your day and you’ve just gotta be there. But a lot of people, they just give up before their day. So until that day comes, you can’t step back. You just gotta step forward”
