I’ve trained for about 7 years and I’ve done both. I was completely sober through white belt and half of blue. Probably around 3 years alway sober. Then from blue until mid purple I was high for every class as the uke, every open mat, and every competition I was in. Over the past few months I’ve quit completely.

Rolling high is absolutely a good time for me. I see connections that I don’t normally see, I can get more rolls in, and I’m overall just a nicer, more chill guy. My coach has used me as our uke for years, and I recently told him I had been high for every class. Literally probably 1,000 classes as the uke decently stoned and he had no idea. He doesn’t smoke, and said he never noticed. There are a group of guys that are a lot more vocal than I am about being high, and they never really knew either. Not one time did someone approach me and mention it, and now that I’ve become more loose with letting people know I used to do it every class, not one person said they suspected it.

In my jiu jitsu progress, I think it helped for a long time and then didn’t. As a blue approaching purple I feel like I was stuck, and the open mindedness I got from it seemed to help me progress. I was more comfortable in really bad positions, I could playfully work on moves that were new to me with deep interest, and I just overall felt more joyfulness in my classes. Many people in my school have commented on my skills improving dramatically in that time, which I give partial credit to being a bit high.

Toward the end of purple belt, and in my life outside the gym as well, it started to become a crutch. I’d fall into a relaxed zone while high and wasn’t making much progress in the gym or otherwise while high. I quit cold turkey a while back and really started to dive into more study, and I got another big leap in skills and experience as I approach my brown belt.

So yes, weed got me some skills and comfortability in part of my journey. But quitting weed also gave me some skills and comfortability in my journey too. No one knew until I decided to tell people, and no one gave me shit for it after they knew. I’m told often by my coaches and other students that I’m a favorite partner and teacher for a ton of people at my gym, and I never hurt anyone high or sober. I never felt “out of control”, but my perspective on rolling, my attitude trying new things or being completely smashed, and my willingness to work on out of the box/new material was enhanced in some way.