On August 8, I was teaching an early morning BJJ class. I was filling in for the main instructor. We had a few people getting ready for Worlds so we sparred the entire time. I wanted to up the intensity a bit, so the last 5 or so minutes were 1 minute rounds where people …
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I’m Still Learning Humility
Today I received my purple belt. It was a surprise. In fact, while they were talking about who they were giving the purple belt, I was sure it was one of the other students. It wasn’t until they mentioned Judo that I realized it was me (of the 4 of us who were 4 stripe …
Gi Review: Elite Sports
Disclaimer: A representative from Elite Sports sent me a gi for free to try it out in exchange for the post. I’ve been training BJJ for just over 6 years. In August of 2012 I bought a white gi and that was my only gi for about 4 months. I’d wear it to class on Monday, …
Seeing Training Over Time
This week someone reached out to me and asked me if there was a way to see previous year’s statistics. It was something I had always wanted, but never got around to creating. This request was enough to kick me in the pants and make me write the feature. There’s now a link on the …
One Thousand Hours
Today is a special day for me. Over lunch I went and trained with the “Noon High Ninjas” at Mid-America Martial Arts. It was sparring day. So I sparred for an hour with white, blue, purple, brown and black belts. But that’s not what makes it special. That class happens every Tuesday and I make …
Play the Position, Not the Belt
Over the past year or so I’ve been taking privates, and it seems to have helped. One thing I picked up a few months ago was this phrase “Play the position, not the belt.” It actually goes two ways. The original meaning was that when I spar against blues and whites I’m worried about getting …
Yearly Progress – 2017
This year I managed to get 222.5 hours of training in, which is up from last year (183 hours.) From the numbers below, I averaged basically 3 hours of BJJ every week for the entire year, which is lower than I would have liked. I had some stuff with work and family come up that …
It’s Not Just a Belt
There’s a lot of talk in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu about belts. In part this is because there are so few belts that people look at them as major accomplishments. For example, it took me 2 years to go from white to blue. Next month, I’ll have been a blue belt for 3 years, and probably …
Five Years
August 6, 2012 was the first day I walked into Mid-America Martial Arts. I took a tour of the facility, bought a gi, learned how to tie my belt, and the became completely exhausted from the warmup. I had no idea back then that I’d still be doing this in 5 years. Nor did I …
I Fought Judo and Judo Won
Today was the day of the Judo tournament. I definitely learned some things about myself (and about Judo.) In the end, I earned a bronze metal by going 1-2. The first match started with my opponent trying to go for a hip throw, he missed and I was able to try and work a choke …