Blue Belt

Today I was awarded a blue belt by my professor. In typical fashion, we were in the middle of warm-ups when he stops everyone and looks at one of the other students. He tells her to take off her belt. Then he tells her to stop, and turns to me standing next to him and tells me to take off my belt.

I began my Jiu-Jitsu journey just over 18 months ago. In those 18 months, I had four gout attacks to my big toes, achilles issues on both legs, shoulder, rib, finger joints and neck issues.  I competed in three tournaments as a three stripe white belt, getting one gold, two silver, and one bronze metal. In one of the tournaments, I competed in gi and no-gi. Taking the silver in gi and bronze in no-gi.

Before you say wow not bad, the gold and bronze I earned, the two silvers were consolation prizes for losing in a two man division.

More important for me, was the friendships I have mad along the way. A few of the guys I train Krav Maga with came to train BJJ at the academy. Lots of people came and left. Overall, I would say that everyone I have meet at my academy are nice decent people.

The girls at my academy are the competitors. Except for one of the purple belts and one of the guys I trained Krav with that I talked into competing, most of the consistent competitors are female. They are the ones that bring home the gold for my school.

I find it hard to motivate myself to go to class sometimes. Especially when I take my girls there for their class at 6 and don't get home from my class until 10p - 10:30p sometimes. It's a lot of sacrifice that I would not be able to do if it was not for my wife. On those training days, she picks up the girls and had to feed them, have them finish their homework, shower them, then get them into bed. And sometimes thats after she has worked a 12 hour shift at the hospital as a nurse.

Today I rolled with my professor, but I feel he gave me the submission. I rolled with a 150 yellow belt that I got three submissions on. I rolled with a single stripe white belt that I got three submissions on. I rolled with another blue belt that we each go a submission. Overall, it was a good night of Jiu-Jitsu. OSS

Seven days out.

Seven days before I'm scheduled to compete in my first tournament. It was a typical Monday for me. Woke up and packed the girls' snacks and got their uniforms ready. Took the girls to school and went to work. Luckily work was busy so the day went by quickly.

I picked the girls up from school then went to get an adjustment from a new chiropractor. The adjustment was great. More about that later. I came home and ate a light snack before taking the girls to jiu jitsu class. Even though I am a white belt, I help out with the children's class. Mostly tying belts and showing the younger children what to do. Today our professor had me roll with one of the older boys that is competing this weekend also. I went easy on him, just transitioning to different positions to see what he could come up with.

I then stayed for the adults class. Our adults class is two hours long. We do warm ups and drills for the first half of the class, then we did a guard passing drill and some flow rolling. At the end of class I played a little chess with my professor.

Overall, it was a good day. I didn't get hurt. That is my main goal when I train. Not because of the upcoming tournament, but because I do not heal well these days. My nerves are not as bad after class was over. I hope the white belts at the tournament are similar to the white belts I train with. Most of them are younger and heavier than I am. I think I am making a bigger deal out of it than I should. Most of the females at my school have competed.

Well, it's getting late and I am dozing off trying to type this blog.

Signing up for my first tournament.

Well, it's been a year now since I started my journey in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It has been a long year with work, health issues, injuries, and family obligations. I switched my daughters my academy in July of last year. I had them restart as no-stripe white belts because I feel they did not deserve to be four-stripe white belts. I took off a month because of a gout attack, then another three weeks because of an Achilles tendon issue.

The joints in my fingers are all messed up from a new white belt that kept trying to attack them. I had some back pain as well as neck issues from rolling. Lots of bruising on my upper arms and chest.

I have met some really great people and attended a few Jiu Jitsu tournaments this last year. I never considered competing until I realized I am now in the Masters 3/4 division.

Today I signed up for a tournament that is scheduled for next Sunday. It will be exactly one week away. I do not know why I felt compelled to sign up for it. Maybe because I was scared to, and I wanted to face that fear head on. It was almost exactly a year ago that I went to a Tony Robbins' UPW Seminar. I was scared attending that one also. But signing up for that seminar lead me to listen to Tony Robbins and ultimately lead me to my jiu-jitsu journey.

The one biggest takeaway from UPW was that I was my greatest enemy. My limiting beliefs and fear of failure held me back more that anything else. So today I faced my fear and signed up for the tournament. Both gi and no-gi. I have been sick to my stomach all day. I'm thinking I can just through away the $119 registration fee and no-body would know the difference.

Nobody but me that is. I wonder if my opponents are as nervous as I am. What am I thinking, I am still so new to this whole thing. Let's see what happens from here.