First steps

Go Gators and go me.

This is awesome timing for my third blog post, huh? I am honored to say that last night after no-gi I received my first stripe on my white belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu. It's crazy timing because just earlier this week (see here) I was saying I had a night where I felt like I was just getting crushed constantly. I guess my instructor sees some progress and I gotta tell ya, it feels good. 

What felt even better was when I was walking forward to get my stripe my professor says, "Is this guy a natural or what?;;;" It was almost difficult to hear and I wanted to sarcastically play it off...I'm not used to being good at much of anything. For me, it reminded me of how humbling Jiu Jitsu is. When you're in a sport like Jiu Jistu where it's not only OK but essentially required that you "lose" a lot it removes your ego...completely. With the ego removed a comment like that simply makes you feel honored and proud of the work you've put in, not prideful of what you've done. 

It was a healthy night of free-rolling too...constantly ending up on my back followed by constant running away followed by eventual taps, you know, the usual. What is amazing about this sport is that I found myself replaying the rolls over in my head later that night while driving, etc and seeing opportunities and mistakes I made. I usually do. Nothing before has caused me to be this passionate where I am constantly looking to improve and better my technique. 

So things I learned last night:

• When you're doing a take down, COMMIT ALL THE WAY.
• Keep things tight at all times, elbows, wrists, knees, etc.
• It is nearly impossible at this point to perform an Ezekiel no-gi for me...should have gone for the north-south choke.
• Work with your partners on staying on their backs. (This is WAY harder than it looks)

See you after class...