Monday, January 24, 2011

"Omg! Haven't seen you in forever! What are you, a purple/brown belt now???" Ummm... well... errr... you see...

I got my blue belt in November 2003. I am a blue belt today. Yep. But hey, I'm at a different academy now so something changed! So... what happened?


But anyways.

Why go back to jiu-jitsu? Who knows. I don't know if I really enjoyed it the first time around *gasp*! But one of my closest friends, Crystina Coats, is and always will be a jiu-jitsu chick and I guess that's what kept me thinking about it...... every now and then I'd go and take a class, get smashed, run back to muay thai.

It's definitely intimidating to think about going back when all the people you started with or even started AFTER you are now purple/brown/black belts. Crystina, Giselle, JOEL (wtf!).

I'm 33 whereas many of the top female competitors today are lethal enough to whoop my a$$ with their eyes closed but not old enough to get into a club (legally). Again, wtf???

But whatever. In the end, who am I doing this for? Yeah, I often have to deal with the "what belt are you now? How long have you been training?" and the inevitable look of "wow, you must really suck" or just plain pity on their face (but at least they don't say it aloud). But now that I'm back into training, I feel the loss of even one day away. So I'm glad I didn't put it off any longer and who knows... maybe having these adult muscles first will help in the long run. At least I had a few years of having semi-normal looking knuckles before I got back into training! Silver lining to every cloud!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Fresh tip from a black belt

I may pay for today's post but it just can't go without being published...

Yesterday one of my instructors made a point before a round to warn one of our purple belts to not do the "masturbation position" with the small purple belt female he was about to roll with.

Um... WAT???

I still haven't quite figured out the analogy, even with his DEMONSTRATION of what he meant but his point was something about not stalling back and forth. Either go forward with a pass or go to something else but don't stall!

SO, lesson of the day, DON'T DO THE MASTURBATION POSITION in jiu-jitsu! No matter how frustrated, tired, mentally "beat" (haha) you are, do SOMEthing! Don't stall! Every day of training is progress because you made it there and you trained and even when it felt like you trained like crap, even the crap training is something!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Blue Belt for Life!!! 'TUDE!

Blue belt is when you're officially not a newb anymore yet you're still "just a blue belt".

At this point you've figured out that a headlock isn't your best friend and secret move after all. You've also discovered that that blue belt over there smashes a whole lotta people and the blue belt over here (moi!) does not. There is quite a broad spectrum of abilities within the blue belt category and it can be frustrating.

HOWEVER, one thing about being a blue belt is that you are in a somewhat happy medium of expectations and challenges. Yes, you should know some things and do them fairly well BUT, you're not expected to be a pro at every move, and really, all you gotta do is put your heart out on the mat. THERE! I put something serious in my blog already (Just for YOU, Vu!).

One rule *I think* about being a "Blue Belt for Life!!!" is always training like you're at the bottom aiming for the very top. You've got nothing to lose and everything to battle for. I hope that if I ever do get past the blue belt level, I'll keep this mind set for ever and ever and ever......

Ummm... quick sidetrack for the above ending paragraph:

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

disclaimers and such


Things you can expect in my blog:



