Part 2 - Good place to be

Last night will be the last class I take at my regular school before the tournament on Saturday. I foolishly decided to do a work thing on Wednesday (ok, not that foolish. A co-worker wanted me to attend some sort of military networking event; I do like to go to military related events and I do like and respect the co-worker and that’s why I said yes. Still, the timing of this event as it relates to the tournament and me losing weight to get where I want to get to is just laughably bad) and this bumps my normal schedule of having to go to class at Denver on Thursday instead of at Charlotte on Wednesday. Never mind I just constructed the worst sentence ever made and stay with me.

I talked with my instructor, Steve, and told him I wouldn’t be in for the rest of the week and that the tourney was Saturday. He basically said, do what I know and nothing else. My game is on top. Stay on top. If I get put on bottom? Get back on top. That is enough for me to win. I told him that I had a plan for success for the tournament and that plan has been to show up to class like normal and determine what I learned from fundamentals and can apply to the tournament. There were a few other small things, but that’s it. Sure as heck, there was a small detail I learned in class last that should help immensely and maybe, just maybe, an armbar I could use if it came to it.

All of this got me in a reflective mood about where the heck I am now in my jiu-jitsu journey. At Charlotte, we have two classes: beginner and advanced. Technically, beginner class is for white and blue belts and advanced is for purple belt and above. Technically, advanced class isn’t for me but I’m allowed to come. When I first started going to the advanced class everything was over my head and it took me 15 minutes into the class to even catch my breath from the warm up of the advanced class. Now, I get a healthy sweat from the warm up and do my best to figure out what I can learn from the advanced class. More often than not, I leave with a good understanding of what is going on. Not all the time, but more times than not now. There was even a point where a few white belts asked me for help on the technique we were working. It perfectly sums up where I am right now that 60% of the time I was able to show them what Steve was doing (at my blue belt level) and 40% of the time we all had to turn and ask an advanced belt: junior belts think enough to rely on me for advice…and more often than not I either know the answer or know enough to know I don’t know the answer. That’s not a bad place to be.

It’s also not a bad place to be entering the tournament. My first instructor, Jason, as well as general thought, says if you’re going to compete, do so as early as possible because the odds are the person you are facing is brand new or near brand new to competition. If you wait until blue belt, you could compete against someone who is an advanced blue belt (near purple belt), which would result in a much harder role. Well, I’ve been training now for about 5 years. That ship has sailed. Now, at 2 stripe blue belt level, I feel very confident I can go out and perform with anyone at a blue belt level.

Maybe I bucked traditional advice but I did do things my way; that’s the only way my jiu-jitsu journey was going to turn out regardless. Big day coming. I’m ready for it.