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My first day back on the mats since the promotion, and shaking like a leaf with nerves. What’s wrong with me? There was a junior class going and a few white belts rolling there on the side. One of them full of energy walks up to me and asks if I wanted to roll. Perfect! What I needed, I didn’t even bother tying the belt around my waist, was so anxious to get the rolling going.

This kid was really full of energy, think we rolled for three rounds. The energy was good and the pace not to challenging, great warm up.

Sitting waiting for people to show up, one of them walks by and asks, “you ready for the wrestling class”?

I had forgotten today was wrestling! Shit! There goes my first day wearing the new belt..lol,and wrestling..that stand up game is no joke.. I took wrestling in Jr High. In 1978-79 abouts.. almost 40 years ago..

I thought about walking out for a minute..hah! But wrestling is an awesome art, one of the oldest known to mankind, in fact I believe it was the first and only event in the very first Olympics.

Professor brought in a coach from one of the High Schools in our area. It was what I initially expected, a great workout. And with simple basics of the game.

Yup, this old man took his Tylenol and passed out into a mean coma of a nap when he got home. 🙂

White belts don’t know shit

Blue belts are white belts that learned some shit

Purple are Blue belts that realize they don’t know shit

Brown belts earned that shit

Black belts live that shit

I read that mantra on every promotion, and it means something different every time I read it.

Class was awesome today, worked out with my buddy Frank, a big boy who keeps me honest. You make a mistake with him and you’re done. He’s close to his Purple Belt, very close.

We worked on some loop chokes and some stand up before that.

I’m really lucky to have a group like this, they work hard and grind it out on the rolls, you’re gonna get better whether you want to or not.

I did better than expected. I’ll tell you what, preparing your mind and rolling there pay dividends. Kinda like memorizing your lines for play, you roll in your head, Fuck it, watch some YouTube vids, play everything in your head, rewind it as many times as you need too but do it. Then work it on the mats, work it and work it some more.

I’m feeling good, time to do some road work during the week. Nothing crazy, just a mile or two. I need to get my stamina up. Cut the sweets and eat a healthy diet.

Holy Shmoley… 5am…are you kidding!?

I walked into the 5am open mat today. Seems like 2 years into the making. Proffesor Rojas has been doing this daily for awhile and I’ve always been interested into joining the class.

But man….5am is a different animal. I’m usually on my 3rd dream by that time. My first training since the Covid recovery.

And as you can imagine, I was moving like I was a 70 year old man.

I think I got 4 rolls in…lol..it was all a blur.

It was good to see the guys again. I felt like I was away for a long time. And well, I usually am unfortunately. Always something.

Right before the session ends, Professor Rojas tells the class, today is the last day you’ll see Tony as a Purple Belt. I had a feeling it was coming. Mixed emotions really. You get attached to your belt. And you feel like you could’ve done more to represent it.

I almost feel like my best jujitsu days are behind me now. Life and my age are the biggest factor. I know what needs to be done, I just have to put in more mat time. Simple.

There’s lots of reasons and excuses, some I’m too embarrassed to write here. If you’ve been to marriage counseling, you know what I mean.

I’m still hopeful at the same time, I feel like, if I keep going, something might click, I might hit that flow that works.

Being mentally stable is just as important as physicality. Both come hand in hand.

I was consoled by a black belt on my return (2 months away) to not take any time off, that the young guys are hungrier than ever before, to just keep at it. 2nd week back and Tournament Training begins… so yeah …. Brutal, pain, and lots of humility. Will I ever learn… 😀

What a Superbowl halftime show. If you’re a West Coast hip hop fan ..the Superbowl halftime show was your cats meow. Enjoyed it to the max.

And like Dre. It seems his anthem coincides with how I feel every time I drag my carcass to class. Feeling my age a lot lately with that one week of rest after a hard day’s work out is a must.

So I goofed off last week and drank some teguila for lunch and dinner this past Friday. Three day weekend, why not. Visit my brother n law and he asks me to sample some of his weed to see if it’s any good. By the 4th hit of the pipe …I’m like what the Fuck am I doing!? I have to drive home! Longest ride on the freeway..45mph on the slow lane.

Saturday morning, my Jujutsu Day. I have to go…no way I’m punking out. Just do the drills and sit out the rolls is my thoughts.

We get to the rolls and something about rolling ..you cannot miss out a good roll no matter what. So I went straight for the toughest guy in the gym. Not counting the Professor, he’s always in God Mode ..so he doesn’t count here

Maybe this guy I rolled with sensed my despair? Or he just felt sorry for this old guy. I did better than I thought I would. Nearly gassed out a couple times, and he was kind enough to let me take an oxygen break mid roll a couple times, but my technique was good. Very happy with my roll this past Saturday. I even got a few “very good” from the Professor which is always a good thing to hear when you’re rolling with the tough guys.

Well, It’s been two years since my promotion to purple belt. And it’s really taken those two years for me to be comfortable with that belt. I’m mentally ready to grow now. Except this 54.5 year old body is saying otherwise. I’m at the point where once a week is all this body can handle, especially when the blue belts are always trying to kill you. Life of a high roller.. hah! Holidays are here, meaning some time off from work. I usually start the News Years Resolution thing early. So after these two beers ..maybe. 😁

So our last training day at the dungeon (garage) passed this Saturday, and with again a blistering hot summer day we managed to get some rolls in

I suffered badly and wondered if I was gonna make it to the end…nearly did.

First 10 minute roll went better than expected, my rolling partner seemed to be ailing from the heat worse than me as I was having my way with him easier than usual… I paused midway to give him a break.

The second roll …I was the one suffering.. I blew my wad the first roll and just from the hand position infighting…I exhausted quickly. I had to take a timeout 5 minutes into the 10 minute Rd. Yes I was embarrassed but hey….I’m nearly 55 years old!

I then got paired with a much lower ranked teammate and almost felt bad how just grabbing and latching on to his foot kept him off balanced. Would this work with a more experienced player?

I made the mistake of crossing my feet when I took his back and the pressure he applied to my ankles was enough to ask him to stop…he got excited..you tapped he asked ..lol. end of round…hey Proffesor ….I tapped him!!… fucker. last courtesy roll for that guy.

So all n all a good day, I’m really hoping that it was the just the heat that was bothering me lately, yes father time has a play too ..just hoping most of it was the heat.

The good news is the half guard sweep has been working out for me. it’s an old staple in jujitsu and I’ve never really worked on it till this month.

Some good news. Our Proffesor has agreed to teach Jujitsu at the new Tae Kwon Do classes coming up, roomed in a 24 Hour Fitness close by. The Tae Kwon Do instructor is a BJJ brown belt from another jujitsu club in our area (but he started with our Proffesor), we have a dozen clubs out here in the desert. Our Proffesor had stopped teaching for a few years (way back) and the BJJ students disbanded everywhere. He’s been teaching for 2.5 years now and slowly the students are coming back. The brown belt could’ve easily taught on his own but showed great class in my opinion to ask the Proffesor to teach. Its a win for everyone, we get to train indoors finally! So see how this pans out, excited about the move. And most likely back to the Gi.! Jujitsu!!

A few blue belts joined the group and I’m loving it, white belts are ok but nothing beats a partner that has a few technical skills up their sleeves. turns out some of these blue belts are seasoned blue belts. one of them is 30 pounds heavier than me and I use to cringe at heavier guys…not anymore. I’m at a place where I know where I’m at and am increasing in calm during my rolls, still need to work in my “talk” during rolls though..lol, whenever I succeed in a “YouTube” technique I get overjoyed inside and want to share it out loud, sometimes it comes out as being cocky so I have to check myself during rolls. I’m mindful that I’m not at the top of the totem pole and may never reach that position, I don’t care about that as much as I care about my progression from a month ago. it’s looking promising and I have a blue print laid out for me in my mind on where I should be in the near future.

One of our guys got the Covid-19… So no classes till things get sorted out.. glad I got vaccinated. And hoping he recovers quick. Seems like he’s not getting any symptoms of any kind so that’s good for him. He found out that a coworker was sick so protocol is if you’ve been in close proximity to a positive, you get tested. And we’ll, he came out positive too. Well dam. So mountain biking will have to do for couple weeks. Will have to do some warm up drills to keep the abs strong too.