A Look Back on March 2019
6 states, one new country, and 3 new JiuJitsu schools visited! March was non-stop traveling! It is over a week into April and I still don't feel like I've gotten enough sleep to recover. (Note: It's the beginning of June, and I'm just now catching up on finishing this 😳😂)March started off by closing out the 5 competitions in 6 weeks circuit at the Revolution 39. Straight after that off to North Carolina for 2-weeks of National Guard training.
A 6-hour flight to North Carolina, and then right onto a bus for a 12-hour ride down to Camp Shelby Mississippi. It was some rough and tiring traveling, especially making the same trip back. I was happy to get some phenomenal training with the squad in though. I'm still relatively new to Charlie company and new to my role as an NCO and team leader. It is challenging with the time constraints that we have in the guard to sharpen our Army skills and develop our team cohesion. It was great then to get a solid block of training time in, and we were very fortunate to get to learn from some highly experienced individuals. It meant a lot of missed mat time, but I was glad to spend the team working on my role as a team leader and developing relationships amongst the squad.
A few days after getting back from National Guard training, I was driving back down to the Seattle airport to catch another flight to New York. I went to New York for the first time to attend an IBJJF Open when I was a white belt and I hated the city. Wayyy too many people with a lifeless look and their eyes. That, and they were all in some dreadful hurry. I told myself that I wouldn't go back unless I had too.
When I was down with the team in Portland though, I randomly crossed paths with a fellow traveler that captivated me. She was not only witty and funny but way more intelligent and well-traveled than me. She had this way of smiling at me when I talked that made me want to see her again, even though she just so happened to live all the way across the country in New York. So I bought a plane ticket to go see her again.
Me being me though, I had to get some training in. The legendary Marcelo Garcia's and Renzo Gracie's were the spots I wanted to hit. I landed in New York and with the help of Google Maps and a lot of luck, navigated my way across a bunch of different trains to end up in Manhattan.I have to tell you guys, I walked into the famous blue basement and walked pass Craig Jones, Jake Shields, and the Gordon brothers, and turned around and walked out. It was unreal to be standing in real life next to these people that I had seen competing on all the big stages of grappling. I walked around the gigantic block a few times as I gave myself a pep talk. "You can do this," I told myself. As I attempted to overcome an unexpected feeling of nervousness being in that building. I re-approached the door and took a deep breath before marching back in.
The ClassThe class was awesome. John Danaher taught and I was lucky enough to grab a local who helped me to navigate the intricacies of the techniques. The absolute highlight of the class though was Jake Shields asking me to roll. He asked and I looked around "Me? Jake Shields you want to roll with ME?!!" I burst out into a massive smile that stayed there the whole time that we rolled. He crushed me (Of course) and I loved every second of it. Seamless transitions and tons of pressure led to him passing, getting to a high mount and alternating between attacking the arms and the neck until he got one or the other. It was an incredible experience (If you can't tell from the massive goober smile on my face) and I felt that I learned a lot from getting to roll with him.
Marcelo's
I did make one tactical error in visiting New York. I completely forgot that Pan Ams was happening that same week. While visiting Marcelo's was going to be a main highlight of the trip, it just didn't seem right to visit the school and him not be there. So I actually opted not to go, and instead decided I would make the trip again and visit when I could take a class with him.
The rest of the visit was an awesome time of exploration, good food, drinks and adventure. One fun and funny thing was going bouldering/rock wall climbing. I had never tried bouldering before and have been wanting to do it for a while. I figured with a background in being a professional tree climber and having some decent grips from JiuJitsu, I was sure to impress my date on the walls.That was definitely NOT what happened. I was fine on traditional grip rocks, but at one point I found myself desperately clutching these funky grip points, arms shaking like crazy while my feet scrambled to find a better spot to move up from. I frantically sought to improve my position, but ended up falling off and onto the mat. I figured I'd at least decent progress, but discovered I'd barely made it three feet up the wall 😂 Meanwhile my date effortlessly scaled all of the difficult routes available.
San Diego with the Gallegos AssociationMy good friend had just gotten his purple belt, Gallegos team training was happening, and I was long overdue for a visit. So, just three days after getting back from New York, I was back on a plane headed for San Diego. I don't have many white gi's, so I actually purchased a new white gi and had it patched up with the team colors if that's an idea of what it means to me to get to be a part of events like this.
Friday night we headed into Mexico (My 3rd country visited!) and enjoyed some beers and authenticate Mexican tacos. I tell ya'll what, I almost regret eating those tacos, because nothing else will ever come close to how good they were.
Saturday morning we all headed down to San Diego for Gallegos team training at Alliance Eastlake. There was something like 16 black belts on the mats, along with an army of practitioners. They threw on some music and the rolling party broke out. It was great to get to roll with so many people I hadn't seen in a year. I was eagerly looking forward to demonstrating how much progress I had made in that time and happily found out that everyone else had been putting in the same amount of work.
We rolled for 2-3 hours straight, and then all headed over to grab food, a couple of drinks and catch up. After that, the CSG 360 crew all met up back in Oceanside for more food and hanging out over burgers and watching IBJJF highlights.California BJJ Lifestyle
Sunday was probably my favorite day from the trip because it captured what it's like living and training in Southern California. A bunch of us met up and visited another school's open mat. We had a bunch of great rolls with new people for a couple of hours, then grabbed lunch at an outdoor spot with awesome food. After that, we hung out on the beach for a few more hours before I had to catch my flight back to Washington. Great JiuJitsu, good food, and right next to the beach, it's like a little JiuJitsu heaven just waiting to be visited. I'd highly recommend it to anyone that's able to make the trip.Conclusion
March was a highlight month for me. Competition, traveling, visiting new schools as well as old friends, phenomenal food, it was definitely filled with all of the best things that I enjoy about life.
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