I missed the belt ceremony last November because I was out of town, so I was really looking forward to this one. And it didn’t disappoint!

We head a great turn out, lots of the morning regulars that I don’t know, plus almost all of the evening regulars, and some faces I don’t see very often. We had probably 35-40 people show up, plus some family and friends to watch. We kicked things off with a few words from Damian, and some stretching. There wasn’t nearly enough room to do a whole lot all at once, so we broke things up. We demo’d the headlock defense sequence, the rear choke/bear hug sequences, and both proper and improper hand position side control sequences. Dave and I paired up for when it was the blue/white and 4-stripe white belt’s turns.

We then did a dozen or so standing matches, first take down wins. I was paired up against Tall Josh, who quickly nailed a nice trip. And then later against George, one of the morning guys. I got tripped again here too. Take downs are not my strong suit! I think it may be a combination of subconscious fear of getting injured again and a general lack of aggression. Always something to work on.

We then switched to a little bit of king-of-the-mat. 4 purple belts on the mat. Everyone else rotates in. Bottom guy has to sweep or submit, top guy has to pass. Winner stays. The purples stayed in place for at least two runs through to crowd. We then switched to blues and below only, and then blue/white and below only, and finally down to white belts only. I did get a nice pass in against Dave, and a sweet pass directly to mount against Rod too. It drew some comments from the crowd and a bit of applause even.

A bunch of people got promoted, included Mongoose, Short Josh, Officer Tom and Bob the Monster to blue belt. Dave, Tim, Mo, myself, and slew of others to blue/white. And a couple of new purples too.

A video I was watching the other day (Roy Dean’s Purple Belt series) compared learning jiu-jitsu to learning a new language. You start off with learning the letters, then words, then a few phrases. Eventually, you move on to grammar and sentences, and eventually, you have all the tools you need to debate and win arguments. It’s been a long road so far, a year and a half and 149 classes, but I’m improving and learning day by day, class by class. It’s a good feeling.