While I was serving in Arizona, I was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (hereinafter "BJJ") while watching the first UFC in 1993. I must admit that I hated Royce Gracie back then. His style of fighting made no sense to me and I gave him no credit for taking down and submitting person after person. It simply was not impressive to my uninquisitive mind (my mind in much more inquisitive now). However, after a short time the military become very impressed with the Gracies and approached them to create the Army Combatives program. I was exposed to BJJ there, though in a condensed and dumbed down form.
After leaving the military, and the free combatives training that they offered (influenced greatly by the Gracies). I forgot about it. I didn't think about it again for nearly 8 years, after the lethargy of reading for school and my love of food made me swell like a balloon.
So, I trained for and ran in a half marathon to get in shape, but running was not my passion. My goal was to get into good enough shape to try BJJ again...but in a gi with a formal instructor. I walked into class over a year ago, in May of 2008 and started BJJ for the first time in over 9 years. I was terrible, though not completely ignorant. I took to instruction fast and competed in December of 2008, winning gold in my first competition.Competition is great fun and I think everyone, win or lose, should try it. I'm not one of those that thinks you have to compete to earn belts or anything, I just think you cheat yourself by not trying it once in your life.
I can't wait to compete again, likely in June of 2009. What I really hope to do is get to the place where I'm travelling to compete at various competitions throughout the U.S. I never expect to become some great BJJ icon, but I want to so beause I enjoy the BJJ brotherhood and want my life to intersect with it as often as possible.
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