Damn, it’s been a minute since my last blog posting.  Things have been very busy at the GDub, and that’s a good thing!  Our lil ninjas represented well at the the Kids & Teens Grappling Grand Prix.  I am so proud of them.  Shout out to Luis Mata for putting on a well-run event.  We held our 1st Promotion Ceremony/Student Appreciation day, which was a success.  Huge thank you to Ciccio Cali Riverview and Ryan McGough for catering the event.  And congrats to everyone that leveled up, especially my good friend Roy Schleman.  I’ve known Roy since back in the day at Gracie Tampa. He’s battled several injuries over the years(some where most people would just give up on BJJ.)  But Roy is a true warrior, he’s got bulging disks in his neck and intermittent loss of feeling in his arm, yet still trains his butt off.  He listens to feedback and is able to convey information well.  He also helps me teach the kids classes.  Cowboy and I were elated to give him his purple belt.

This brings me to the main topic of my blog entry: BJJ is about YOUR journey, not anyone else’s.

Comparing yourself to others is a self-destructive way of thinking.  You are setting yourself up for failure.  The only person you should compare yourself to, is the you of yesterday.  Not only in BJJ, but in life.  You should strive to be better than you were yesterday.  That is progress, no matter how minuscule.  There may be some techniques I pick up and implement in my game right away, there are others that I just cannot get.  I cannot worry about other people learning moves or progressing faster than me.  I have no control over that.  What I do have control over is ME.  Can I spend extra time repping that move?  Is there anybody that can help correct what I’m doing wrong?  Can I come to more classes to get it right?  True story, RobbyD taught an inverted guard sequence one morning at Gracie Tampa.  I couldn’t invert to save my life.  We joked about it, it was so bad lol.  I went home every night and practiced inverting on the leg of my pool table.  Fast forward about a year.  I was now rolling in the advanced class at Gracie Brandon with my buddy J.C. and I inverted(with a failed attempt at a sweep).  Robby yelled, “Holy shit, wricksta went inverted!”  We all laughed about it.  Is going inverted my game?  Hell no!  But it kicked my ass, and I wanted to do it so bad that I worked on it almost every night for a year.  Did I care whether people are able to invert the day they learn it?  No, fuck them flexible bitches lol.  I wanted to do for myself.  If jiu jitsu were easy, everyone would be good, people wouldn’t quit, and no one would have mangled ears.  BJJ is a lifetime journey of improvement.  That is what I love about it.  I recently texted my buddy Josh, who just received his Black Belt.  I asked him how it felt.  He texted back, “I feel like a white belt.  Still learning.”  Very profound.  It made me take a look at what I was doing.  Since then, I’ve been trying to attend as many classes of the other instructors we have teaching at GDub.

I just want to be better than I was yesterday.  I do not compare myself to anyone else, or anyone else’s progression.  Am I happy when one of my training partners gets a stripe or levels up?  HELL YES!  Could this be cause I’m getting older and I don’t have time for hate?  Possibly, I don’t know. But life is a whole lot more peaceful when I worry about the things I can control, and not what I can’t.

I wish everyone nothing but good hard training and good vibes ~ wricksta