Getting My Ass Kicked

So Wednesday I went back out to the Brothers school. The Intermediate group in Arvada is advanced beyond the group I train with at the Denver school. The training went well enough, but for the randori session afterwards I got my ass handed to me. Paired up with a high level blue belt, I couldn't even get the guy into my guard. I couldn't get to the mount, or maintain any sort of control over his movements. In short I felt totally ineffective. It certainly isn't easy to admit that, but I'll be damned if I am going to come away from the experience deluding myself. The reality is that practice, and time and skill outweigh enthusiasm. The only way to counter what I experienced is to push forward into the unknown, the unpracticed. To learn from what happened, and then keep on learning until it won't happen again. The thing is, there will always be someone better, stronger. Some people might consider that fact to be fatalistic- to take that reality and consider it bleak. Those people might quit. They might look at their 35 yr old body and develop a belief that they are past it.
I'm not past it. Actually, for what I set out to do I am doing pretty well. I never meant to become a world champion. Just stronger. Time, effort, persistance, and patience will have to be my new tag words. This is a refresh of my will to fight.

Somebody call a Doctor...

Not cause I am injured or anything, but I did need to see a doc about a physical today. The good news is I have clean bill of health. Having spoken to the doctor I learned that his background was in Sports medicine, more specifically collegiate wrestling programs. He was sufficiently impressed with the benefits of grappling. We discussed explosive effort as it relates to Jiu Jitsu, and the conversation was quite pleasent all in all.
The primary reason for getting checked out was to get clearance to run in The Tough Mudder up at Beaver Creek June 23rd. Tough Mudder is a 7 mile run, up ski slopes, over 12 ft walls, across rope netting and through frigid water while ducking under barrels and other obstacles. It is a confidence course, and I am pretty psyched for it. I stumbled into a team. A friend of mine from an online car forum recruited two more of his buddies. The four of us will be participating, and in the meantime will be looking for another 2 members to fill out our team.
What does this have to do with Jiu Jitsu? Nothing really, but it is training. I'll be working the couch to 10k program in an effort to build up my stamina to endure the run. It can't hurt my grappling to cross train and build up my endurance.

I 18 Guard pass over and under standing to open