A New Era

So it's been 6 months since my last update. A lot has happened in that time. For one thing the blog is going public again.

Early this year due to work scheduling issues and financial concerns I had to stop attending HCG. It sucked and I was out completely for almost two months. Luckily I found out in March that Casey Baynes from Alliance in Atlanta was sharing space with one of my old TKD schools and teaching Jits 3 days a week. The class times were a better fit for my work schedule and the classes were less expensive. It's mostly a Gi class, but that's fine. HCG is still the best MMA gym outside of Atlanta, and a good argument can be made that they are the best MMA gym in the state, but my focus has never really been on MMA so I was never using those resources to their full potential anyways.

So for the last 4 months I've been doing Jits with Casey and the guys there. I competed in the white belt Gi division at NAGA and got 2nd, I took 3rd in Intermediate No-Gi. I've been progressing nicely and now really feel like I'm ready for my blue belt test which should be coming up in October.
In september I'm going to compete at NAGA again, this time as a blue belt in Gi just to test the waters.

Most recently I've been working on collar chokes and balling up under huge guys trying to crush me and last night I had an epiphany. A bunch of stuff that Zapruder from bullshido had been telling me clicked together and I was able to keep a 220lb white belt suspended in the air for most of a 7 minute round. I really feel good about it and I'm confident I'll easily pass my blue belt test. After that I think I can wait a year and probably get my purple belt next summer.

Now that the blog is public again I'll try to post up some videos from class when I have them. I'm picking up a 4gb memory stick for the camera next month, which should let me record the entire class if I want to, but mostly I'll just be posting me rolling with various folks so I can get some comments on it.

Now time to clean the house, exercise the horses, and go for a trail ride.