I am a BJJ Purple Belt!

On September 24th I earned my purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from black belts Chris McCune and Mike Ellefson. It is more of an honor to have earned the belt then an achievement. As is the case with most belt upgrades I dont feel "good enough" to be one, but I respect and honor the fact that my coaches think I am! I have many people to thank along this journey. You know who you are. Specifically I need to thank my family for their support and sacrifice, my coaches for their patience and guidance, and my teamates for their time, blood, sweat, and tears. Walking into the Midwest Center for Movement in the Spring of 2007 I had no idea what this would become. Walking out that day I puked. I actually puked like the first two times I trained. Anyway..Now I feel confident, fitter, and think I can handle myself in a fight against most people (minus you crazy bastards better than me at BJJ and those crazy MMA people who enjoy pain ;)). More importantly I have met great people, friends, and adapted a new culture. Sure the culture involves choking people, attacking their limbs, and the washing of bloodly/sweaty gis. But it also includes the invisible things that only other students of Jiu Jitsu would understand. I'm not gonna fool myself and make lots of competition based goals going forward. I can only promise myself and the rest of youz guys that I will always give my best, continue to learn, and share these teachings that have been given to me to others. The "target" is on my back (waist). Bring it on! Thank you...now go do Jiu Jitsu!