Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Training

Well after thinking about my current situation I have decided to continue down the path I have already started. I love BJJ but I don't think I am at a point where I can give up more time to become competitive at the sport and take on competitions. I think I will continue training in and out of class but I think I am going to focus more on training consistently 4 times a week at the gym and focus less on trying to achieve a blue belt...not that I don't want it but I think I will do better at this point to focus on consistent training than on what belt I wear. I also am going to stop focusing on the relative level of my skill to those that started with me...this will be the difficult part of the plan for me as I tend to be very competitive but I think it will be better for me long term to keep myself from getting too discouraged with my improvement. If anyone else has ever gone through something similar to this in their training I would love to hear about it so leave a comment or two.

A Week Away From Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Well I took last week off from training to let my bruises heal and my body rest for a week. I also had quite a few things going with work so it was kind of a forced break. The break gave me a little time to step back and think about how my game has progressed since I started so many months ago. The sad part is for anyone that maybe reading this that is new is that I still feel like I don't really know much and that I am still very much a beginner. New guys to the gym who don't have any ground work are pretty easy unless they are extremely strong and fast which can be a handful but I feel I have been progressing a little slower than others that started about the same time I did that have been going consistently. I think the main reason for this is that I don't spend enough time outside of class working on drills and studying video and books. I always feel like I make big gains when I spend a week watching a new instructional DVD and then taking the time to memorize all of the pieces of the movements but it is tough to make the time for this study and I guess it comes down to commitment. I made the commitment to attend class regularly and have but I didn't make the commitment to spend the time necessary outside of class to become skilled at brazilian jiu jitsu. I guess I am at a point now where I need to define what exactly my goal is in brazilian jiu jitsu and then take the time to layout the requirements necessary to meet that goal. When I started I had the goal to get my blue belt but when I look back at my initial posts and thought process I realize my real goal was simply to get active again and get myself in shape it wasn't really to get a blue belt. Well I guess I need to go and think about this for a little bit and see what I come up with.