JIU-JITSU UPDATE

I've been training at Machado Jiu-Jitsu for a little over 3 months now and my attendance has been very consistent.  Except for 2 weeks when I was out of town, I have been regularly 3 times per week.

Anyway, last Friday July 9th was belt testing!  This is where you get to demonstrate the skills and techniques that have been taught over the previous 3 months so that the instructors can determine if you have demonstrated mastery of said techniques.

This was my first belt test and I had no idea what to expect.  The testing was to begin at 7pm and go until 9pm, so I showed up at about 5:30pm to warm up and review some techniques with a few other people there.  The best part about the more advanced guys is that they remember what it was like to be a white belt.  There were several guys, ranging from blue belt to purple belt to brown belt, who offered to run through some technique with me.

After I was loose, we started from the feet.  We reviewed some takedowns and some throws, and we would have to know several of each for the test.  Next we moved to the ground and covered some guard passes and a few submissions once you passed guard (either from side control or the mount).  We also had to know several escapes...this time when I was the guy on bottom of side control or the mount.

We practiced for well over an hour, and then it was time for the testing to start.  We broke out into our various ranks...white belts stayed with white belts, etc.  With about 6 instructors walking around, Master Carlos would shout out a situation (e.g. guard passes!) and then each of us would have to demonstrate anywhere from 2-4 techniques depending on the situation while the other instructors walked around and took notes and critiqued.

After 2 solid hours of technique work, plus the hour that I put in before hand, I was pretty well spent.  I feel like I learned more in those three hours than in all of my training combined.

Also, before they actually awarded the new ranks to everybody, we each had one 5-minute round of rolling.  There was an odd number of white belts, so they picked my to roll with a guy who was going for his blue belt.  He definitely had better technique than I did, but I was able to hold my own and even get him in a few tough spots!

I'm in the back row towards the middle

 The instructors, Master Machado in the khaki gi third from right

They belt test every three months, so in October I'll be going for a second blue stripe on my white belt.  After three stripes, it will be time to move on to the blue belt!