journeyjjbluebelt

This week, I made it to Friday’s fundamentals class, the first class I attended in the month of June. The class was taught by Professor Jaoquim. As I drove to the dojo,  I did feel ashamed, but once I saw people I knew and started chatting I stopped worrying about purple belt. Nobody cares. I was over it. It was good to see the other students and catch up.

After missing 21 days of study, it was as if I hadn’t missed anytime off the mat. I was worried that I would forget.  During warm up drills, the information was in the subconscious mind and was retrieved when needed.

This was the first time I heard what were the expectations for a blue belt.  The main goals of blue belt was: 1) Defending from bottom mount. 2) Escaping from bottom mount. The Professors maybe evaluating the students while in the the classes.  Interestingly enough, Professor Joaquim mentioned that offensive strategy would not be taught until 2nd stripe Purple.

In order to practice defending from the bottom mount and escaping bottom mount, I will need to do a lot more sparring. Unfortunately, I will be leaving, again, soon for New York to help the family but I will be back mid July.