And away we go

Ok, so yeah, right, whatever...

I already have my Geek Blog, but no one that is anywhere near cool reads it. Unless you're a horribly boring software engineer like myself, it's pretty much greek.

I have 2 loves in my life that aren't actual people. I've already got a blog for one, and we just covered how god awful it is to read if you don't share that love. In the interest of keeping blogs that are awful to the common folk, I'm creating this one.

Yeah, so here is my BJJ blog. Just a bunch boring stuff about me that you can read (or not, whatever blows your dress up).

I've been interested in BJJ since uhhh, UFC 1, I watched it with a buddy that worked w/ me at Winn Dixie. Royce Gracie was amazing, he made a guy tap out while he was upside down!! So I caught the bug...

Problem is, I lacked any sort of discipline in my life so I just played around. Read some books... Watched every UFC I could, but that's about it. A buncha backyard bullshit.

Fast forward some 12 or 13 years...

So I saw a pic of myself and realized that I was a horrible fat ass. At 6' even I was tipping the scales around 225. I decided it was time to change so I made myself a promise.

If I could get down to 185, I'd actually go do some MMA or BJJ training.

6 months later I was at 183' and I kept the promise to myself. I went and joined the only thing that resembled MMA that I could actually drive to considering the crazy life I had at the time (wife and I owned a dance studio and I had a full time job -- kept me pretty busy).

At the time, I just thought it was awesome... Some really cool guys there, and they had a Purple belt that was teaching a BJJ class 3 nights a week as well as an MMA class 2 nights a week. I went religiously. But no matter what that purple belt told me, I wouldn't put on a gi.

I was an MMA guy, damnit, and I read all of Edie Bravo's books... Gi's give you bad habits. It had to be true, cause Eddie said so. Plus, you couldn't wear them in MMA anymore since Dana White took over.

Well then, the placed closed (none to gracefully), and I got a new job.  My world was shattered.

I started the search again, and decided it was time to actually go check out Vandry's. Since a lot of the guys I rolled with at the previous place had mentioned that I would love it.

So I did. I figured I'd go on no-gi days, since Gi's where for guys that really couldn't understand the sport.  Problem was, that was only on Wed, and Sat (and Fri open mat, if anyone wanted to roll no-gi). I really wanted to roll more than that.

Then I met Prof. Vandry. It was pretty clear to me in about, hrm... uhhh 5 seconds, that I needed to buy a gi. I decided to give it a whirl.

Well, you see the title of my blog, right? I'm still a geek, but I love my Gi, and I also make every class at Vandry's I possibly can.   I won't spend any time discussing the differences in the game in this post, but probably will eventually.

Training at Vandry's has fundamentally changed the way I think about BJJ. It's not about getting your oponent to tap out, it's about learning how to be more efficient with your motions, and be more conscious of angles where your body weight is. It's about getting better, not beating opponents.  I have also met a group of people that, although I don't "hang out" with much (since I've got a wife, and she can kick my ass) I consider real friends, and guys that I really look up to in the sport of BJJ.    It keeps me sane (my definition of sane is clearly different than most though, so take that with a grain of salt), and healthy.

I'll try to keep the mushy pansy type posts to a minimum on this blog, really.


Happy Rolling,
The Geek in a Gi