Here we are almost half way through January. Those 'New Year's Resolutions' - have you made a start on them?

Competitions are just around the corner - have you started tournament training? How is the weight post-Christmas? Still as light as you would like to be?

I ask these as questions in a way to cleverly deflect attention away from the fact I am not doing so well with any of the above.

July

It was around now I was entering a stage of not knowing what to write anymore for the blog. I was struggling with coming up with what to say. I was also reading alot more than usual which was taking alot of my time.

I must have been training as much as normal as these GI burns and GI Drying at work shows...

Facebook Timeline has made it very easy to look back over this past year and pick out some of the more notable things that happened for me in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in 2011.

After a slow start to the year...

OK, I am being a little overdramatic and a little out of context - but you do need a catchy title for a blog entry sometimes...I will explain in a moment.

So - bearing in mind I had been a Blue Belt for almost 3 years it felt strange tonight to go back to class with a different colour on. Professor Britto did some more promotions tonight for people who were not able to make it on the weekend or who were meant to level up. The Blue and Purple belts at Toronto BJJ are numerous now.

Anyone who was promoted had to run the corridor and get the traditional belt whipping. I forgot how good the pain actually feels. Due to the amount of people we only had to run it 1 way so my back did not take too much of a beating. We did some drills then I had a couple of tough rolls - one with a senior Purple Belt and one with Professor Eduardo. I was reminded that I still have a long way to travel...let's just say that.