Last night our club's latest batch of coloured belts were awarded. I was among five students that received a shiny new blue belt.

Adam has traditionally had his coach, John Will, present the coloured belts every 3-4 months when he's in Western Australia for a jiu jitsu seminar.

When I was in Melbourne last year at the Machado Nationals I talked to Adam about me receiving a blue belt, and how I imagined it happening. I said that whilst I respect John and his skill, to me he's not really an important or influential part of my jiu jitsu. I asked that when the time came (and if it came!) for Adam instead to present me with my blue belt.

Adam's been my coach from the beginning and is immensely influential in my study of the martial arts. Considering the achievement that attaining a blue belt is, I wanted to get all that I could out of the presentation. It might sound corny, but it was Adam that was acknowledging my progress over the last two and half years, so I wanted it to be him that presented my belt. A few weeks ago I gave Adam a gentle reminder that I wanted this, and he let me know that he hadn't forgotten.

I'm not sure if it was this discussion specifically, or if it had any influence at all on Adam, but he decided that he was going to present all the coloured belts from now on. I mean, he's a black belt in his own right, so he doesn't need the "approval" of John when issuing belts.

This meant that I was the second person ever (I should have pushed in front of Joe ;) to have a coloured belt awarded by Adam, and I was among the first group ever. Sure, he's graded people to that level before, but it's never been him actually awarding the belt.

That was really meaningful to me.

To top things off, Phil received his purple belt, which is another first for Adam. In the next 3-6 months I think we'll see a few brown belts being issued at the club too, as there's a few guys that are really close.

Nick's not in this photo because he didn't come to the beginner's class, but he was awarded his belt at the beginning of the advanced class.

The "problem" with getting your blue belt is that now toe, ankle, knee, hip and all other leg locks are available to me. It's a problem because I've never defended these attacks before, so traditionally you're given a nice ass-kicking by one of the senior belts as a "welcome to the big leagues."

My first roll was with Phil, and though he made a few attempts at my legs I was able to keep him at bay and finish the wrestle un-touched. I even managed a really nice figure-four sweep on him from my guard, so I was happy with how that wrestle went.

I had a roll with Adam, which never really counts. He won't ever make you tap, but instead he puts moves on and lets them go before you've even worked out what's going on :)

But it was the roll with Nathan where I consider my "cherry popped." I got out of a few knee-bar attempts, but he ended up catching me with a great leg lock about 60 seconds into the match. His grin, though kind and cheerful, said it all:

"Welcome to the next level."

Today we had three guys from The Academy of Mixed Martial Arts compete in Shooto II, a local MMA event. I checked it out with Aaron and Jacob, and a bunch of other dudes from the club. In all there were 10 fights, though we only stayed until Ian's fight, which I think was 8th or 9th. Entry was only $15 and it was popular, which translated to everyone being crammed in.

On a side note, I'm always surprised that these gyms never had mega-air-condooli... it'd be the first thing I'd install when renovating, in this case, an old church.

Andy was the first fighter up and he suffered a first-round knock out. He is a kickboxer so I don't really know him but he put in a good showing before he was caught with a jab, jab, right-hook combo that sent him to sleep. The other fighter we recognized as having a few fights under his belt so it was a good effort on Andy's part, but an unfortunate outcome.

Our second fighter was Joe, who I train jiu jitsu with. He's a strong grappler who'll be getting his blue on Thursday with me. He has a really good side control which we saw demonstrated in his first round submission. He went for the take down and gained side control, on the left of his opponent. He set up a head-arm choke, jumped to mount, and then jumped off to side control on the right. He sunk the choke in deep and scored the tap out in his first MMA fight.

Last up was Ian, one of our blue belt grapplers. This was his first fight and he was competing against a seasoned fighter (it was class-C but we all recognized this guy from other fights). Ian held his own in the first round, scoring more take downs but I thought his boxing wasn't as good as the other guy's. In the second round we all thought Ian dominated but loose kick at the end of the round was converted into a take down by his opponent, and the two points he gave up as a result ended up being the deciding factor - 19 vs. 20 at the final bell. Ian was in good spirits and was happy with his showing, as were we all. Adam disputed some of the points but it didn't end up changing anything.

The club's got some great talent and it's good to see our guys tested in this kind of environment. A solid performance always does well for the club's moral, which will be soaring after today's efforts.

I took some video on Merv's camera (that's what I get for being 6'2" - I'm the camera man) so hopefully that gets uploaded and I'll link it in.

Tonight we had the Royce Gracie seminar at The Academy of Mixed Martial Arts. It started at 6:00PM and went for three hours. I got to meet and train with many new people, including Royce. Royce's amazing performances at the initial Ultimate Fighting Championship events over a decade ago spurred my initial interest in BJJ back in September 2005.

He's the one on the bottom, breaking the other guy's arm.

The UFC was set up by Royce's half-brother Rorion to be a giant infomercial for Brazilian jiu jitsu. Through the UFC the spectacle of "no rules fighting" as evolved into the sport we now call mixed martial arts. I think initially the Gracie family achieved what was intended in terms of exposing jiu jitsu and ground fighting to the world as a crucial component of the martial arts.

The actual class was interesting because it was accessible. He didn't focus on flashy moves that nobody's ever going to get any use out of in the real world, and instead gave us a progression from one situation to the next. We did some hip-toss warm ups followed by a range of drills, including:

• Bear-hug escape to hip toss
• Block punches in headlock control, hip toss
• Sit-down roll-over escape from side headlock control into cross-body mount
• Cross-body mount escape (swap legs, hip escape, top knee through, grab ankle, pull through) into ankle lock
• Sleeve (ezekiel) choke from mount
• Gi pass choke from mount
• Fake lapel choke to armbar from mount (cupping the shoulder on the way through)
• Holding the mount drill, where the bottom wasn't allowed to escape but could only defend

Afterwards we had some question/answer time which was OK, but we could have used it better. I'd have rather watched a 5 minute roll between Adam and Royce, but that didn't happen.

Royce had seen some guys (there were about 40 people at this seminar and they weren't all from our club) being overly rough on each other - forearms to the face as they're on mount, digging elbows into eyes, that kind of thing. He wasn't impressed and neither was I when he mentioned it. It's not the kind of culture our club has and it's poor jiu jitsu. You won't submit Royce (or me, or anyone) from a forearem to the face but you will piss them off and they will be looking to do the same to you.

People confuse training with competition.

Aaron said he was rolling with a guy, who's a regular at The Academy, that was doing this kind of stuff. Adam apparently had to keep saying to him "not so rough" and "slow down" and come question time Royce gave him both barrels. This guy wouldn't shut up and take his licks and it was embarrassing. He kept trying to find situations in which excessive force was suitable, and the reality is that it's not. The conversation went kinda like this (paraphrased and lines read between):

Fool:         "But can you grind their face?"
Royce:        "No, you shouldn't."
Fool:         "What about hurting someone with a forearm to the nose?"
Royce:        "No, that's bad sportsmanship."
Fool:         "What about elbowing their eyeballs?"
Royce:        "Are you even listening?"
Fool:         "What about hitting them with a fist to the mouth?"
Me (to Fool): "Why don't you try that on Royce?"
Everyone:     *chortle*

The evening wrapped up and we all had some photos with Royce. I got him to sign my copy of "The Gracie Way" which I was happy about. Aaron and I also bought some shirts, but they're for Future Music so I won't spoil the treat :)

About a year back I attended a Sunday-morning jiu jitsu seminar at The Academy. Adam has John Will over from Geelong every 3-4 months. I remember John mentioned something along the lines of:

Brazilian jiu jitsu isn't meant to be for everybody. Some things in life should remain a challenge, and should be difficult to achieve. Climbing Mt. Everest is a big accomplishment, so if somebody was to put an escalator in the side of the mountain, that challenge wouldn't be there anymore and anyone's grandma could make the journey. But Mt. Everest doesn't have an escalator, and climbing it is a big achievement.

He likened the jiu jitsu journey someone undertakes to climbing Mt. Everest - unless you're very patient (12-15 years for your black belt, versus 2-3 in a traditional martial art like karate or taekwondo) and are eager to learn from your mistakes, and trust me that's all there'll be for the first few years, then it's not the right sport or martial art for you. The obvious upside to this is that you're achieving something that the average person simply can't.

Last week I was disappointed with how my jiu jitsu was "feeling". I thought that I'd hit a bit of a rough spot.

This morning I received this from Adam at the bottom of an email about another matter (the new club website):

On a slightly different subject, I (me) will be presenting the Blue Belts to my students on the thursday prior to the JBW seminar - however, I would still like you to attend and support the seminar wearing your new blue belt.

So it looks like I'll be retiring the white belt in a few weeks.

I had spoken to Adam about how important it was for me, whenever the time was right, to receive my belt from him personally. Traditionally John has awarded the coloured belts, but I requested that Adam award mine.

I'm very, very excited (and a little-bit relieved)!

Tonight I was disappointment at jiu-jitsu. For the first time in a long time I was feeling physically drained during the class. The warm ups we run through vary a bit and tonight's was no harder than normal but it took it out of me.

Even drilling the moves I didn't feel like my game was tight. I had some sloppy placement and it got me into a bit of a rut. We weren't learning anything new to me, apart from one sweep which I'd not see before and is from the purple belt syllabus, which I think just reinforced my annoyance. I know how to do a basic sweep - I do them all the time. I know the finer points, but tonight it wasn't hanging together.

It was written all over me and Adam asked if I was OK. I said that I just wasn't "feeling it" tonight and he said that it was the best time to train, and that I'd learn from any mistakes. He also said I'd appreciate it more when I rolled well in the future, which I can understand. I think it's the "get back on the horse" attitude, which is tried and tested. I suppose you can't have the highs without the lows, or plateaus. I had a few more rolls and tapped a few people, but the energy wasn't there and my enthusiasm was falling.

I think the real reason I was a bit down is that, for the first time, I think I have something to prove with my jiu-jitsu. Up until now it's always been about me, and I've been happy to plod along at my pace. For the first time I think I want to impress my grappling peers, or at least meet their expectations.

We've got gradings coming up and the next rung on the ladder for me is blue belt. I think it's one of the more significant belts in the rankings and it'll be an acknowledgment that I know the basics and am ready to begin developing my own game.

The last few weeks have seen a few compliments come my way, mostly about my open guard. I've been trying to really work keeping people at the end of my feet, using my hooks and general limb-length to my advantage, and I'd had a few senior belts tell me they were having a hard time with my guard. This made me feel good, obviously.

But these compliments are followed up with a "haven't you got you blue yet?" which can be taken one of two ways. Either they think I'm good enough for that rank, or they think that it's taking me ages and I mustn't be that good. I tend to think they've been meant in a positive light, but now I feel there's pressure on me to get my blue, soon.

I normally work pretty well under pressure, but tonight I fizzled. It seemed that every time Adam was near me I'd choke (metaphorically). I know he's checking out the mats for who's ready to grade, like Aaron, and who's not, and that's compounding this pressure.

So I think I need to go back to my roots. I do jiu-jitsu for myself. It normally takes, on paper for the average person, 2 years to get a blue. I'm at 2.5 years, and the general consensus is that Adam's pretty strict about handing out his belts, which I respect and admire.

Which begs the question, why do I care if I get my blue in a month or in a year? I train twice a week, for a few hours at a time. I'm not there all day, every day, and I have lots of other things in my life which means BJJ sometimes gets relegated to second or third priority. It's been made clear that the Monday and Wednesday night advanced classes are open to us white belts to use, and those that do will progress faster, but I just don't have the time to devote 3 or 4 nights a week to training.

So I need to CTFO and remember why I train to begin with, safe in the knowledge that I will get my blue belt one day, and that when I do I'll have earnt every thread of it, and will be able to defend it against the best of them.