4-stripe!

Well after the high of the Essex Open, it was back to the mats for me. Or rather, it wasn't. Due to family circumstances I missed a complete week of training, which was annoying as it was the first time I started paying monthly fees and nothing winds me up than not getting my full money's worth ;)
Despite this, I did sneek in for a quick roll during the Saturday morning open mat. And I even persuaded my wife to attend the Women Only BJJ seminar with European champion Carmen Janke. It was the first women-only seminar of its kind in the UK and was a great success with over 20 ladies on the mat - some travelling long distances to attend. I defy ANY BJJ club in the UK to drum up 20 women at one time. Well done to Pippa Granger for organising the event at such short notice, let's hope there are many more to come. You can read more about the seminar here at Meg Smitley's blog.

Mrs Meerkatsu on lower far right

As for my own training, some things are clicking nicely in my game, a lot needs working on. Same old same old I guess, but at least our instructor is there to assess whether we've actually made any progress. One of the unforgiving aspects to BJJ is the sparse interludes between grades. With only 5 belt ranks and maybe ten years to reach black belt, that's a long time to train wearing the same belt colour. But BJJers get used to it, and even revel in a perverse way at how lowly our current rank is. So it is with a humble kind of honour that I am happy to report another stripe was awarded to my good self last night by Nick Brooks. That makes me a blue belt 4 striper, the maximum rank for that belt.