My New Year Finally Begins

Hooray! I have finally, two weeks in to the New Year, got my first roll of 2010 - good times!
Boo! I have decided, with so little time left to prepare, plus other factors, not to compete at the IBJJF European Championships in Lisbon - bad times!
Thus beginneth my topsy turvey start to the year...

My first session as a purple belt
I've known what its like to be purple belt for some time now. How? Because everytime I sparred with one, I wanted to wrench their arm/head/gi/whole body apart such was my desire to raise my blue belt ass and bring the fight to them. So yeah, I know what it's like, only now I'm on the other side!

Actually tonight's session was no different to any other, just business as usual. After all, its not as if I have magically transformed overnight into a BJJ sensation just because I got promoted.
Tonight I rolled with Gavin, who we call Spiderman cos of his long arms and legs that just tie you up in all directions. I was also mightily impressed with our resident 55kilo teenage girly prodigy Hana, who is improving exponentially. Finally had a roll with Glen, who is my size but actually has muscles on him, as opposed to my physique, which is more akin to a wildebeest carcass scavenged by vultures - no really I am that skinny. They were all good hard technical rolls. After three weeks of inactivity, there is something very cleansing about sweating it out with a good hard roll in the academy. Ah man, its sooo good to be back.


Why I pulled out of the Euros
Well its not a hard decision, I got flu over Xmas which took a devil of a long time to rid itself from my feeble body, then the snow hit my area hard cancelling several attempts at getting to the academy. My wife also says she thinks her work schedule might not allow her to accompany me to Lisbon. So all in all, I decided to cut my losses and pull out of the tournament.
Luckily I have not spent any money on the comp entry fee (£75) and hotel (£300). All I've lost are my flight costs (£150ish), which maybe I can recover a little by selling on my seats. We'll see.
There's always next year, plus lots of really exciting events coming up this year.


BJJ Media & other news
Boo, I didn't win the Fightworks Podcast Tournament Review of the Year award. Just to explain, last year, any one who entered a competition report to the Fightworks Podcast was entered into a prize draw to win an Isami gi. I wrote four pieces but sadly was not drawn out by the random number generator. Never mind, I'm only joking about feeling sorry I did not win. I love getting my reports published and would have done them regardless of the reward. I hope to write loads this year too. Actually come to think of it, I think we're really privileged to have TFP publish our material, so a big up to Caleb and the gang over in California, here's to another great year of broadcasts.

In other media news, I've been asked to interview a top female black belt who will be visiting our shores in February. It'll be another Meerkatsu/Combat BJJ Photography magazine co-production so watch this space!!!

Finally, you won't believe what I've gone and done...I've ordered a hand made purple belt embroidered in silver thread. OMG this baby is gonna be like the most blinged up BJJ belt you ever saw...also the most expensive belt you ever saw, ahem. Full report when it arrives in my grubby paws in a couple of months (yeah it takes that long because each thread is hand stitched by virgin fairies and only during a full moon).
In the mean time, I chopped up the belt that Nick awarded me because it is a thousand times too long. I even hand stitched the ends too to make it look good, although I am not a virgin fairy but I did do it during a full moon.