On the 900th hour …

Since the beginning of my training in BJJ I have been keeping a log of the hours put in; 900hours to be exact!   Quite a few BJJ people have told me how they love that idea and wish they could’ve kept a record themselves.  The purpose of keeping a log is to keep track of what I'm doing and measure my dedication and progress.  It is also a personal reward rather than preoccupy with rankings because, in BJJ, they are so far and few in between. 

One has to continually learn and update skills in the martial arts so I have to take a seat as a student in order to do this.  The difference is not only that I have to learn the techniques but I have to be able to teach them to my students so my learning approach has to be different.  It's actually quite rewarding when you can demonstrate and teach what you have learnt. 

It is not easy for Instructors to take the plunge to open their minds and take on new ideas because the realisation is they may have to take off their Black Belts. The principle of our martial arts organisation was built on trying out and introducing new ideas, otherwise, we would not be where we are today.  As the Chief Instructor, it was up to me to work with and learn from people who are expert at what they do.  I have made many good friends along the way and you realise there are many good people out there.

To our students we have done a lot of hard work to bring to them everything on a silver platter, however, it is sometimes difficult to convince students of everything we teach them but they only have to look around at those who will take on everything given to them and they will soon realise what they are missing out on.  Looking forward to 1,000 hours.
GA