The academy was officially closed tonight. That's got to be the first time the school has been closed for two days in a week - not including the time when we shut down to relocate a few miles deeper into SoDo. At best, I'll get in another two training sessions in December, Monday and Tuesday nights, the 29th and the 30th for a total of 10 in December.
Pretty pathetic, and not a great start to my purple belt tenure. Even with the weather, it didn't look like I'd meet my target. Toss in the fact that tomorrow is a traveling day and I'll be settling for the minimum this month. That comes to 25 classes for the quarter (Oct/Nov/Dec): 5 in illness-riddled October and 10 each in the following months.
I feel good about my training otherwise. I've been out of sync on a host of levels for the past couple of weeks - the year feels like it is rattling to a close like a busted up truck pulling up to the curb. Far more whimper than bang.
But I'm looking forward to 2009. I've started to put together a GGP for the year that makes sense and builds on what I've bee working on in the second half of 2008. I think I'm brutally honest about my weaknesses - and the strategy that makes the most sense to fix them.
I figure that I will enter 2009 wearing a purple belt. But I hope to leave 2009 truly feeling like one.
Here's some nice watching from over at the Sherdog Grappling Forum featuring a grappler with one of the coolest jiu jitsu nicknames around.
