I love going to new places to train

I travel a lot and I love to train in different places and one of the great things is I always make new friends there (and thanks to Facebook I am able to keep in  touch with them and here about their BJJ journey) and always have people welcoming me back when I return to that area.  I also get to learn different styles from different instructors and spar against people with different games and strengths so I learn to defend different styles.  Last but not least I get to use my moves that the guys at my place see all the time anticipate and counter but the people at other places may not be as familiar with those moves so I see how well they work in those circumstances.

Last week I was able to Train in Hong Kong.  The guys tipped me off before hand that the elevator was broken so I left early knowing I would have to walk up to the 11th floor.  At the 7th floor my calves started to feel the burn  but when I got the 11th floor and saw the guys already starting I was happy I made the trip.

(On a side not another place I train  in Hong Kong the first time I showed up there the Professor called me out had all the people circle up and then told me to show him what I knew.  I had only been doing BJJ for about 3 months at the time and was a zero stripe white belt.  I did have some wrestling back ground so I made the mistake of taking him down and then proceeded to get the bazooka beat out of me and finally succumbed to a choke.  Even with that I am still good friends with that Professor today).

 Here are some things that I think are  important to have a good experience when doing BJJ while traveling.

1.  Don't try to partner with those of smaller size, lower belt or old people that you can think you can dominate.  Not a problem when you are doing technique but once you roll if you beat up  your partner expect the next roll to be  with the Hammer and you playing the part of the Nail.

2.  Don't talk about what your home school does.

3.  Always offer to pay

4.  Be respectful and gracious.  Never compare what someone else does especially if you think someone else has a better way to do it.  No one wants to hear that.

5.  When travelling outside the USA know your weight in kilograms so you when asked you can answer in a way that does not make them have to do math to figure  out.

5.  Have fun, make friends, talk to people and show interest in what them.

If you do these  things you will surely have a great time at most BJJ Schools and not only make new friends but learn new tricks to improve your game.

Jiu Jitsu a great way to lose weight

My wife and kid are out of town so I trained at two different places yesterday.

The Place I trained in the AM had a visitor.  We had several things in common.  We both have 4 daughters, We both have trained for about 2 years.  We both lost a ton of weight when we started doing BJJ.  Of couse I was 30 years older then him but that did not seem to matter.

How did I know he lost the weight?  When we were sparring I asked him how much he weighed.  I ask this question often because 1. I like to have a feel for some of the moves I do and how they are working on people of different sizes 2. I like to know if people are bigger or smaller then the weight I compete at.   He told me he weighed about 155  but when he started BJJ he was at 305.  I was amazed.  He looked great and I could see no sign that he had dropped over 50% of his body weight.  When I started BJJ I weighed in at 220 and now I weigh about 160.  I thought that was a huge weight drop but that is nothing compared to this guy.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of us and also been able to question him about how he did it but I was off to my next roll and then he was out the door before I had a chance to ask him more questions.

It is funny when you have lost a lot of weight.  The first thing you get is that eye from people who wonder if you are sick or have some ailment causing you to lose the weight.  They have not seen you in a while and that last time they saw you, you were much bigger and they don't want to be rude so they don't ask.   Then once they find out your healthy the questions start to come.  Here are the answers to the most common asked questions.

Q: How did you lose so much weight?
A: I started doing BJJ.  I did not set out to lose weight it was just a byproduct of the workouts.

Q:  Did you change your diet or just workout.
A:  I often tell people I started having Motrin for Dinner instead of real food and that is the truth but I was not doing that to lose weight I was so sore after workout I could not eat and I needed something to reduce the inflammation in my joints so I was on the Motrin Train.

Q; How long did it take you to lose the weight?
A:  I got down to 175 in about 3 months and then held that for a year until I dropped another 15 lbs for competition purposes.  ( The guy that lost the 150 lbs told me he dropped all that weight in less then a year)

Q:  Did a doctor tell you to lose weight?  What was your motivation?
A:  Every Check up I went to the Doctor told me I was healthy and did not need to lose weight.  The reason I lost weight was because of my desire to compete.  I would spar with people and then ask them how much they weighed.  I knew I could hold my own with the under 175 crowd so I decided if I was going to be compete that is where I needed to be.  It was easy to cut weight when you had the motivation of competing against smaller athletes.  Every time I thought about picking up a Donut or taking a Second Helping I was able to remind myself that I wanted to compete in the lighter weight class and I was able to abstain.

Q:  Has it been hard to keep the weight off.
A:  No it has not been hard.  Now that I have been doing this for a couple of years my appetite has returned because my technique has improved and I am not getting beat up like I once did.  I am still burning the calories and I watch the scales daily so if me weight starts to creep back up I can cut back but I basically eat what I want and am able to maintain my weight.

This has been a crazy trip for me.  I never was overly concerned about my weight and 3 years ago I was happy and content.  Then I got the BJJ Bug and I look like a different person.  To be honest I had never even heard of BJJ before I attended that first class with my Son in Law.    Now I am a total addict (working out twice yesterday when my wife and daughter were out of town).  I think I am in this for the long run.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this journey.