Good to be Home

Full circle. Well, this Jiu-Jitsu, maybe its full Triangle! Either way, after 4 Months and 23 days or; 143 days or; 20 weeks or; 3432 hours or; 205,920 minutes or; 12,355,200 seconds, however you count it I made it back to the mats. But who’s counting?

Of course, going into the class I had a bit of apprehension and trepidation. I was worried about how well my heart has actually healed; I was concerned about overdoing it right off the bat. I had an irrational fear in my head that I had forgotten everything. I was nervous that I would be completely and totally out of shape (well some fears do come true).

Packing up my gym bag and getting ready to head to class brought back a familiar feeling. Making the drive to the gym I could not believe that my long, involuntary vacation had come to an end.

Now, since I have been out I have made it a point to stop in now and then. To catch up with the guys, provide status reports on my heart and just to soak up the atmosphere. This time, I arrived with my bag in hand and I was ready to go.

The warm-ups were just as brutal as I remembered. Surprisingly the only one I could not make it thru was our traditional end of warm-up surfer. Other than that I managed to get thru everything else. Now, I didn’t look very good and I was sloppy and slow; but I made it thru.

We drilled standing guard passes, which was a perfect refresher for me. I drilled with Neil and Kris who both made it a point to be there with me on my first night back. Dr. Evil stopped by too but was not able to train as he just had his wisdom teeth pulled and is dealing with that madness. Thanks for the support guys.

When it was time to roll, I stuck to my commitment to not rush back to rolling so I helped a guy who was there for the first time. Upa’ville here we come. Helping him learn the upa escapes was also beneficial for me because it allowed me to ease right back into the rhythm and work on some fundamentals and positions.

What a great night. I am horribly out of shape and have a long way to go to get back to “normal” but I made it thru and did pretty well. I’M BACK!!! I want to thank everyone for your support and well-wishes during this tumultuous time. This community we have is phenomenal I am proud to be part of it.