re: UFC 316, omalley vs merab 2, pena vs harrison

Just keep grinding and focus on certain moves or positions for a while. Try not to eat the elephant in one bite.

I hurt my IT band last year, got nasal surgery and kids activities kept me busy through spring. But I did a comp in April and won both matches. It was me and another guy since not many at Masters 4 blue belt 168lbs. Doing crossfit for about one year really helped with the gas tank and it showed me I was still on a good learning path. Refocusing now to try and level up next year. I'm a little over 4 yrs in, so being in the blue belt grind at almost 47 yrs old is somewhat expected, especially for a hobiest.

Keep up the good work.

I feel ya. That’s probably my biggest gripe with the belt system in BJJ. I get it, we don’t wanna water down the art and just promote folks because they showed up but the dark side to that subjectivity is that it then falls 100% to instructor discretion. There’s not really a uniform method and every instructor has different personal criteria. That’s why for me, I just kinda ignore the belt stuff now and focus on getting better and let my jj speak for itself. One of my instructors wanted to belt me to purple but the other “wasn’t sure yet.” I basically just turned it up on them in our rolls and did a comp and had a lot of success. Basically I was just like “alright, you aren’t sure? I’m gonna be good enough to make you look foolish for having that opinion.”



I 100% agree with you though that that certainly looks shady on your coaches part.