Last night I attended the first evening class of CrossFit after a really cold morning and lack of sufficient sleep kept me in the bed. This was also the first evening of JiuJitsu for my old dojo in the new CrossFit location. The new place has a much larger mat area and the general convenience of being able to wrap my Crossfit workout and walk over to the mat already warmed up just made up my mind for me. It’s time to return to Jiu-Jitsu. So, last night I rolled for the first time in a few years. It actually went pretty well since I’ve been doing Crossfit going on 2 months it wasn’t as much of a body shock as starting back cold. Of course my skin is not used to the friction of grappling and was generally tender afterwards. I did ok for not having grappled in so long. In a sense though it’s like starting over. I remembered the defensive stuff fairly well but none of the submissions and of course I have no hip movement.
This is really an opportunity for me to approach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu more as a martial artist than a competitor. That will make sense to some of you. Last time my focus was to find what would win for me in a tournament and that was it. This time I want to master each fundamental technique. There’s never going to be a better time for me to go back to square one and re-learn things the correct way. I’d be ok if I never did another tournament, though I likely will at some point just to advance rank, but that’s not going to be my focus this time around. I think even showing up and being on the mat is a victory in itself. Whatever else comes is a bonus.
I think the evening CrossFit sessions are going to suit me better and allow for more sleep each evening which will help with each day’s recovery. I’m going to try to do 4 nights a week for while to get my flow back.
