Gi’s
For the future, everyone should own at least 1 white gi, it is the
traditional gi color of BJJ. Also, as a new rule, no black gis are to be
worn in the school unless you are an instructor. No red, camouflage or
army green gis are to be worn…period. As a rule in most martial arts,
you should never wear a gi darker than your belt color (although it’s OK
in BJJ to wear a blue gi as a whitebelt). I will also be selling Gracie Patches at the school. they come in a set
of 3 for $25 or the big patch alone for $20 (see attached picture)

Tournaments
I am very happy w/ the way we have competed in the last couple of
tournaments. We have won a bunch of medals and everything has been good.
That being said, there are a couple of things I want to address. Anyone
who is competing in these tourns, please LMK and train for them
accordingly. Training once a week IS NOT training for a tournament.
Saying “I’m gonna train and decide that day IS NOT AN OPTION!! You need
to mentally prepare yourself and visualize and “deciding that day” is
not the way to mentally prepare. Set your goal for the tourn and “go for
it!” If your goal is to become a champion, you must prepare under the
assumption that your opponents are training harder than you. Your cardio
has to be top notch and you should be the first one to class and the
last one off the mat every night. That is how champions are made,
through hard work.

You will compete how you practice, if you practice at half speed, you will
compete at half speed. I hate to ever be negative but if I don’t address
this, people will not know or learn. Two things I will not tolerate are
Quitting and Excuses. All I ask for when you guys compete is to do your
very best, leave it all out there. That is all you can possibly do. I
cannot ask for more than that. If you quit in a match, I will not allow
you to compete for my team again. You are not only representing yourself
but you are representing me, the Academy and every one of your training
partners. It is OK to lose because one can learn alot from losing,
sometimes even more than winning. But nobody EVER learns from quitting.
I also despise excuses. Again, do your best, if you lose, try to take
away the positives from the match and learn from your mistakes. Excuses
lead to consistent losing and put a wall up in front of improvement. I
will not tolerate it.

Lastly, as a rule, after your match, after either your or your opponents
hand is raised, please shake the hand of the opposing coach unless I
tell you not to. We win or lose w/ class.

Congrats to all who have challenged themselves through competition the
last couple of months, for that I am proud of each of you. Just stepping
onto the mat take guts and you are overcoming a fear by just doing it.
Special mention to Christian, who is on a 12 match submission streak,
that is extremely impressive at any belt color or weight.

Bring a Friend deal
We still have our “Bring a Friend” deal: get a friend to come train and
join and get a free month, free gi or free 1/2 hr private lesson for
you! Many people have a hard time just getting started. Just bring
them in and you know they’ll get hooked after a trial class!

Good Luck and see you on the mat!!
Remember “a blackbelt is a whitebelt who never quits”