Late June 2009

I started my Jiu Jitsu journey at the end of June 2009. My first instructor was a Dave Camarillo Purple belt at the time and he was teaching out of his garage. I was introduced to this purple belt through my best friend. He had been going the garage for about a month before me and he kept asking me to go and I kept putting it off because I was so afraid of getting beat up. I was a small guy and pretty out of shape at the time too. My friend was bigger and more athletic and more talented than I was at most everything. My thought was, I never “needed” Jiu Jitsu before so why now?

Best friends since junior high, wherever he was I wasn’t far behind. I was definitely his side kick, although I still hate to admit this. Was I jealous? Yes. I wanted to be seen as his equal but that would be pretty hard from me since I’d always been the scrawny, gangly uncoordinated kid and he was the best athlete on any team he was a part of. He wrestled since grade school, I would rather play video games and read comic books. He would talk to girls, I’d draw a comic book girlfriend. His work ethic was better too, he never missed a day of school and I later found out his parents never took a sick day ever so that explains where he got it from. I would work harder at making excuses for myself rather than actually putting in effort to better myself. So why I thought we should be seen as equals didn’t make sense to me either and I had to learn how to accept it.

I would hate on him now and then and even though some of my athletic abilities caught up with him as we got older I never beat him at anything. Ever. So when I went to Jiu Jitsu for the first time I felt that same side kick feeling I’d always felt. The first lesson that was taught to me was what everyone refers to as Jiu Jitsu 101, a series of positions that one would experience in a match besides taking the back and knee on belly and I guess half guard too. After going through the lesson we were supposed to spar, or closely resemble the act of sparring. We had a small mat and there was 4 of us there that night and only one group could roll at a time. The purple belt decided we would all just roll with him to help prevent any injury. I sat and watched my friend roll first and it wasn’t even a challenge. He was rolled up like a 5th graders booger. While I watched, I recognized that egotistical voice in my head going off saying “I could do better than him”, and in about 2 minutes we would find out. I was next to roll with the purple belt and suddenly I didn’t feel so sure of myself. I didn’t know what to do, or how to engage in this soon to be one sided affair. We five and bumped hands and I said out loud “I have no idea what to do.” my instructor said “It’s cool just do what ever” but I didn’t even know what that was so I just went at him and tried to hold on to him like I was hugging my mom in a hurricane. Thankfully, about 2 seconds later, he showed me mercy and maneuvered to submit me and I quickly tapped. We five and bumped again and again I tapped shortly after. We did this ritual 17 times in 3 minutes and I know it would have been more but the mat was small and we kept having to adjust. After sparring we hung out in the garage and reflected but all I could think about was when could we do this again. I was overly gracious to the purple belt for allowing me to come train (this overly graciousness would be my typical behavior towards the man) and told him I couldn’t wait to do it again.

My buddy and I got into his car and we drove off. I was hooked and I could not wait to talk about it. I talked about it the whole way home. I wanted to do tournaments and I wanted to get my black belt in 3 years like BJ Penn did and I wanted it all to happen tomorrow. My buddy recognized my fantasy and told me getting a black belt really doesn’t work like that. He told me that this guy had been a purple belt going on 4 years and was a blue belt for almost 3 years. My friend was excited too but knew that it was going to take hard work from us. He also knew I wasn’t accustomed to putting in a lot of effort into difficult things but I swear this time was different. Elven years later and I still can’t get enough. I’ve even stuck around long enough for someone to award me with a brown belt (although I learned somewhere around a year or so into my purple belt that the belt really doesn’t matter). As for my best friend, he hasn’t been able to train as much but as luck would have it, I’m still his sidekick on the mats. It’s cool, every once in a while doesn’t Robin have to bail out Batman?