The Darker it Gets

I'm a 48 year old father of two training jiu jitsu. I work full time and am trying to build another business. I could be sleeping in or working more, both make sense. Yet three mornings a week begin in the blind hours before dawn. The road is empty, the town is still asleep, and I drive toward the mat with coffee cooling and joints waking up like old machinery. At five-something AM the door clicks, the lights hum, and the first shapes drift in, people with the same private bargain written on their faces. 

It is never fun to get up early. Sometimes sleep is trash, sometimes it’s good. It doesn’t matter. There is a minimum obligation, and the price of sleeping in or skipping is worse than a temporary fatigue. Miss something or do something twice and it starts to become a habit.

I’m not good at jiu jitsu, and I don’t even really like it, but it is the minimum obligation I have of myself, which is to walk a path of improvement physically, spiritually, and mentally, and jiu jitsu gives all of those in a single package. And with jiu jitsu there are lessons on the pursuit of mastery.

I’ve spent about 10 years on and off the mats. Three as a white belt, six as a blue, and about a year in purple. In this pursuit, and really all pursuits, I've learned a person never truly masters anything. If they persist, they learn enough to see how much more there truly is. To others some people look as though they’ve arrived at mastery, but an honest person knows they never will. The craft is endless, jiu jitsu is endless, and that’s why it is worth pursuing.

The class begins. Don't skip warm ups. Breath grows short. The holds seem simple until another human being resists them. The room warms with sweat and effort. The other people in class are good people, steady hands, clean rolls, quiet nods. Except the overzealous white belts. You guys really do suck. Calm down. Be deliberate. Control yourselves. Quit trying to crank on necks.

Solid Base is a clean, well-run gym. Professor James is a craftsman who truly cares about the line of the movement and the shape of the program. The other professors and coaches keep the place at a high standard, respect first, safety always. A person can build a life if they keep showing up. You won’t master it. But you'll start seeing farther, and the further you see, the darker your belt becomes.

Nick Andrews