My Bjj Journey: part 1

Good Evening Steemians,
This evening I would like to talk a little bit about my very short Brazilian Jiu-jitsu career. It all started with my wife. Sound familiar? @bjjworldtraveler was promoting his Women's self defense program at my wife's work. She decided to go ahead and take a class to see what it was all about. She got home after the first class and seemed fairly excited and that she was going to continue to take classes. That was about 2 years ago. Also a big shout out to @danaedwards for her 4th stripe promotion last weekend! Super proud of you!

@shinedojo on the left, @danaedwards center, @bjjworldtravler on the right

So she continued to take classes for a few months and starts to ask me about taking lessons. I would say "yeah maybe, I'll think about it". We all know what that means. I was pretty occupied with my homebrew and tinkering with my mustang. I didn't really give it consideration until July 2016. @bjjworldtraveler offered us a free private lesson into the world of Gracie Jiu-Jistu. It was quickly decided that we would continue to take private lessons. We were going only once a week for a while. Then we started to consider the idea of getting mats for the house. It was around Oct/Nov area that @bjjworldtraveler came through with some mats that a training facility was getting rid of.
Perfect! We have mats at home we can practice on. These mats were good for a starter set.

It made a nice little 10'x10' area we could drill on. Wally as you can see also enjoys mat time.
The mat surface isn't the best for sliding around, but we made it work. That's when I really started to get serious about things. @jiujitsu and other friends started to come over on a weekly basis to drill and roll. I started training about 4-6 hrs a week and things really progressed well. I try to go into a class or rolling session with an open mind.
I currently have 3 stripes on my white belt and have no plans on stopping. I have learned so much, not only about defending myself but my body in general. I highly recommend everyone take at least a few classes of self defense. Looking back now I kick myself for not doing this earlier.
I have to run for now. Going to relax my body with some yoga. There will be plenty of more bjj content on the way.