Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

 Ever since Nate was little, we thought he would be good at Brazilian jiu jitsu (BJJ).  He is aggressive, he loves to wrestle, he likes to cling to you, he loves to jump on you and he has a high tolerance for pain.  In January, I finally decided it was time to do something about it and sign him up for BJJ.  There is a nearby gym that Adam, Michael and Joe took lessons at a few years ago, so we just went there to sign them up again.  Nate took to it immediately.  He is in a small class, with small kids and they learn one new thing a lesson.  They spend a fair amount of time warming up and playing a game at the end, but all of the warming up and the games are teaching them maneuvers that will be useful in actual sparring matches.

Not very long into it, and Nate got his first stripe.  In BJJ at our gym, they mark progression by putting stripes on their belt and when they get the right number of stripes, then they can change belts.  BJJ is not a sport that you can progress quickly through, it would take at least 15 years of hard work in order to become a black belt. 

 After Nate had been going for a week, we asked Michael if he would want to do BJJ.  We had already talked about signing him up for tennis to do with Adam, and he thought he would do that.  He came to one of Nate's lessons and thought it would be fun, so we signed him up for a 2 week trial.  At the end of the two weeks, he thought it was fun and decided it was something he would like to try.  He is in a much fuller class, with a lot of kids who have been doing it for a long time.  It is challenging for him to wrestle because he is not used to wrestling and he is not an aggressive kids.  Nevertheless, he is doing great.  He has already earned one stripe.

Just yesterday, Nate earned another stripe!  He needed that because already he isn't sure when it is time to go that he wants to go.  I think it is just him, though.

At home, we have pulled out our old wrestling mats and put them down in the game room again.  Hopefully the kids will enjoy this sport for many years and we can get good use out of them.