LEVEL UP

 Well, that was a surprise. 

I got back from a climbing trip to Greece yesterday around 9:30 pm, after being awake for about 23 hours in transit. I managed to sleep okay, and pulled a regular work day, but by the time I was due to head to judo I was feeling the sleep deficit. What am I doing going to judo tonight? I thought to myself, but I'm working on getting and staying more active, so I did it. Damn near was late for class, but I got there. 

It was a fun session of ground work, with a lot of warm up tussling with a new guy in the class who came from jujitsu, so is a judo white belt who's not afraid to get rowdy. And then at the end of the class when we lined up, the sensei went off to the back room before he came back to kneel down. I figured that meant someone was getting promoted. Eloise and Ella were both promoted last week, so I thought, huh, the new guy getting an early yellow?

Nope. It was me, and Robyn. That came totally out of the, ahem, blue. I'd expected to work another year at least before this. 

I know that Sensei Seb and Sensei Gary don't promote you unless they think you can hold your own against any other club's blue belt. I know that they don't just promote you for time served. And I think I've been working a little harder in class lately. But it was still a surprise. Now I just feel like, hell yeah, I need to work even harder now. I need to own this thing. 

Also, I know I need to try competing. Hoping our class gets in a lot more randori before the next open small tournament though. I want sparring practice. And I need to train physically, get my strength back up, so I feel like I've got the conditioning to go with the belt. 

But mostly, right now, I'm stoked to work harder and train better and live up to the new belt colour. This, on top of managing to lead at about my old grade during the trip to Greece, has been a serious boost.