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Saturday, November 26, 2011

"Take me back to the days before this was a job, before I got paid. Before it ever mattered what I had in my bank. Back when I was" rolling "for the hell of it. But nowadays we" rolling "to stay relevant."

These days, Jiu-Jitsu is my job, and it's great, I couldn't ask for a much better life. Yet, the problem is that it causes me to take things too serious. Sometimes I find myself longing for the days, when it was my hobby, when I could have fun losing in practice, when I didn't try to pick apart every little mistake I made in training. It can get quite frustrating sometimes always working hard to be the best. Is it fun? Sometimes. For the most part, hard work isn't fun. Ask anyone who's acheived anything in their life; you have to do things that you don't want to do. Seems like these days, I'm just doing what I can to stay one of the top guys in my division. It would be nice to find some kind of balance between job and hobby. With my goals though, it seems like I'm stuck with the never ending hard work. Looks like I'll have to have fun when I'm done.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Living the Dream

It's kind of funny when you realize that your dreams are slowly coming true. The other day while teaching class, I had an epihany, or something along those lines. This couldn't have come at a much better time considering I was a little down on myself from my poor performance at No Gi Worlds. "It happens!" "You'll get 'em next time!" blah blah blah. I know, I'm human, I'm allowed to be upset for a little bit, alright. Anyways, back to the topic. I'm sitting there, watching my students warm up and it hits me: This is my life! At 21 years old, this group of older, grown men trust me to teach them how to defend themselves, how to choke people, how to compete. Not trying to get to up on myself here, but it's kind of nice realizing that hard work does pay off. I mean, my sole job is teaching Jiu-Jitsu, I have two sponsors, Aggro Jiu-Jitsu Brand and Preferred Rehab Spine and Sport (speaking of which, my sponsor has made a shirt for me, a portion of proceeds goes to sending me to Portugal for the IBJJF European Open, if you'd like one, you can find it here. Shamless plug, I know ;)) and I get to train full time. I may not be at the top of the food chain yet, but I can see results.

 I guess the point of this post was to just show that if you put your mind to things, they can be done. If I don't acheive my goals in life, I'd like to at least inspire others to try. So, I'm about to be cliche: Kids, don't let anyone tell you that you can't do anything. Follow your dreams with all your heart; all it takes is HARD work.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Catching Up

Well, it's been almost a year since I've consistently posted on here, so I guess me and the internet world have some catching up to do. A lot has changed, I've been working harder than ever, getting more recognition, and coming to some realizations.

First off, training has been completely changed up. Morning classes are running about an hour longer than scheduled and we're drilling harder and more than ever. Drilling has consisted of long, repetitive blocks of time doing the high percentage moves of world class black belts over and over. A combination of this and cutting weight tends to make me pretty crabby. But, all of this hard work has paid off.

The gi World Championships have long since come and passed, leaving me with a disapointing yet solid performance. Went all the way to the third round and lost a close match to a tough competitior in Dominic Damian. The time before Worlds was basically my transitional period into a smarter, more well rounded Jiu-Jitsu player. My game changed, I'm more aware of the system; all in all, everything improved. Which is probably why I was promoted to brown belt soon after the World Championships.

  I first tested out my new belt at the Las Vegas Open, back in August, where I came close, but fell short, losing in the finals to Israel Ceron of Ralph Gracie. It was disappointing, but I learned and when it was all said and done, not a bad performance for my first outing at brown belt. Next came the American Nationals where I had the best performance of my Jiu-Jitsu career. I won't bore you with the details, but I brought home gold in the gi and no gi. If you really want to know how it went down, check out this article on GracieMag: http://www.graciemag.com/en/2011/10/ryan-heilman-wins-double-gold-at-featherweight-at-american-nationals/.

This time in my life has also brought me to a realization. I'm with the big boys now. I mean, Abu Dhabi trials, I'm competing with the cream of the crop: WORLD CLASS black belts. Getting promoted and winning a big tournament at this new rank has really made me think about how lucky I am and how close I am to reaching my goals. I've still got a long road ahead of me, but I can see my efforts paying me back. It's kind of nice and motivating.

So, hopefully I'll get back in the swing of things and my writings will be more about things actually going on in BJJ like they used to be and I won't be boring you by writing about myself like this post. Hope you guys enjoy. As always feel free to comment and let me know what you think!