Kicked Out... Again!!! ;(

Now, I'm finally writing in this blog again. Since Friday, my emotions have been a roller coaster. It turns out that Roberto read my post, blew up, and kicked me out of his dojo. That broke my heart because I loved that dojo and BJJ. My love for BJJ rubbed off on him. Thus, I loved him too. That doesn't necessarily mean that I agreed with every thing he said in the dojo or that I trusted him wholeheartedly. Most of the things that he said to me about the church or about having boyfriends, I really disagreed with him. When I first met him, I was afraid that he was going to do something stupid and I'd have to leave. He was giving me a whole bunch of warning signs. Sarah and Rebecka said that they were warning signs too. However, he gave me an explanation that fit me pretty well and also backed off for the most part. He compared the dojo to like a family. He said some pretty blunt things about boyfriends, sex, the church, and karate. Thus, I spoke my mind in that dojo too. I felt pretty comfortable with him too. I thought that we had a good, but a little weird relationship.

I trusted everything he said about BJJ except stretching. I was even doubting Goju-Ryu and it's effectiveness. I sort of agreed with him when he said a BJJ practitioner can win a fight against a karateka. However, it probably depends on what type of fight. If the karateka couldn't hurt the other guy, the BJJ person would win. If the fight was Vale Tudo style, the karateka would give the other guy a run for his money. Now, I understand what David says about how style doesn't really give any definition about how a person fights or defends oneself. Probably, every style works out there. It just depends on how much the teacher knows and how it fits the student. Plus, a student can have a background in another style or teacher thus changing the student's style.

I had different martial art experiences from everyone in that dojo. Only Chuck could identify with my traditional background because he trained in one too. I know that everyone in that dojo agreed with Roberto that BJJ is the best style out there. It's kind of funny that when I finally spoke up for my style and Sensei, I was kicked out. Chinen thought the same thing about his style and teachings. Ya, now I'm sort of glad that I was kicked out because that way of thinking is really bad. One has to have an open mind for any type of style and how it fits his or hers attributes. I'm all for cross training and working on the ground, throws, and stand up. I didn't like how Cory thought that open hand techniques didn't work. I disagree with him after watching Bas Rutten fight people without gloves. I totally thought it was disrespectful that he could take on any of my Sensei too.

Well, hopefully I'll find someone that will teach me effective BJJ without charging me an arm and a leg. At Roberto's dojo, I only payed fifty dollars a month which was really good for the amount of training that I received. Two things that really stuck out to me while training in Roberto's dojo. One is not to get frustrated at myself when things I'm not learning things as fast I'd like to. Getting frustrated just makes the problem worse because I prevent myself from learning anything. Two is to relax and not use lots of strength. I watched some videos from the online Gracie academy last or two nights ago. They said that we need to watch for indicators that our opponent eventually does so we can use our technique at the right time. I think that Roberto was alluding to that.