One of the activities I planned for this trip to Denver was to attend a drop-in class at Way of Jiu Jitsu Academy this morning. I was all set, and Google maps on my laptop indicated I was only 10 minutes from the academy. My Google phone maps indicated that it was 24 minutes away, and then proceeded to run me all over the place, and kept trying to route me into a neighborhood. I missed the class start time, and NEVER found the place. I persisted and declared that I WAS going to train somewhere today. I ended up at High Altitude Martial Arts, where one of the gym members was just leaving. I explained to him my frustration with my hour-long roam, and my willingness to pay for a private lesson at that point, just to fulfill my plan. It turned out that the guy, Luke, is one of the school’s black belts, and he offered to just train with me for an hour. He wouldn’t take my money. (He, and another member, had never even heard of the other academy).
It was a great experience, and I learned a couple things, including a new choke finish! 🙂
In the end, this WAS the “way of jiu jitsu” as I’ve experienced it thus far: I had a plan. Said plan got disrupted (I tapped). I reset and persisted. Then someone came along who was willing to help.
I continue to meet the best people through this journey in jiu jitsu. I encourage EVERYONE to give it a try.
Get after it.
-Tim McCoy
