Belting and Crosstraining

Today was the first official belting at the Dog Pound. Amanda and Brandon came down ans we all lined up in the ring. It was really fun to see my teammates get the belts that they have deserved for a long time. I didn't expect it, but I was given 3 stripes! Just more motivation to work hard for that blue belt. Oh, and I suppose a tradition is if you get a new belt, all the belted people of higher rank get one chance to whip you! :)

(I'm laughing because coach commented that I tied my belt wrong...and I asked if he was going to take away one of my stripes for that ;) )

Not long after I drove two hours to Helena so I could crosstrain at Bret Hamlin's Heltown Hybrid. On the way up I called Giovanni, a coach from Chicago who had helped me out. I hadn't talked to him for over 10 months. I remembered him telling me before I moved away, "remember where you came from." He believed I would go far and reminded me not to let it get to my head and remember those people who helped build the foundation of who I am today. True to my word, I have not forgotten. It was really nice to speak with him again.

I had a little trouble finding the gym; Bret and Emily met me and I followed them over. It was a nice facility and Bret is a very good instructor. We did a mix of kickboxing, takedowns, and grappling. Emily (my opponent from the fight in February) is training for a fight in July so I partly came down there to help her out.


Overall life is good. As I was driving I thought of that song lyric "somethings gotta go wrong 'cause I'm feeling so damn good." I also have my first sponsor: Primal Fitness. Since I know Mark and love parkour, that is very special to me and I will represent them with pride. I'm thinking black and red fight shorts with an embroidered Primal logo on it.

It is almost 10pm...and I feel like training more. I feel like I'm falling into my old trap of overdoing it or being a bit too obsessive and losing the balance in life I have worked so hard to achieve. I will wait until early tomorrow morning to go train again, I suppose.