Martial Vitality

I have good news. In my 2019 Martial Arts Year in Review post, I mentioned that I had a goal to attend roughly "17 classes per month, which is 204 classes per year." I marked the achievement of my BJJ blue belt in late October as the start of tracking this goal. In general, my goal is to attend at least 50 classes every 3 months, as a minimum. I'm happy to report that as of today I have met that first 50 class block. I plan to attend a few more classes this week, prior to the end of January, so long as my health holds up. (I've been having some issues with my left knee recently that caused me to miss two classes in January already.) I'm sharing this with the world as a way to motivate myself and anyone else who might have similar goals. This 50 classes every 3 months goal is about double the previous class attendance schedule I had prior to blue belt. I was not sure how my body was going to hold up, but I decided to set the goal and see what I could do. It took ...

2019 was my fourth full year practicing martial arts, since my  return in January 2016 . About a year ago I posted my  2018 Martial Arts Year in Review , reporting some statistics on my training and how I spent that time. Krav Maga In 2019 I began my fourth year of training at First Defense Krav Maga in Herndon, VA. I started the year as a G1, which I earned in December 2018. I ended 2018 by mostly training in the sparring classes, and that continued in 2019. However, I decided to stop training mid-year, after 22 classes. I decided to leave First Defense and focus exclusively on jiu-jitsu. Later in the year, I learned that First Defense was no longer a Krav Maga Global (KMG) affiliate. In what looks like a " KMG purge ," about half of the schools that started the year as affiliates were no longer members. During my time with KMG, the US school count dropped from the 30s, then into the 20s, and now it's 12 as we start 2020. In addition to KMG sparring classes, I attended a...