2019 Martial Arts Year in Review

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 another seminar with Jeff Smith hosted by First Defense on February 23, for 2 hours.

In brief, I practiced 24 hours of KMG in 2019, down from 123 hours in 2018, 130 in 2017 and 144 in 2016.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

On January 28, 2018, I returned to jiu-jitsu after a roughly 8 month break. I decided that I would do my best to test for my blue belt in 2019. I had started training at One Spirit Martial Arts, the home academy of Professor Pedro Sauer, in January 2017.

I spent 109 hours in formal classes and 29 hours in blue belt test preparation and testing.

I also trained in several seminars:

In May I spent 45 minutes in a movement for BJJ seminar and 2 hours with Professor Sauer during his spring camp.

In June I spent 2 1/2 hours with Rener Gracie at his seminar in National Harbor, MD.

In August I spent 3 hours with Ryron Gracie at his seminar in Leesburg, VA and 2 1/2 hours at the 2019 BJJ Smackdown at Syndicate, MMA in Las Vegas, NV.

Adding these 10 3/4 hours to my 109 class hours and 29 hours in belt testing, I spent just under 149 hours as a student in jiu-jitsu in 2019, up from 60 in 2018 and 120 in 2017. That means I have cumulatively trained about 330 hours in jiu-jitsu over the last 3 years.

I was very pleased to successfully test for my blue belt in October. In total had almost 300 hours of jiu-jitsu experience prior to testing, and I needed all of it to be ready!

Other Martial Arts

I did not train any other arts in 2019 or 2018. In 2017 I spent 16 hours in other arts.

Other Training

In September 2017 I began practicing Yoga at East Meets West Yoga Center. I practiced 27 hours of yoga in 2019, up from 24 in 2018 and 14 in 2017.

Summary

Adding up all of the time I spent training, the total was approximately 200 hours in 2019, slightly down from 210 hours in 2018, 463 hours in 2017 (376 hours without instruction), and 300 hours in 2016.

(Note that 2019 was my first full year of full-time cyber security work, as I had joined Corelight in August 2018. I basically took a year and a half off from spring 2017 to fall 2018.)

I spent 75% of my year on jiu-jitsu, 11% on Krav Maga, and 14% on yoga.

In 2018, about 60% of my training involved Krav Maga (the same as 2017) and 29% involved jiu-jitsu (32% in 2017). The last 11% involved yoga.

I significantly picked up my training in jiu-jitsu after my blue belt test in October. I trained 25% of my yearly hours in November and December alone.

Looking Forward

I plan to continue training more hours in jiu-jitsu in 2020. My goal is 17 classes per month, which is 204 classes per year. I expect that will translate into about 20 hours of class time per month, or 240 hours of class time per year. I may add seminars as they appear.

I have a long-term goal to test for purple belt in 2022, so 2020 and 2021 are about gaining the skills required for that rank.

How did you spend your training time in 2019? Stay informed of new blog posts by following me on Twitter @martialvitality.