(From 10th Planet Spokane)
"Eddie, this is an awesome jiu jitsu story that i wanted to pass along. Josh Griest is one of my Youth students (16 when he started I think, he is 17 now), 133lbs. His story is a real testament to what a person can do if they actually try to learn teh jiu jitsu. I asked him to write about his experience, since i thought it would be good to show other people some inspiration. Here it is" -RW Pagau
When I started 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in 2010 I was expecting to have it as a hobby and something to do in my free time outside of high school. As soon as I began training with Hit Pit MMA I instantly felt at home and became comfortable in the environment. Being only three weeks in I had an opportunity to compete in the Arlington Submission Challenge, I was confident that I had enough training to do well. However I was not aware of the many different brackets of competition, and I (only 16 at the time) chose to do the adult bracket. Me being younger and much less experienced, I lost both my matches. I was down but not out I trained even harder at the gym wanting to prove myself and compete even more. A few months later I had another chance to compete in a local tournament at BJJ Spokane. I was put with kids closer to my age for this one, I still lost twice, but they were much closer matches than I had before. Being 0-4 I started to get the feeling that maybe competing just wasn’t for me, however I still enjoyed it and wanted to continue training for fun. About a month later there was another tournament nearby in Idaho. I was excited and wanted to do it to see if I’d gotten any better. It would prove that I was just outmatched and I lost again twice. This tournament was aggravating for me because I had put in the time and thought I just deserved to win. I realized that I wanted to compete even more than ever and that I had to do something to improve my record. I decided to talk to RW, the head coach, and we discussed my mentality and effort in practice. He wanted me to not goof around during rolling, and to get my reps in on all the technique that we went over to make sure I would learn it correctly. I decided that I would try to get an edge and I got ten hours of private lessons with him. We put in about 6-7 before another tournament that I really wanted to do. During these private lessons he opened my eyes to a whole new world… playing from guard. I was intrigued that someone could be so aggressive and offensive from the bottom position. I had never tried to win when I was on bottom but I ended up there often. This was great for me since I was not a wrestler and didn’t know much about takedowns. I started being really aggressive in practice, rolling with everybody that could help me, asking as many questions that came to my mind. I was very dedicated in learning the game and how to make myself better, I was learning more and more about jiu jitsu. The next tournament that I did was an awesome experience. It was the farthest I’d ever traveled, I went with a few other guys from the gym, and had a few coaches there to help me. I was extremely nervous; it was the first tournament since I had changed my outlook in practice. I won out the tournament with four wins by submission. I was fascinated with how much I had changed in competition. I wanted more, and I told myself I would be someone who competed as much as possible, and I would continue to learn as much as I could. Hit Pit had Hosted an in house tournament a few weeks later and I wanted to do it to learn from competition as well as practice. I again subbed out the competition with four submissions. This time I realized how well the guard was working for me and I would begin learning ways to get back in to guard. I continue to play from the guard today and since that tournament I am 23-5-1!!
-Josh Griest
"Eddie, this is an awesome jiu jitsu story that i wanted to pass along. Josh Griest is one of my Youth students (16 when he started I think, he is 17 now), 133lbs. His story is a real testament to what a person can do if they actually try to learn teh jiu jitsu. I asked him to write about his experience, since i thought it would be good to show other people some inspiration. Here it is" -RW Pagau
When I started 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in 2010 I was expecting to have it as a hobby and something to do in my free time outside of high school. As soon as I began training with Hit Pit MMA I instantly felt at home and became comfortable in the environment. Being only three weeks in I had an opportunity to compete in the Arlington Submission Challenge, I was confident that I had enough training to do well. However I was not aware of the many different brackets of competition, and I (only 16 at the time) chose to do the adult bracket. Me being younger and much less experienced, I lost both my matches. I was down but not out I trained even harder at the gym wanting to prove myself and compete even more. A few months later I had another chance to compete in a local tournament at BJJ Spokane. I was put with kids closer to my age for this one, I still lost twice, but they were much closer matches than I had before. Being 0-4 I started to get the feeling that maybe competing just wasn’t for me, however I still enjoyed it and wanted to continue training for fun. About a month later there was another tournament nearby in Idaho. I was excited and wanted to do it to see if I’d gotten any better. It would prove that I was just outmatched and I lost again twice. This tournament was aggravating for me because I had put in the time and thought I just deserved to win. I realized that I wanted to compete even more than ever and that I had to do something to improve my record. I decided to talk to RW, the head coach, and we discussed my mentality and effort in practice. He wanted me to not goof around during rolling, and to get my reps in on all the technique that we went over to make sure I would learn it correctly. I decided that I would try to get an edge and I got ten hours of private lessons with him. We put in about 6-7 before another tournament that I really wanted to do. During these private lessons he opened my eyes to a whole new world… playing from guard. I was intrigued that someone could be so aggressive and offensive from the bottom position. I had never tried to win when I was on bottom but I ended up there often. This was great for me since I was not a wrestler and didn’t know much about takedowns. I started being really aggressive in practice, rolling with everybody that could help me, asking as many questions that came to my mind. I was very dedicated in learning the game and how to make myself better, I was learning more and more about jiu jitsu. The next tournament that I did was an awesome experience. It was the farthest I’d ever traveled, I went with a few other guys from the gym, and had a few coaches there to help me. I was extremely nervous; it was the first tournament since I had changed my outlook in practice. I won out the tournament with four wins by submission. I was fascinated with how much I had changed in competition. I wanted more, and I told myself I would be someone who competed as much as possible, and I would continue to learn as much as I could. Hit Pit had Hosted an in house tournament a few weeks later and I wanted to do it to learn from competition as well as practice. I again subbed out the competition with four submissions. This time I realized how well the guard was working for me and I would begin learning ways to get back in to guard. I continue to play from the guard today and since that tournament I am 23-5-1!!
-Josh Griest
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jus goes to show that no matter what, if you do the reps, your hard work will pay off
