Brown Belt

Today I got my brown belt from Magid Hage at Gracie Barra Escondido's Christmas Party. It was a surprise because I only had 2 stripes on my purple. But in the bigger scheme of things, stripes don't mean anything. I have been a purple belt for more than 4 years.

2nd Stripe Purple

My cardio is slowly getting better.

Pictured are the first 2 gi's I have ever owned and wore:

1. Official Gracie Barra Gi from summer 2010 when I started training at GBSD.
2. Gameness Gi from winter 2010 that was a gift from Dinah, Nam, and Jim.

Details: Gracie Barra Escondido, Magid Hage Sr., Advanced Class 7 to 8:00pm, Tuesday, August 29, 2017.

1st Stripe Purple

Living in Escondido really changed my personal life. I don't visit my parents or my cousin every week anymore. Heck, I haven't been to either my parents' or cousins' house in more than a month. It also affected my BJJ life. I just found myself dreading the drive from work (RB) to ATOS (Convoy) after 8+ hours of work. Then I dreaded more, the drive from ATOS (Convoy) all the way back to home (Escondido). I slowly stopped training because of the drive. I hated doing it 2-3 times a week. So I made the decision to either find a school closer to home or quit BJJ. And for some reason I can't seem to quit BJJ.

After checking out 3 schools in the Escondido/San Macros area, I settled with Gracie Barra Escondido (GBE). Having a lineage from GB was nice because I was able to talk to the instructors about my previous GB instructors and they knew who they were. They even know some of the students I used to train with at Gracie Barra San Diego (GBSD). I was even able to show Magid Hage a picture of myself and his son, Magid Hage IV, when I was still at blue belt.

Long story short, I continued my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey at another school closer to home and earned my first stripe on my purple.

Details: Gracie Barra Escondido, Magid Hage, Advanced Class 7 to 8:30pm, Tuesday, May 16, 2017.

UFC Gym Mission Valley, San Diego, CA

Consider this a mini review on the UFC Gym in Mission Valley. Wayne F. wanted to check out the UFC Gym Mission Valley because we just wanted some mat space to roll. This review was not paid for nor did we take any classes. We just used their mat space as an open mat.

Highlights:

• Staff is very nice and friendly.
• Gym is very clean.
• Equipment seems brand new.
• It's not just for people who want to train MMA but there were people there who just used their equipment to work out like a regular gym.
• Bathroom/Showers/Looker room is clean.
• Pricing seems to be negotiable (not 100% sure because I didn't sign up).
• 2 floors.

Overall: UFC Gym in Mission Valley seems like a very nice and clean place to train MMA or if you just want a place to work out. The way the pricing breaks down is if you pay a high "down payment" then your monthly fee is lower. If you don't pay a high "down payment" your monthly fee are "higher".