THE WHITE BELT CHRONICLES VOLUME 1 - # 3

Seasons greetings GNP followers. Since this will be my final Chronicles entry for the year, I would like to start it off with by quoting the theme song from an old favorite:

Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

Today was the semi annual promotions ceremony at my school : Lotus Club Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I was pretty excited. I had a feeling that I might get a stripe, but didn't wanna get my hopes up cause to be honest getting promoted is all about the Master's discretion. It's about how he or she feels that you've progressed as a student of BJJ. 

THE ANTICIPATION

As the names were called I was eager to hear my name to see what I would get. The school was packed with a ton of students, some of which I had seen on a regular basis, and others I had never met since they were from other Lotus locations. 

 

THE ASCENSION

Once my named was called, I was pretty surprised that I got not just one, but 2 stripes added to my belt! This puts me 2 stripes away from blue belt and now really fuels my fire to train even harder.  

WELCOME SUPRISES 

There were students who were on the cusp of being moved to the next belt color, but had not been moved yet. One of our strongest female students, Louisa Santos (Blue Belt) had been really eager to get promoted to purple but till today was still not getting moved up. She was the final student to be called up for her promotion, and while she assumed she'd be getting a few new stripes added to her blue belt our master pulled out a belt which totally caught her off guard --- PURPLE. It was awesome to see the joy on her face as she was given access to the new level. 

THE BEATDOWN

As the final part of the promotion, all the new color ascended students were lined up for the traditional belt flogging by all the students at the ceremony.Basically your belt is at the end of a gauntlet where you gotta run through and get smacked on the back. Here is a picture of what it looks like:

 All in all it was a good day. A celebration of all the hard work and sacrifices made for this awesome sport.