Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label black belt

About Me

My photo
my many faces
My name is Romeo Barnes. I'm an author and a BJJ black belt with cerebral palsy. This blog is about my life balancing existence in two worlds. My latest book, My World is now available Amazon.com. Glad you're here, enjoy the journey.

Announcement: Teaching Vets

So I've kept this post draft format until everything was setup. Maguilla BJJ is starting a program for disabled military veterans in partnership with Walter Reed medical center. I will the head instructor of the program. We are currently working on transportation for the veterans who have expressed interest. If anyone is interested feel free to get in touch with me through any of the links on the "Contact Me" tab.

Aggression

One thing I've always been is a coach's athlete. Even back in my track and field days, whatever my coach said I did. When I first came to Maguilla's back in November 2008 as a white belt I rolled super aggressively. This is the way I was trained by my first coach Lloyd Irvin who I was with from August 2005 until February 2006. Who always teaches get off first or you will lose because speed kills. So after my year and 8 month long hiatus I immediately fell back into the speed kills mindset. In April 2009, Maguilla and I had a conversation he said to me something I'll never forget. He said "Every round with you is like the 1st round of ADCC, slow down it's a journey not a sprint." This was way of making sure I didn't hurt myself or someone else. A month after this I got my blue belt. During this time, I would give taps to anyone who obtained and held a dominate position. A year after I got my blue belt I received my purple belt(May 2010) I was ready to t...

Wow

Ok I was gonna post a bunch of stuff about the day at NAGA but something amazing happened last night. So for those of you who still want the report here's the short version I lost 2-0. Now onto what happened last night. It was promotion night and I got promoted to Black Belt!!! Now to those of you who follow me on facebook and/or twitter this isn't news as I posted it to both sites last night. This post is not meant to brag or shove this fact down any reader's throat. In truth, my journey is just starting because now part 2 of my plan must begin. I've had 3 goals since I began Jiu-Jitsu get my black belt, win the World Title at black belt, and finally make sure all the kids who are stuck in therapy and in constant pain can use the martial arts as an outlet like I have if they choose to. Winning a world title will give me the resources to achieve my final goal and start my foundation for the kids, so now I must focus on that. This post is meant to do what every other pos...

progression in BJJ

Not training on a Saturday morning has got be the strangest feeling in the world. As I laid in the bed this morning I realized without Jiu-Jitsu my life would be pretty damn boring, I also realized I won't go to Mundials this year simply because I can't afford to make the trip :(. Oh well, we'll push that goal back to 2011. That's one of the downsides of training with a smaller team, most of if not all, of your competition expenses come out of your own pocket. The only other downside is that brown and black belts are few and far between. Training with white belts and blue belts is good as it's basically a drilling session for anyone ranking higher, but training with brown and black is where the finer points come into play. Off-balance on top of half-guard say bye-bye to your top position; did you lock a triangle without the foot behind the knee thanks for the free pass. The list goes on but you get the point. The brown belt level is where the precision basics you le...