My blue belt is resurrected and an engagement

On Tuesday night we promoted our second female student to blue belt since we opened our doors in January 2009! This particular occasion called for the passing on of my blue belt as she was the first female student to achieve a blue belt who actually started her Jiu-Jitsu progression here on our mats (the first girl we promoted started her progression elsewhere and moved here already close to blue belt level).

Megan Lomonof joined Fifty/50 BJJ in December 2009 after a very long and thorough evaluation process of all the academies in our area, actually making lists and researching each team thoroughly before deciding where to begin her first trial class. And we were lucky that she liked us so much that she never made it to try a class at the second school on her list. We heart you, Megan!

A little funny story about Megan is that she almost broke Seph's arm during her first class, lol! If only we knew that was a hint of things to come... Seph was teaching her how to do an armbar going all slow and expecting a girl to move gingerly and carefully on her first day, but Megan had other plans. She slapped on an armlock so much harder and faster than he expected that he wasn't ready to tap yet. Oops!

Megan has done well in competitions, at least as far as winning them goes. But each time I watched video I was surprised that she didn't look as good as she does in class. We knew that she was approaching blue belt level but were waiting for her to prove it in her competitive performance. After an adjustment to her mental approach to competition, Megan did just that at the Abu Dhabi World Pro Trials in NJ. Megan isn't being promoted based on the fact that she beat 4 blue belts on her way to winning the tournament and earning a free trip to Abu Dhabi. She is being promoted because of the WAY she fought. She fought with an assurance and aggression that we see every day on the mats in the gym. Megan finally decided it was time to compete without fear of losing, because in the end you cannot control the outcome of the match. You can only control yourself and how YOU perform. And if you do that, the winning will take care of itself. This is only the beginning of Megan's blue belt career, she has a long way to go and a lot of growing to do in her new belt. But I know she will do herself proud.

Perhaps even more amazing than winning the tournament is that Megan came out and hung out all night watching the fights at the bar and then went on to perform with a section of the U.S. Army band in a musical concert at the Kennedy Center the following evening. What a girl!

A second bit of exciting news was after Megan's official promotion on Tuesday, we had a surprise engagement on the mats! Two of our white belts who met at our gym and started dating last year became engaged. Congratulations Lisa and Greg!!!

Check out some clips of the surprise engagement here....