Solving the BJJ Puzzle

Since day one of my undertaking of BJJ as my new physical addiction, I have surmised BJJ to be a 10,000+ piece puzzle of which I get one piece per class and if you’ve ever done puzzles, it’s very difficult (relatively) to imagine the picture a puzzle will make after looking at only one piece, let alone where the one piece should be placed …which makes me think those people that take-on those 10,000+ piece single-color puzzles are insane….but in a good way insane.

Each time I leave a BJJ class I take a piece of that puzzle. I;m not sure where that puzzle will land or the part that piece will play in my finished picture but I have it and will store it…somewhere until I identify an opportunity that I believe that piece will fit with another piece. It frustrates the hell out of me when that new “piece” almost fits somewhere in my game plan but there’s a technique to block the move.  I usually feel like throwing all the damn pieces across the floor but then after class I realize “oh shit”…I still got another piece that I can try at another time and sooner or later it will reveal its placement like all the other pieces.

How many pieces do I have to date? I have no idea.  In fact, I may be working on more than just one puzzle but they’re all BJJ related pictures.  I’ve been around long enough to know that I like the pictures that are being put together, the friendships developed and the picture of the patience-driven process of putting puzzles together.