That's great. Also, welcome to the site!  I see this conversation is your first post.

Where in Florida are you? I'm in the Jacksonville area.

Got promoted to purple belt a couple weeks ago.  

we'll, I've been out of BJJ for about 5 years due to school, life and another shoulder surgery. School is done, kids are older, everything is back to normal and my favorite near-by gym just reopened. I'm going to start back at 1 day a week, will keep you updated :)

Thank you! Yep, these are my first few posts. I’m in Orlando right now for college but I’ll be graduating soon. Where do you train in Jax?

Congrats on the Purple!

I've been blue for about 1.25yrs now and I'm changing schools next week. It will allow me to progress quicker and have more training partners to help round out my weaker areas.

I'll also be starting Judo, as my new academy offers that as well.

@Eagles9876

I train under 2 X World Champ 5X Brazilian national champ Aparecido "Bill" Faria  in Mandarin. It's a smaller school. Mostly hobbyists and law enforcement guys. I love it there. Great culture and Professor Bill's style is well suited to my game.

Thanks @CJ47 , I'm really happy about the promotion.  I earned it pretty quickly. Just shy of 3 years training (but I have prior grappling experience via wrestling).

Having the right training partners is everything. I hope you get what you need from the new place.

Anyone else noticing an uptick in schools offering open mats to non-members recently?

Perhaps it was mostly due to COVID nonsense, back in 2021/22 I contacted a bunch of local schools and only a couple had open mats for non-members. Now, almost all of them do.

My New Year's resolution is to hit up a different school's open mat at least once a month.

@RayFromJersey there is a TON of value in cross training.

While I was in NYC this summer I trained at a different gym and it really elevated my game because of all the different looks I was getting. It was great training at a predominantly guard passing school since my instructor is a world class guard player.  I have, as a result developed a guard-playing game.  Training in the other school really leveled up my guard passing and tested my guard. Especially my lasso and open guard.

There are a bunch of good schools nearby me and I have a similar goal of doing more cross training.   I really like the fellowship aspect too. Meeting other practitioners is always great.

Well I’m registered for the Arnold again this year. Maybe this time I’ll not get injured lol

My goal is 4 comps this year, injury and schedule permitting. Win or lose, I need to compete more.

I also cross train. Mostly at 10th Planet, because I have had awesome luck with the people there, but crosstraining is the best.