From the Mind of Babalu #8... Loyalty

As combat sports continue to grow throughout the United States, new gyms continue to pop up throughout each city.  As the lists of schools grow people are having more and more opportunities to train in his preferred martial art and better themselves healthwise and athletically.  This in my opinion is great for the sport and great for martial arts in general, which I completely understand.  What is hard for me to understand is a lack of loyalty of your school, your instructor, and your team mates.  People jumping from school to school just because this guy is opening a school here or this guy is opening a school there. Now I'm not talking about guys who go to one school for BJJ and another school for MMA, standup, or wrestling.  I'm talking about people who have spent time at a BJJ school and decide to leave because another BJJ school is opening somewhere else.  There are a couple of factors that I understand could play a part in switching schools.

#1. Your current instructor is not a black belt.  This bothers some people and I can somewhat understand it, but if he is a purple/brown belt and your still a white belt don't you think that you could still learn something from him?  
#2 This new gym is closer to my house.  Understandable, but if you have already put in time at one school, have made  bonds with your teammates/instructors, and are still getting better why leave?  Your response, "Gas prices are way too high right now" Which is true, but if you were paying them before to come out to the academy, an extra gallon or two of gas won't kill your pockets trust me.  This is coming from a guy who drives 70 miles everyday in a V8 truck.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for learning new things from anyone, but I am very loyal to my instructor who has gotten me to where I am and to my team mates because they are my second family.  We make each other better and sweat and bleed on the same mats daily with the same goal in mind.  To be the best at BJJ that we can possibly be and to have the biggest and best Family that we can possibly have.   The bonds that I have forged with my team mates is something that I wouldn't trade for anything.  I have friends outside of academy but very few.  Some of my best friends in the world train jiu jitsu with me.  Not only do they train with me, but if I ever needed something I know I could go to any one of them with the problem and they would do their best to help.  My instructor is not only our leader and teaches us BJJ, but someone who we trust and look to for guidance in all walks of life.  I cherish these bonds that have been created by the time that I have spent on the mat with everyone.  I would never in my right mind leave my second family regardless of any new school, any extra distance I had to drive, or  for who ever decided to open a school.  Professor Drac is someone who I hold in the utmost respect and someone who I look up to.  He has built something beautiful in Gracie Barra Texas. A place where not only champions are made, but better human beings in all walks of life are made.

If you haven't found that place that I'm talking about above.  That place where you know you are welcome, you know people are there that can help you out with anything, a place you can call home come check us out.  If you are loyal to your academy I completely understand, I wouldn't expect anything less, but if you don't have a gym to call home our doors are open.  Our goal is to be a world class facility.  A facility with World Class instruction that brings that family environment into the mix and the best teammates around.  "Organized Like a Team, Fight Like a Family"