Gratitude by definition is a readiness to show appreciation. I am grateful. I appreciate you. I am thankful.
We are all familiar with the little league sports tradition of slapping hands and saying “good game” 38 times at the end of each game. Well, we do something similar at our gym. At the end of each class we line up. One by one. We bow to each other as a gesture of our gratitude. Oss. And contrary to the spit-laden slaps you gave to your local little league rivals, we actually mean it. We each show up with our own back story that gets set aside for 90 minutes. We challenge each other. We raise our game collectively. And at the end, we say thank you.
Prior to Jiu Jitsu, my primary fitness activities centered around Crossfit and triathlons. I mention this because at the Crossfit gym, there are two professional MMA banners on the wall belonging to Brennan Ward and Josh Diekmann. These guys are the real deal. Both are friends of the Crossfit gym owner. I did not know either of them until I started Jiu Jitsu. Since then I have been guillotined by Brennan which was an uplifting experience. And by uplifting I mean getting lifted off your feet by your head. The power he generates is crazy. I have also had the distinct pleasure of Josh putting me into his side control where the crushing force of his shoulder onto your head and neck coupled with one of his gorilla mitts immobilizing your chin, instantly makes for a very, very bad day. Not only are you unable to move, but you don’t want to move for fear of making it worse. We are lucky to have Josh and Brennan as teammates. From raw power to the finer points of execution, all we have to do is ask. Show me how. Pretty awesome in my opinion.
Brennan and Josh both had fights this weekend at Bellator 163. If you’re into MMA, you probably know the outcome of both fights. If not, I have posted a link. Spoiler free. All I will say is awesome work done by both fighters. Josh’s fight was one of the first few on the card. After his fight, he made his way over to where the team was sitting to recognize and thank us for our support. But then I saw him walking back and forth in the arena. I’ll be honest, at first I had no effin’ idea what he was doing. I finally had to stop him to ask, and he said was giving out signed fight posters to some of the kids in attendance. I then had to watch, and I’m telling you those kids were smiling from ear to ear. And do you know what else I noticed? The reaction of those kids was reflected equally back by Josh. He was just as happy to be doing it for them. That right there is gratitude. Well done, sir. And congratulations on a long and successful career in the fight game. Josh is 40, and can still step into a Bellator cage on fight night. This puts him in a very distinguished class of athletes.
Brennan too. He is just as gracious to his fans and teammates. By no means am I down playing or minimizing this fact. I just happened to be sitting in the front to witness the joy brought to those kids by Josh, and I wanted to share. Because it is worth sharing.