Wednesday, June 12, 2024 by C. Michial Jones
In the martial arts, we often talk about “peak performance” as a destination. We imagine it as a time when the techniques are fluid, the weight is down, and the cardio is effortless. By early 2024, I felt I had finally arrived at that place.
Through the mentorship of Bryce Leming, I was putting in massive hours on the mat—four days a week at Reclaimed, weekly open mats at Rocky’s newly re-opened MMA Minded, and Sundays at my own dojo. The “Old Man Jiujitsu” was clicking. I was down 30 pounds, my movement was sharp, and I felt better than I had in twenty years.
But Budo has a way of testing your resolve when you least expect it.
The Warning and the Will
In November 2023, I lost my uncle and longtime training partner, Pat Mitchell, to cancer. His passing was a wake-up call that led me to the doctor’s office. I had to fight just to get the proper testing done—a process that felt like an “act of Congress”—but the results eventually forced me into a specialist’s care and a biopsy.
After a week off the mat to heal from the procedure, and a month of waiting, I sat in the doctor’s office this morning for the follow-up. Driving home from the office, I told my wife, Amber, “I feel the best I’ve felt in two decades.” It was a bizarre reality to reconcile: the training in Karate and BJJ had transformed me into a high-performance machine, yet the tests said something was wrong.
The Philosophy of the Fight
How can a man feel fantastic and be “sick” at the same time? In the dojo, we learn that the body and the spirit are not always in the same place. We learn to move through pain, to find the “soft” path through the “hard” obstacle, and to maintain our center when the world spins.
My training hasn’t just prepared me to face an opponent on the mat; it has prepared me for this moment. The discipline required to drop 30 pounds and the cardio built through grueling BJJ rolls are the very tools I will use to navigate this health challenge.
Conclusion: No Deterrence
I refuse to let a diagnosis define my capability. If 47 years of Goju-Ryu and Uechi-Ryu have taught me anything, it is that the fight is won in the mind long before it is finished on the floor. I have been through surgeries before—teaching from a chair when I couldn’t stand—and I have always returned.
To my students, my family, and my training brothers: the training continues. The mat is where I find my strength, and as long as there is breath in my lungs and a gi in my bag, I will be there. We do not train to avoid the storm; we train to be the one who stands when the storm passes.
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