7th Column

my blog is about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and raising two teenagers http://johnrossmckay.com/wordpress

BIO:  
JohnI live in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  Have been in the area since late 2004 but only just bought a little house on a ravine in the east end.  Work is at the cement plant on the lake west of the city where I manage capital projects.

This house is home to me, my two sons, two border collies, and a siamese cat.  Most days the family room is full of the boy's friends.  

I grew up in Ottawa and went from kindergarden through to university in that city.  Got married right out of school and was divorced in December of 2009.  Just grew apart.  I have lived in England, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario.  In all, have moved 12 times, have bought and sold 14 cars since graduation... I'm done with with that kind of change.  

My interests are:
BJJ Blog:

I have been taking Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes with my younger son for 9 months.   It's hard to say why we chose BJJ.  The BJJ guys I know who are good at it are good guys; disciplined and generous with their time.   I met some of them at a seminar in Utah and was impressed.  Also, the early UFC videos on Youtube with Royce Gracie dominating the other fighters using BJJ were impressive.  Still, I would never have imagined that I would be taking martial arts classes.  It's a huge bonus that I get to do it with my son.

BJJ is very technical.  Whereas one might achieve Black Belt level in another martial art in 3 or 4 years, BJJ black belt may well take 10 years or more to achieve, if at all.  The sparring is all done at full power and the opponents "tap" their adversary to indicate that they caught in a joint lock or choke before any damage is done.  Thus the sparring is real.

We take classes at Martial Arts Planet.  We go to 2 to 4 classes a weeks and also participarte in up to 2 hours a week of open mat.  The atmosphere is informal, professional and very inclusive.  Other students play a huge role in helping us learn technique on the mats.

I was overwhelmed with the amount of information I needed to learn and so have started a blog that records the lesson topics so that I can look back and remember what we learned, and when.  The blog also talks about what is going on with diet and general fitness as well as with life in general.  BJJ classes are a big commitment on top of everything else involved in raising teenagers and working full time.