At the time, I trained at the school 3x a week, but I used to train outside with another student.
I don't take formal classes anyone. Once I got into my 40s the injuries became constant, and, I got tired of always being in pain and dealing with 25 year old maniacs jumping all over me.
Pretty much all the guys who went on and got Black Belts wanted to teach and open their own school. That was never a motivation for me.
I hear ya. Your case is just very impressive and not common at all, because pretty much all schools are not allowed to progress rank from blue to purple that fast. The International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation requires a practitioner to remain a blue belt for a minimum of 2 years (that's in their rule book). Typically, for a blue to go to purple in under a year requires destruction of major competition at big tournaments (think ADCC or Mundials) and a big push by a big name instructor.
Nonetheless, purple is an exciting belt, as it's where (at least I found) you truly start to have your entire game come together. Positioning and guard escapes come much easier and you slowly start to establish your full game (top vs bottom etc).
Opening up a school was never in my thoughts. There are way better practitioners and I'm still struggling at Brown Belt (3 Stripes). Now, I simply go and get my ass handed to me by the best black belts and sometimes by the younger, stronger and more hungrier brown belts. It's all in good fun.
Keep rollin!
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