In this article, I want to share a story about visiting an overseas gym again after half a year. Since it was a short vacation, I couldn't train as many times as last time, but here are my enjoyable memories.
Why I Went to Taipei
To be honest, I've had a health warning light on for the past few weeks (or months). Multiple issues piled up—stress, eating too much unhealthy food, short sleep hours—leading to acid reflux, and I even passed out and broke a bathroom tile with my forehead. It sounds quite serious when written down (my front tooth was also slightly chipped, so it was actually worse), but when I saw the photo of the broken tile, I couldn't help but laugh at how absurd it was. 😂
I'm not sure if I was too greedy this year or if it was the accumulation of self-abuse (lol), but I felt like I'd be high-fiving Yama soon, so I decided to take some time to refresh. I wanted to go abroad, but I wasn't in condition for a long flight, so I chose Taiwan, which is about two hours from Korea. I used vacation days around a bridge holiday and went on a 5-night, 6-day trip.
Gym Visit
Choosing a Gym
This time, I trained at Taiwan Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Academy. I was deciding between Taipei and Kaohsiung when my instructor mentioned a gym he had visited, so I headed straight to Taipei. When you do overseas training visits, you can center your travel destination and location around the gym, which has the advantage(?) of narrowing down your choices 😎.
The class schedule is well listed on the official website, and my first training was Sunday afternoon at 12:30, a Beginner & Open Mat class. If you're planning to visit, you can contact them through Instagram, and the training fee is 800 TWD per day (about $25, 30,000 KRW). Gi rental is also available, and morning and afternoon classes are charged separately.
First Class
I got a bit lost finding the gym at first, but it's located on the basement floor. You carry your shoes down the stairs, and there's a shoe locker on the left. It's a fairly large facility with a front desk, showers, and lockers. Since the class was after kids' class, many families came, and I later heard from a member that there can be over 40 people sometimes. On the day I went, some members were at the Nagoya competition, so there were fewer people than usual.
Do you know what's most important on the first day of visiting a new gym? One of the key skills I think is reading the room. After my last visit to a gym in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I stood in line without thinking and ended up leading the warm-up, I now carefully observe from behind the colored belts when visiting a new gym. This gym had 2 mats, and it seemed like people bowed to the mats once before entering. There was no separate warm-up, and class started right on time.
The Sunday beginner class was taught by a blue belt instructor. At first, it was conducted in Chinese, which was a bit surprising. Later, he mixed in English, and even if you don't know the language well, if you know jiu-jitsu terms, you can generally understand. The class covered open guard recovery, sweeps from dela hiva guard, and combination submissions like straight armbar - wristlock - punch choke from triangle. These are techniques I use often, but I could learn this gym's unique techniques too, which was fun.
The class runs for a full hour, followed by free sparring time on the open mat. After class ends, everyone lines up and greets each member in a circle, bumping arms and saying 謝謝 (Xièxiè), which was impressive. It seems the closing ritual varies depending on the instructor's nationality and style 🇹🇼
Sparring Time
Sparring runs freely in 5-minute rounds, and as everyone knows, it starts when
you make eye contact. The gym has a high proportion of colored belts, and many
people rolled lightly with me, so I had a really fun training session. There
were also yellow and gray belt teenagers, and when I asked later, they were
seniors who had been training for about 5-7 years. They said they come every
weekday evening, but it didn't fit my schedule, so I only saw them once, which
was very disappointing.
The teenagers didn't have stripes, so I bragged that I had two (bad
adult)
One of them was wearing a Korean
Primit gi, and when I asked his mother, she said it was a gift. I also saw several
other members wearing Korean gis, which made me feel oddly good.
I was wearing a Soryoroll
After sparring ended, I talked with an Australian member who said that Tuesday's intermediate class is taught by a Japanese brown belt instructor who had just competed in Nagoya. I was worried about how many times I'd be able to train since my condition hadn't fully recovered throughout the trip, but when he recommended this instructor, I decided I had to go.
Taipei Travel
I came to Taiwan to recover my health, but honestly, my acid reflux hadn't improved yet. Still, to get into the travel mood, I ate wheat noodles, drank beer, and even coffee, which felt great. They serve coffee like traditional medicine, and it was strong and delicious 🤩.
Taipei has a very well-developed public bike system and bike lanes. I love walking so much that I didn't use a bike, but a local member highly recommended cycling. If I visit Taipei again in the future, I'll have to try it.
Closing Thoughts
Why I'm Building Post Black Belt
To be honest, jiu-jitsu isn't as insanely fun for me as it used to be. Still, I'm putting my time and effort into building this app because I want "people who do jiu-jitsu to train more enjoyably and create good memories." Until a year ago, I made it to record jiu-jitsu techniques to get "better," but recently, I've changed my thinking to focus on how to record "happy memories" so people can do jiu-jitsu longer. It's like the common blue belt jiu-jitsu burnout, I guess.. 🤣
One of the reasons I first loved jiu-jitsu was the "Win or Learn" mindset, but over time, I felt pressure from competition and got injured, gradually moving away from it. When I go for overseas training visits, I spar with a light, fun mindset, and it helps me refresh. There's not much left of this year, but I want to focus Post Black Belt on features for more enjoyable and fun jiu-jitsu.
Update News / Future Plans
There was a recent update after about a month.
Actually, I added features I wanted to use in Taiwan It's the photo
saving feature that users have been requesting for a long time, and I added a
Timeline tab to better utilize this feature.
This feature is only available to users who subscribe to Post Black Belt. Of course, this is partly for monetization, but it's also a choice to keep the app sustainable longer. When you run an app alone, the moment costs arise, it becomes a huge burden. Therefore, features that incur costs like photo uploads, unlimited diary and search usage are provided as paid features. Even if you find it inconvenient, this is a developer's choice for a more sustainable service. For similar reasons, photo upload quality was limited, but it was too inconvenient even for me to use, so I improved it to high quality. If you have any inconveniences, feedback is always welcome.
Despite being a small service, I'm grateful to the users who subscribe to Post Black Belt. I'm working hard to make it a service that delivers small joys and happiness to your jiu-jitsu journey, like coffee traditional medicine☕️.