Jul7

The birth of Taekwon-Jitsu!

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The birth of Taekwon-Jitsu!

One of my daughters wanted to continue Taekwondo. Sensei said it would take a lot to pull him back into teaching. I suggested maybe we do a blend of Taekwondo and Jiu-Jitsu on a quid pro quo basis. I’ve acquired some grappling mats. Might as well use them. He agreed. And thus, Taekwon-Jitsu was born!

Sensei practiced three forms with us then eagerly pointed at the mats. “Remind me how to do triangle chokes.”

But first I wanted to be sure everyone had break falls and standing up in base down. Youngest Daughter, who was my assistant when I did self defense classes with fellow moms at school, went over trap and rolls and wrist releases with her sisters. (I was so proud.)

Meanwhile, I helped Sensei with triangle chokes. At some point I elbow escaped to get back into guard and so subsequently had to refresh his memory on elbow escaping. (I should mention, he only did Jiu-Jitsu with me for a month.)

Visual reminder: triangle choke

Then instruction time devolved into melee as Sensei apparently decided it would be fun to try to submit me. The girls stopped what they were doing to watch for a while, and later reported it was impressive and informative. But they eventually got bored, practiced another Taekwondo form, and then played basketball.

Sensei would not quit struggling with me until he had a win. He tried to choke me, but I made a frame and slipped out. (Thank you for teaching me that one, Surfer Dude!) I’ll concede that I likewise tried to choke him, but he, too slipped out of it.

I feel like the bad guy in The Incredibles who hired superheroes to fight his robot so he could learn from his robot’s failures and make it stronger as a result.

In other words, why am I training my adversary and making him harder to defeat? I even said, “This would be easier if you were unskilled.” I’d try to do something and he would block me. “You’re not doing very good bad guy behavior,” I pointed out.

It was true. This was not like Jiu-Jitsu class at all. I tried to do one move that involved grabbing his shoulder, but, afraid of what I was going to do, he kept pushing my arm down, preventing me.

He likewise said I was being “uncooperative.” He did, finally, arm bar me and later referred to this as his “epic armbar.” I take that as a compliment. If it had come easily, it wouldn’t have been “epic.”

So, after many minutes and a great deal of energy expenditure (mostly on his part, ahem), Sensei finally triumphed over a 100-pound (I’m rounding down) female.

This was not the instruction time I had in mind. It felt rather lopsided on the Jitsu side. But I felt better when I saw this.

The return of the zucchini!

I didn’t drive home with the zucchini on my windshield, of course. I took the picture at home.

The next morning, Hubby kissed me goodbye before heading off to work. A moment later, he called my name. I stuck my head out the door, “Yeah?”

“Did you want this?”

He pointed to…

I had taken the picture and then left the zucchini.

Losing one’s mind is a drag, but at least sometimes it’s funny!

Post Script: To his credit, Sensei has since agreed that next time we’ll make more time for Taekwondo.

If you skipped to the end to get to the trivia, here you go:

The Rubber Capital of the World is Akron, Ohio. A lot of you knew that one! Good job!

New question:

Discovered in 2001 in Laos, the 12-inch-long Giant Huntsman replaced the Goliath Birdeater as the largest one of these arthropods.

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73 responses »

  1. I guess that between TKD and BJJ, you had to grapple with which to do first.

    Good thing he didn’t squash you.

    Sounds like you had to martial your training, turning it into an art.

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  8. You see this is where real-life and D&D differ. In D&D a grappling mat would wrap around unsuspecting adventurers and hold them tight until the rest of the party could figure out how to get the mat to let go without killing their friend.

    You’re sure you didn’t drive home with the zucchini on the windshield … just asking.

    I have trouble picturing you as a bad guy. You should be wearing black or at least some kind of mask.

    and that’s a spider, Binomial name: Heteropoda maxima. and it’s another one of those spiders where the females may eat the males after mating. One more reason not to date spiders.

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    • OMG, Andrew. I spit a little bit on that last line!!! Hahahaha! And since when do you know the genus and species of spiders? You’re an international man of mystery, clearly.

      Faaaaaiiiiirrrrllllly certain the zucchini rode home inside the car. There would be too many turns for it stay put otherwise. So. Pretty sure. 😉

      Grappling mat–yep, I can see that. But would it be a mat or like an ancient rug? I’d say giant vine plant but that seems too obvious.

      Wear black or a mask. Got it! Cape or no cape, Andrew? Maybe one with a giant winking female spider on the back??

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  9. I won’t answer your trivia question as that would be cheating since I had to google the spider just to see what a 12″ arthropod looks like… now it will haunt my dreams. I did learn that cannibalism is “normal spider behavior” after mating though, so maybe it’s the male Giant Huntsman who should be truly afraid… not me.

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    • A lot of truth to what you say there, Janis. And I wonder if the female spider bites the male’s head off first to make it less painful over all? Or does it maybe inject a venom to make it painless? Or does it treat him like a chocolate Easter bunny and eat the ears off first, then the legs, and save the head for last.

      That got unexpectedly morbid fast. I wonder what the reason is for killing the males at all. I’m sort of afraid to google… But I might…. I’ll bet the female needs the protein to help her have children. That would be my guess.

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  11. Might I suggest pickle ball instead of marshal arts? No chocking people out, cauliflower ear, or painful escapes. Just a girl, a racket, and a ball. And they make you stay out of the kitchen. Win, win. Also, spiders do not make good pets but the zucchini stays! Hugs, C

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    • You make excellent points, Cheryl. But I’m not sure pickle ball will help me if I get attacked on the street. Just saying. 🙂

      I too would not want a pet spider (well done), and the zucchini has already been consumed. 😛

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      • Yes, I would definitely use the racket as a weapon if need be. You have me there. And I will say that it’s not so much about thinking I may be attacked, it’s having so much more self-confidence and general feelings of awesomeness that makes it worth it. Plus, if I see someone else being attacked, or my children…. Ooof. That’s a “you’d better hope the police arrive first” situation.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. Spider?? I’ve been to Laos and am happy to report I didn’t see any 12-inch creepy-crawlies of any kind.

    I know so little (that is to say, nothing) about martial arts, so excuse me if this question is utterly dumb, but is it easy to mix moves up when you’re doing them, as in “Oh, crap, I just did a Jiu jitsu triangular scapular thrust when I meant to do a Tae Kwon Do two-armed choke pivot!”?

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  18. No fair! I had a similar JAB in mind, but Mark beat me to the PUNCH (neither of those are appropriate references for a blog post that’s all about your talents in martial arts…but you know…doing the best I can with the lingo I’ve got). Seriously…please watch the produce on the windshield, ‘kay? Unless you’re making a salad in which case I’ll be right over. 😁🥰😁

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  20. When this new martial arts combo becomes world famous we know where it all started! 😀😀 Well done to your daughter and no wonder you’re so proud of her. Haha! I reckon your husband is probably used to the unusual in your house – a courgette on the windscreen – why not?! 😀

    Liked by 2 people

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  21. “…they eventually got bored, practiced another Taekwondo form, and then played basketball.” Kids, right? They missed the epic moves. 🙂 What fun to actually battle and use what you’ve learned. Sounds like fun. 🙂 🙂 And I’m surprised the zucchini on the dashboard didn’t cook! A fun post. 🙂

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  23. Pingback: Turns out, you can accomplish something when you work really really hard at it. Who knew? | Motherhood and Martial Arts

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