When I returned to Jiu-Jitsu in January after the broken foot, there were two new women in the Combatives (beginner) class. Since they were unknown to me, they were scary. Nevertheless, I asked one to take that picture of me with HRH on my first night back.

Now those two ladies are my friends. Along with HRH and Little Sister, we went out to tacos on a Tuesday after a joint Combatives/Master Cycle class. I’ve also been on a group text with the two of them. It makes me laugh to think how “scary” they were to me initially.

On a Saturday seminar, one of them—I’ll super inventively call her “Blonde”—was there and became my partner. Once you partner with someone, the camaraderie, if not friendship, is born. All level of discomfort disappears.

Blonde has since made it to Master Cycle. We partnered together on a Tuesday where we only do instruction for the first half of class, followed by rolls. I often like to use this time drilling what we’d just learned, hoping it will help cement the new techniques in my mind.

Instructor doesn’t favor this approach.

He walked toward us and, not looking at me, asked Blonde if she wanted to drill or roll.

“I don’t care,” she said. “Either way.”

“Because if you want to roll, there are others who will roll with you.” He pointed to a guy on the bench, implying I was holding her back from what she wanted to do.

I was not. This was mutually agreed upon instruction. We continued drilling. She and I both enjoy the challenge of trying to remember what we has just learned that night, then pushing ourselves to remember the techniques from the previous night.

I’m guessing we’re around the same age since she’s conversant in Eddie Vedder and, get this old-timers, she mentioned Suzanne Somers and ThighMaster. She understands the brain retention struggle.

When that roll timer rang, Instructor walked up to us. “Do either of you want to roll?”

“Yes,” I said right away. I didn’t want him to think I was anti.

“Want to roll with me?”

“Yep,” I said and hopped up to join him. He’s my favorite to roll with because he’s so much fun, and I never know what crazy stuff he’s going to pull. It also helps that he’s close to my size.

During this roll, he only giggled once. On a previous roll sesh, he giggled several times. This wasn’t like me nervously giggling because I’m doing so poorly. He would also never, ever laugh at a student, so all I could surmise was that he was laughing at his inability to catch me. I kept slipping out, and I think it surprised him.

Also on this night, he said, “Your safe hands are so good. I’m going to need to figure out a way around them.” Safe hands means blocking his arms from pinning mine or getting a neck hug, which would spell my doom.

At one point, I attempted my old white-belt tried-and-true Kimura, for lack of any other ideas even though it (almost) never works in Master Cycle. Too many people know the counter: hug my back. HOWEVER(!) I had recently watched a video that showed what to do in this situation. And—here’s the crazy part—I remembered AND executed it properly: I flipped him on his back!

“Sit up sweep,” I said because I was proud of me for remembering its name too. That’s got to be one of maybe… three? times I’ve actually remembered something useful while rolling aside from my normal, though often effective, chokes. (A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.)

He merely said, “Uh-huh,” evidently not astounded by my impressive brainwave.

When he inevitably caught me in an arm bar, I held my other arm against it, like always, and paused to breathe. Maybe he thought I was pausing to think, but I typically don’t do that. I tried the first defense of pushing his leg down so I could slither over it to escape. He pulled his knees together tighter to block me.

Another pause to breathe and rest, and presumably to think? I tried pushing his leg down again, the same exact way. What do you know?! It didn’t work.

Then I thought, what if I walk my feet toward his head to change up the angle? Lo and behold! I dipped out face down under his legs, freeing my arm. Only later did I realize, oh yeah, that’s the hitchhiker escape. Instructor taught that to me, twice, and my brain somewhere registered there was another way out of that sitch.

People, I don’t think you understand what a breakthrough me starting to think during rolls is. Normally, my survival instincts kick in, and I squirm and claw my way to safety, minus the clawing. Here, for once, my brain did not leave the premises.

I also remember HRH telling me the hitchhiker escape is categorized as an emergency escape, aka, a last ditch effort. I should just be taught all of the emergency escapes first. And do I think Instructor actually let me escape? Yes, yes, I do. I’m fairly certain he was just chilling there, waiting, watching to see what I would do.

With twenty seconds left on the five-minute clock, he got me in a horrible mount choke. I hate those. It’s a triangle choke with your arm and his thigh while he sits on your chest. When he released, I said, “I was starting to see stars,” though just for a second.

Afterward, I retrieved my fallen belt, which someone had kindly folded for me (I think Balloon Man), and returned to the bench where Blonde sat next to her counterpart, Brunette, there for the next class. (Yes, I’m super creative with the names.)

Brunette said, “That was Ilsa rolling with Instructor? Wow.”

I’m beginning to feel a little more confident with my rolls.

It only took seven months.

Okay, okay. Here’s what you really want…

Last Q: The capital of Bangladesh is Dhaka. (Andrew wins again. Sigh.)

New Q: Where did ABC’s Revenge take place? I knew this one! I actually liked that show. Let’s see you get it now, Andrew!