The Writing Part
Anyway, here’s something funny and ironic. How many of you caught the typo in my last post?
“Despite all the work, I know stuff it still going to get missed.”
Wow.
Jul6
Writing and Martial Arts
Tag Archives: Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
Mar27
And so I begin again.
Twice, my Jiu-Jitsu instructor has said to my partner, “She’s a blue belt now, so don’t take it easy on her.” I feel like that’s an indication that he’s proud of me. And that means a lot.
The first time was to Thoughtful One, who said to me, “I saw the video of you getting the belt. I’m sorry I missed it.”
“That’s okay. You were there for the important one. Well, the other important one.”
The second time Instructor said that was to Balloon Man. I spotted Balloon Man looking at me, then quickly up and side to side as though attempting to avoid eye contact.
Mar18
When I returned home with the new Jiu-Jitsu belt
I stood at the end of the hallway as two of my girls wandered out of their room toward me. It was a delight to witness their wide-mouthed excitement as they took in my blue belt.
“You got it!” one said.
I stayed in my gi, waiting for Hubby to get home so I could likewise greet him.
When I did, he said, “I knew it. When you grabbed your belt on the way out, I almost said, ‘Do you think you’ll need that after tonight?’ But I didn’t want you to get inside your own head. Then when I got home and saw your belt missing from its usual place, I knew. You put it away because you no longer need it.” He smiled and nodded. “Somehow, I just knew you were getting the new one tonight.”
I was seriously impressed by his premonition. Then I relayed the events of the night, all of my failures and reprimands and terrible mistakes.
And it happened again.
I am not normally a crier, yet I was an exhausted, emotional wreck, shocked by the irony of the worst night ending in my greatest triumph. I was blubbering like a whale* (I just made that up) and shoving strips of napkin up my nose because we’re out of tissues. (You’re very welcome for the visual.)
“This happened, then this, and this,” all while Oldest Daughter and Hubby watched, mutely marveling at this rare display from a black and now blue–appropriately like a bruise–belt martial artist who can kill a man using just one of her legs.**
After getting all of this out, I began to remember good moments in the night’s class also.
Nov15
Rolling with Instructor
I discovered this in my drafts folder from August.
The below is from July 3, and it took about a year to scroll to find it. Apparently Mrs. Instructor and I chat a lot. Mine is the writing in purple.
More recently, I wrote to her, “Uncontrollable loud sustained laughter during a wall drill with Instructor. Super embarrassing.”
Her: What happened?
Me: I don’t know! I just couldn’t stop!
Her: lol
Me another day:
Aug22
Surfer Dude has it coming
While I was doing triangle chokes in Reflex Development with Iceberg, Surfer Dude was watching.
“Where do you have your foot?” he asked me.
I looked. “Oh, it’s on his knee. It should be on his hip. Sorry. That was lazy of me.”
“You’re in Master Cycle now,” he reminded me, and continued reminding me as he pulled no punches when we rolled together later. “I want you to be as good at triangles as I am.”
“Whoa,” I said, kind of flattered at his apparent faith in me, since he is the king of triangles. “New life goal.”
Next SD helped Iceberg properly triangle choke me.
“When her face starts turning red like that, you know you’re getting it,” SD told him.
“Thanks, man. Appreciate it,” I said. He smiled.
Aug16
More on Master Cycle–which has nothing to do with bikes
In another Master Cycle class (my apologies to those I confused about that), I partnered with The Combatives Belt Kid. He started by congratulating me on the new belt. What a polite young man.
Then I uppercut him in the jaw.
To be fair, it was an ACCIDENT! And it was rather light. His braces didn’t cut his mouth or anything.
I apologized, he smiled, said “It’s okay,” then, “Would you like to try again?”
So that time I DID make him bleed.
Kidding, kidding. I did the move properly, no blood involved.
When we switched partners, he told “Pink” I had punched him. She said to me, “That’s okay. I’ve frequently made his nose bleed.”
See? I’m a lamb!
Also while rolling with The Combatives Belt Kid (CBK, anyone?), I tried a cross choke.
“I feel really bad that I’m actively trying to hurt you,” I said. It seriously felt wrong. But he got away by rolling over his head somehow. It was rather impressive.
“You almost got me, though,” he was kind enough to tell me. “It was really close. [Long pause.] I need a minute.” We waited for the flow of blood to return to his brain.
Why aren’t more people into this stuff???
Jul31
Most girls dream about their future wedding…
I never did.
I did, however, daydream about how I’d most like to receive my new belt. In my ideal world, my old friends from Betsy’s Jiu-Jitsu Journey Part 1 would be there. They would understand how much finally getting this belt after 16 months away and having to start over would mean to me.
The students in my beginner class, meh. They’d sort of care, but also not, with the possible exception of the few other females.
I commented to Instructor and Mrs. Instructor that it would be nice to get the new belt when the blue belt students were around. Mrs. Instructor laughed and reminded me that it’s meant to be a surprise.
I was indeed surprised. At the end of a class, Instructor awarded a stripe to one student. Then he did the recap of the day’s lesson, signaling to me that the awarding of promotions was over. Disappointed, but whatever, I let my gi top hang around my waist to cool off, thus making me to look like an idiot (aka, my natural state) when the moment came.
HOWEVER, it just so happened that one blue belt friend from the old days WAS there. Not only that, he was standing right next to me. If I could only choose one person from back then, this is the one I would have chosen. It was truly a blessing to me that he was there.
Jul27
Turns out, you can accomplish something when you work really really hard at it. Who knew?
Yet another previously written post, but I had good reason to delay publishing.
The writing was slowly appearing on the wall. The beginner Jiu-Jitsu class was becoming too basic. I’d lingered longer than a normal person would because I wanted to soak up every last detail.
Then when a student I’d been helping when he was relatively new earned his fourth stripe, I knew I had overstayed my welcome.
With this new resolve, after class one day, I approached Instructor.
“When do you think I’ll be ready to test?” I asked.
He looked down, thoughtful, then turned to his brother.
Surfer Dude looked at me. “Now?”
I rapid fire blinked at him.
“Yeah, do you want to do it now?” Instructor asked.
“What? Uhhh.” I had not expected this response, and I was not prepared to test on the spot.
“Do you want to watch the demo videos first?” SD asked and suggested I print the test pages which list the moves for each of the four main drills.
I agreed with this plan and left in a daze.
Having made the decision to test, I needed to prepare. The best person to help me was someone who knew enough Jiu-Jitsu to be a knowledgeable “bad guy.”
Jun23
Showing those boys what’s up.
For the first time ever, I arrived at Jiu-Jitsu and was disappointed to see Surfer Dude. I admit it: I like being demo partner. It’s actually fun, and I’ve gained a lot of confidence.
SD waited on the center of the mat while Instructor looked down the line with a finger out pointing. “Let’s go wiiiiiiiith…” his finger stopped on me. Hope surged. Would he use both of us somehow?
Then he turned, as if seeing SD standing there for the first time. “Oh, hi. How are you?”
So no demo day for me. Later I thought it would have been funny if I had said to SD, “I’ll flip you for it,” because that’s something I learned to do years ago. And if I had flipped that big dude over my back in front of everyone, it would have been epic. Alas.
Here are some way back play back images of me being flipped by SD, back in his blonde days when the nickname fit.
Mar6
Let’s pretend I did that on purpose
Frequently I’m partnered with the kid, whom I’ll call Billy. (Get it?) Even when I’m not the only female, I get matched with Billy. That’s not my favorite, since I’m unlikely to be attacked by a 6th grader, but I get it. I’m closest in size to him, since I, too am built like an 11-year-old boy.
Anyway, one night he did some move which was apparently cool. I didn’t see it, but Instructor asked if he had done it on purpose. Billy said no. (Points for honesty!) Instructor said he shouldn’t admit when he does something cool by mistake.
Later, Instructor told Billy to really make me work for it, which I appreciated. So Billy put up a fight. Instructor: “Whoa, Betsy. You got your knees up behind his back. Pulling out stuff from class 11.” He turned to Surfer Dude. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah.” Surfer Dude nodded appreciatively.
It’s a good thing I had just learned not to admit when I do something cool by accident.
In another class, we learned a new-to-me way of doing the headlock escape superbase variation, so I had no muscle memory to carry me through on this one. Instructor sat down in front of me to watch, so of course my mind immediately went blank.
Writing and Martial Arts 