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.

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