I arrived late to Jiu-Jitsu Monday night, which I don’t mind, as I want to avoid the practice-before-class-officially-starts part. I was not late enough, however. The only un-partnered person on the mat was the only one who scares me. Not because he’s big, but because he looks like a dude who would be typecast as the bad guy. He’s the Danny Trejo of Jiu-Jitsu.
The guy in my class is young, though, long haired and with knuckle tattoos. He looks like he’d be one of Chicken Man’s henchmen in Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul.
I was more than happy to stretch out waaaaaay on the other side of the mat from Li’l Trejo until Instructor spotted me and suggested I jump in with this guy. Fine. I greeted him and offered a fist bump. He lifted a hand to shake. We both smiled. He closed his hand for a bump. I opened mine for a shake. We laughed, we smiled, we gave up on a third attempt, and I realized he’s not the classic villain, he’s the family pet, namely, the sweet puppy dog.
I wasn’t paired with him during class but with a guy who had the darkest blue eyes I’d ever seen on a human. He was also a bit rough. When trying to do the move, he made me work for it. I’m used to guys taking it easy on me. Maybe I should be grateful that this guy didn’t treat me as anything special.
He also gave me my latest war wounds:
Instructor is great about including me. Months ago, when there were more people in the 11:00 class, he was angled away from me as he told a story “to the guys,” but then he turned his head and made eye contact with me as well, bringing me into the group. It was then that I truly felt I’d been accepted as one of them, at least by him.
In our recent one-on-one classes, he’d say, “When you get to Master Cycle…” which comes after this beginners’ Combatives course. Notice the “when,” not “if.”
Tonight he twice said “man or woman.” For instance, “…with your thumb pointed back at yourself because you’re the man or the woman.”
A couple funnies: He was crouched over his opponent, calling it “Spiderman pose.” Then he put both hands out, middle fingers pressed to his palms. This must have been a new one, not only to me, because the literal actual black belt next to me chuckled along with me.
Another time he said, with a completely straight face, “You want to go fast, not only because it’s smoother, but because it looks cool.”
Next he talked about doing the arm bar on someone much stronger. “If you need to, you can grab the top of his hand for greater leverage, but I’ve really only needed to do that twice.” He continued instructions and asked if anyone had questions.
A guy raised his hand and asked, “Was I one of those two?”
Instructor thought for a moment. “You might have been, yeah.”
And in the brief moment of silence that followed, I was feeling comfortable enough to be silly. See if you can guess how.
Without raising my hand, I said, “And I was the other one, right?”
I didn’t hear anyone laugh, but that might be because I was laughing myself, since I’m always the first to laugh at myself. (Right, CM? 😉 ) Instructor smiled and said, “Yep, you were the other one.”
Immediately after this, we returned to the mat to try the new move, and Instructor said to me with mock urgency, “You weren’t supposed to tell them that.” Then he gave me a fist bump.
Earlier, I was the last to finish the move with Blue Eyes, who was Instructor’s demo partner. Everyone was already back at the wall. Blue Eyes stayed on the mat with Instructor, so as I made the solo walk to the wall, Instructor put his arm up and said, “High five.” I hopped to reach his hand and smiled on my way to the wall.
In the future, I must remember this: I did not feel up to going to class tonight. It had been a long day. I was tired and unmotivated. Then I reasoned that I shouldn’t miss the opportunity to get classes in. I could stay home and continue feeling tired and bleh, or I could go, have fun, learn, workout, and come back happy.
I’m glad I chose the latter.
Also, just before I left, because I remembered his name and he was near the door, I said goodbye to Li’l Trejo. He wished me a good night.
And that is how you make new friends.
I want to be you when I grow up!
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Haha, Diane. I say that to people so often. 😛
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it is always a learning adventure for you there, each and every time
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So much so, Beth, yes!
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No one can say you’re the typical suburban carpool mom, can they Betsy?
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Heck no! Especially not with my Jiu-Jitsu logo on one vehicle, and my round kick throwing girl decal on the other. 🙂
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ALWAYS be the first to laugh at yourself. 🙂
I used to tell my students, with complete honesty, I never went to class (as a student or instructor) and left without feeling better. It always had a fantastic effect on me. I’m glad you went. 🙂 AND made new friends.
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Only downside to me laughing at myself there, CM, was Hubby pointed out that it would have been funnier if I hadn’t laughed, if I had said it like I was dead serious. Ah well! Maybe next time?
And, yep, how could I not have been glad to go?! Lesson learned!
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Ah, Hubby was correct. But, it was still funny. 🙂
Now for that morning lesson….
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I’ll have something to say on the morning lessons in a future post.
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I am looking forward to THAT ! 😂
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Not that I went to a morning lesson, though, CM. Please don’t get TOO excited! 😛
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Ohhhhh, well, no matter. You’re still the best. 🙂
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I think you mean I’m the “Bets.” 😉
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😂 you are indeed 🙂
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L’il Trejo reminds us that judging someone by their appearance can be misleading.
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Definitely.
(He’s still a little scary looking though, she types in very small print.)
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( With Beefcake Muldoon looking over her shoulder.)
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The things you make me google, John…
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I just looked up Beefcake Muldoon and was surprised to see a Patrick Muldoon. My Beefcake Muldoon is a fictional character who is 6 1/2 feet tall, all muscle, and no sense of humor. He causes people to pee their pants with one growl.
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I learn something new every day…
And I’m glad your Beefcake Muldoon wasn’t standing over me. (I’m glad that other one wasn’t either–before you ask! 😉 )
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Ha ha ha 😊
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Def a good day in class, Betsy. And it goes to show that people aren’t always what we expect based on appearance. 🙂
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Very true, Mae.
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The scratches and bruises are a bit rattling, but after a while, I think they become the norm. Right? Who says you shouldn’t go through life unscratched? It happens to you–now–all the time and probably means you don’t over-react when it happens outside the dojo (is that what it’s called?) I actually like the idea.
But–what’s your husband think of all the bruises?
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Well, Hubby isn’t happy I’m getting hurt, but he knows I’m a big girl. You asked before what my mom thinks. Yesterday she texted that she is in awe of me, so I guess that’s a good thing.
This morning I was walking around with socks and boots on wondering why my toe hurt. So just now I took my sock off and see that I have scraped off skin there. I’ll put a Band-aid on it to keep it safe. I suppose if I weren’t a person with perhaps an above-average pain threshold, I wouldn’t be doing this. But once you’ve given birth naturally, does anything really hurt that bad? In my experience, not even close. All this is nothing.
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My mom would love you, too. She was one of those women who burned her bra, back in the day that never happened. I still miss her.
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Awhh. 🙂
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“In the future, I must remember this: I did not feel up to going to class tonight. It had been a long day. I was tired and unmotivated. Then I reasoned that I shouldn’t miss the opportunity to get classes in. I could stay home and continue feeling tired and bleh, or I could go, have fun, learn, workout, and come back happy.”
Keep it up, Betsy! Showing up is half the battle and your mindset is spot-on!
“When trying to do the move, he made me work for it.”
This is a pet peeve of mine, for men or women who try to make their partner work for it, especially at the white belt level. They usually have some sort of “train like you fight” thought going through their head and while that is understandable: Crawl, walk, run.
Certain smaller steps and details in a given technique are there for creating proper leverage, or robbing the opponent of their alignment, posture, structure, base so the technique works effectively with minimal power and potentially devastatingly with increased power.
When a training partner takes it upon themselves to just make someone work for it, they rob themselves and their partner of the aforementioned details (because they are usually skipped) and they are forced to rely more on strength/power to make the technique “work” during practice, and then they wonder why, in a live roll, the technique doesn’t work at all of with very minimal success.
Yes, they eventually need to do it with resistance, but let the partner get the technique down first and then slowly increase resistance so they can successfully blend the technique with strength and power.
There comes a time to straight up slap a triangle or armbar on an opponent, hard and fast, but the devil is in the details.
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Wow, Tom. Struck a nerve, did I? Sorry about that. I did say to him, “Hey, this isn’t RD. Let me have it.” It being his arm. RD being Reflex and Development that comes at the end of class. I guess he sort of had a point with what he was doing. (And he did let it be easy for me the first few times.) But he may have been pointing out that I needed to put my full weight against his elbow to push his arm out of the way for the Twisting Arm Control.
Well, it happened, and that guy’s not normally there. WHEN I get to Master Cycle, I’ll truly find out what I’m made of.
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Haha, yeah just hit a little pet peeve. No worries, you didn’t offend me or do anything wrong. Rather, I’ve got some sort of “big brother” complex looking out for white belts. lol
Definitely a matter of when, not if. Keep at it!
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Thanks, Tom! Here’s a bit of a peeve of mine: Gracie U changed the belt you receive after Combatives from blue to a “combatives belt,” which is white with a dark blue stripe down the center. It’s not nearly as cool looking, nor does it stand out much. If you tell someone you have a “combatives belt” they have no idea what you’re talking about. Saying you have a blue belt means something. And, most importantly, blue is my favorite color! I guess that’s the price I pay for being at a Gracie U affiliate.
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Very interesting that Gracie U is deviating from IBJJF belt rankings like that.
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I believe the word you’re looking for is “annoying.” 😉 I’m not sure if maybe they have a blue belt later. I guess I’ll have to look into that more.
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😂 that too! I’ve been training both my youngest and my future step son in the Gracie Games part of BullyProof until I can figure out how to logistically get them to the academy for the kids class. I’ll have to do some digging on their belt system so I understand it better.
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They are going to be so ahead of the game when they do get to go. That’s awesome. I’m hopeful that the girls I [do my best to] train at school will eventually take classes on their own and amaze their instructor. All the better if it’s my instructor. 🙂
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For sure! Gracie games are great for introducing jiu-jitsu movements and concepts and making them fun. Gotta tip my hat to them for it. Spider-kid is exceptional for showing a young one top mount control. Crazy-horse is great for helping them understand back mount/back control. My son loves “tackle the giant”, just a straight old school double leg take down. It’s a thing of beauty.
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🙂 So fun for you. I intend to enroll two of my girls in the JJ summer camp. I wonder if they’ll enjoy it.
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You never know, they just might LOVE it!
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Hope so. Then I’d have someone to practice with at home!
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If you do find out about the belt thing, please let me know. Digging in to that is low p right now.
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Completely understand!
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Well, a quick glance at the GJJ U stuff and from things you’ve mentioned, I’d take an educated guess at a couple things: you are at an official Gracie JJ School (you’d mentioned a black belt) that has some junior instructors (blues and purples – standard at many schools) looks like your instructor is a blue from the stripe pic you posted – plus those green mats, thats definitely a GJJ thing – and those junior instructors use the Gracie U/Gracie Combatives curriculum to keep track of your progress.
So, it looks like the new belt is just their internal marker for progress of the student. The internal belt wouldn’t mean much if you competed in a tournament, you’d don your white belt and compete with other white belts. It is similar to the Green belt in a few JJ organizations, mine included, so that makes sense to me.
That blue & white belt is roughly a “halfway” mark to a blue belt. So in a more traditional school, it’s roughly the equivalent of a two stripe white belt (halfway to blue).
When it all boils down, belts really are both indicators of skill/knowledge/competency (well, they should be at least) as well as an over glorified time card (because, it kinda is lol).
Hope that helps. Just keep training, belts and stripes come and go, but definitely enjoy them and hold your head up each time you earn one!
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Ah! That’s better than I thought, then. When I see blue belts, I thought that just meant those guys earned it before the switch-over. A halfway belt makes more sense. Maybe the blue comes after completion of Master Cycle. I’ll figure it all out eventually.
Thanks for taking the time, Tom!
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My pleasure. There are some good FAQs on the Grace U site that’ll clear that up for you.
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FINE! Make me admit that I’m just being lazy and making you do my work for me. Harumph! 😉
Thanks, Tom. 🙂
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😂😂😂
You’re welcome.
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You are teaching a master class here – on how to show up, how to laugh through the scratches and how to make friends!! Beautifull — and brilliant! ❤
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Thank you, Wynne! {blushy face}
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You know, I’ve tried to teach my cats to shake hands, but they just won’t do it. Glad you found a more trainable pet.
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Ah, cats. They just look at you funny, lick their paw, and then stick it out. Like you’d want to shake their wet paw. And thus they win. Every time.
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All this talk of war wounds makes me feel slightly emasculated. Though, if it’s any consolation, I did burn the back of my left hand on the grill last night. All in the name of hot dogs.
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Well, if it was in the name of hot dogs, Mark, totally worth it. With any luck, it will leave a scar so you can tell your buddies the sordid tale of how you received that scar.
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No such luck. It was a glancing blow – enough to cause me to jerk back in pain, but alas, not enough to leave any permanent mark.
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Here’s hoping that next time you grill you’ll do more lasting damage.
Other than to the food.
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I’m glad we’re on the same page about this.
Ironic, I worried in my last post about Tara burning me…and I ended up doing it to myself!
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Ha! Excellent point.
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LOL chuckled to myself at the “Danny Trejo of Jiu-Jitsu! LOL Funny, I’m sure most ppl knew exactly what you meant by that… Whenever I think of a bad guy in a movie, it’s pretty much always Danny Trejo🤣 I love when people surprise us like that… prove us wrong about our misconceptions 🙂 and glad you made a new friend! 😃
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Thanks, BB. 🙂
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I’m so glad you went to class. You always seem to have fun, even when you’re hurtin’.
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Me too, Peach. Now I need to muster the strength to go again tonight. 11 a.m. class was so easy!
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It’s funny how the time of class is harder on you than all the aches and bruises. Lol.
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When you look at it that way, Peach, yeah it is kind of funny. I don’t like to be inconvenienced, I guess. Or inconvenience others. 😕
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This is wonderful. You’re making headway, both in your moves and in your ability to influence a man to include women in his thinking. Plus you’re having fun. Yay Betsy!
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Thanks, AB! I appreciate your support and enthusiasm!
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As I often say to myself after reading your posts, “and that’s how you do it, in Betsy-style!”
Such a great attitude – go even when you don’t feel like it, because there are always (well, more often than not) good things that happen just by showing up! And who doesn’t want endorphins (and scratches and bumps and bruises) from a workout, right? I wonder how many of your mat-mates are silently fist bumping & high five-ing you … decorum & seriousness, right?
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I honestly don’t know how the guys feel about me being there. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them secretly thought I didn’t belong. To that I would say, not my problem. They’ll have to deal with it. I have as much a right to be there as they. Hopefully anyone feeling that way has or soon will get over it.
Then again, maybe the higher percentage think it’s cool I’m there. No idea. Doesn’t matter.
Remembering that it was worth it to go even when I didn’t feel like it will hopefully push through the next time that happens. Thanks, Ju-Lyn. I’m gratified by your support. 😊
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You go, girl! That attitude of yours is what I would like to adopt more often. To remember it is as much my space as anyone else’s. And if they have a problem, well …
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Well, indeed, Ju-Lyn. Their problem is not my problem. 🙂
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Your Dojo classes tales always make me smile and remember my old Dojo training years.
By the way I used to see Mr. Trejo hanging in Venice beach frequently, before he become a celebrity way back somewhere in the late eighties, he was quite a character always with his bare chest showing his tattoo at the beach promenade. 🙂
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Wow, what a story! It’s funny how many of my blog buddies have seen the celebrities I occasionally mention. (I think this is the third time.) Also, glad you enjoy these stories and they help you reminisce, BH. 🙂
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Well living in LA for many years until I retired, and working on a business in Santa Monica near the beach, for many years I met a lot of celebrities, just because they live there, and you run into them, and even talked to them when they will drop at the place I worked, it’s very common, and not a big deal, my brother just today told me about a producer of movies that died at the beginning of the month, I wouldn’t say he was my friend, but he chatted with me often, just because he was a customer, and patronized the place I worked, and he liked to chat, and so many other well known actors, yes they are famous, but most are just like anybody else.😉
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That’s really neat. It’s cool that they were still normal people.
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This comeback deserves that “Badum-ch!” 🙂 It’s almost like you have a team of standup comedians whispering in your ear, love it 🙂
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Ha! Thanks, EW. 🙂
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