Rolling vs Sparring

Quick martial arts lesson: Rolling is to Jiu-Jitsu as Sparring is to Taekwondo.

Quick blog lesson: Instructor is to Jiu-Jitsu as Sensei is to Taekwondo.

I’m now at the point of my Jiu-Jitsu journey where I get to attend Reflex and Development class. Your opponent gives indicators like step back, push away, post a leg up, etc., to let you know what move you need to do.

Often I ask, “What do I do?” because I’m not very good at this. The answer is usually Arm Bar or Elevator Sweep or Americana.

“Oh, right, yeah,” I’ll say then do the move.

At the start of 99% of the regular classes, we practice The Clinch. It’s a standing move that leads to getting the bad guy on the ground. We do this so often, I could sleep through this part of class.

Then in Reflex and Development, Instructor stood in front of me.

And stood there.

“What do I do?”

“Clinch me.”

Ugh! Face palm!

Visual interlude:

I often rate my workout based on how messy my hair is afterward. When taking this pic of my sloppy hair for you, I decided to have fun with the mirrors. You’re welcome.

Back to the story: There are a couple of moves that I do well. I can rear naked choke with the best of them, I have twice surprised my opponent with a speedy Kimura arm lock, and then there was this:

Instructor did something, don’t even know what it was, and I locked him in a Triangle Choke without even thinking about it. He had to tap out.

Seriously, I was stunned. It happened automatically.

“A jumping Triangle. That was tight,” he said.

I don’t know if he meant tight as in “not loose,” or tight as in “cool.” I’ll take either.

The Triangle Choke is, after all, the move where I have “the perfect limbs for choking someone’s life out.”

So that RD class wasn’t a complete embarrassing failure, thankfully.

Sparring in Taekwondo, on the other hand, I was made for.

When it was my turn with Sensei, I didn’t feel like I had to hold back or take it easy on him, which was fun. [Can you hear my evil chuckle?]

“You’ve been waiting all day for this, haven’t you?” he said.

“I’m literally kicking your butt,” I said. Because I was.

Then he kicked mine, literally, and I said, “That was fair.”

Next he came at me hard with both arms and a leg. I blocked, blocked, and dodged.

“Good reflexes,” he said.

I wish Instructor could’ve heard that.

At the end of class, when we shook hands, Sensei added a previously unheard of, “Nice job.”

For whatever reason, sparring comes naturally, probably because there’s not a lot of thinking involved.

In the next class, however, I sparred with my daughter, blocked a kick, and jammed my finger.

Purple pointer finger

Then a couple of days later, I took down Surfer Dude 1 in Jiu-Jitsu, and landed with my knee on my hand, smashing the rest of my fingers, particularly the ring finger. It’s so puffy I can’t get my ring on.

Face palm again, anyone?

This past week was the last self defense class at the school. I made certificates for the kids to congratulate them on their hard work this year.

When one mom picked up her son, she thanked me for teaching him to block punches. Apparently, someone tried to sock him in the stomach, and he blocked it!

“Then I punched myself in the face with the hand I blocked with,” he admitted.

Yep. Sounds like he was taught by me.

Have a great weekend, Blog Buddies! 🙂