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.

That was so fun and exciting for me. It takes so little, you know?

Back to the present, on the way to Saturday’s class, I considered there was a good chance SD wouldn’t be there, and I’d be demo partner.

But he was there.

Phooey. But wait…

Where was Instructor?

And so, with a class full of dudes and little ol’ me, I got to be demo partner with SD. I’m not gonna lie. Showing those guys I know what’s up felt awesome. Plus, I think I had my first perfect demo day.

I’m getting better at my “tough guy” pose, though still not as good as SD, even if my arms are just as big as his. Toooooooootally kidding!

Every time SD said, “You want to be sure you do this, because if you don’t the bad guy could…” I was already doing what the bad guy could.

The most feared words for a demo partner (or at least for me) to hear are, “Now we’ll switch and I’ll be bad guy,” because that means it’s go time for the partner to do the moves, hopefully properly.

I heard, “Very well done,” from SD multiple times. Phew! And another time a student said, “Wow,” when I did the moves quickly and smoothly.

I *almost* had a perfect class as a student, too, but when working with my partner, SD had to point out I was missing an indicator for a countermove. Drat. So close.

This class involves slapping your foot on the mat, about which Instructor has frequently said, “Not only is it correct, but, more importantly, it sounds cool.”

SD overheard me lamenting to my partner that I can never seem to get the slap down. He said, “You’ll get there. I remember my first slap. It was a beautiful thing.”

Then, at the end of class, on my last turn, a resounding slap!

From halfway across the room, SD said, “Nice, Betsy! I heard it. That was sick!”

This day shall go on the calendar to henceforth be celebrated as the day of my first slap.

Those #onlyinJiu-Jitsu phrases are really stacking up.

After our “tough guy” pose above, SD said, “What do you want to do now? Should we smile?” I considered that for a moment but decided it would be too boring. When in doubt…

Headlock. I couldn’t see his face at the time the picture was taken, but I was fairly certain he wouldn’t let me down. What a trooper.

Trivia!

You guys aren’t very nerdy, are you? The parts of the eye that see color are called cones, as opposed to rods, which see black and white. Fun fact: Women have more cones; men have more rods. Also, women tend to see in terms of nouns, while men see action or verbs. Wild!

New question!

Depicted as bankers in the Harry Potter series and cave-dwelling villains in The Hobbit, these mythical creatures have a name dating back to 12th-century Normandy.