I’ve had a couple more elbow escape classes. You know, that one move I’m good at? In one of these classes, Instructor told me I was “on fire,” and said, “No point deductions,” which are my three favorite words.
Surfer Dude said, “That was so quick, I didn’t have a chance to commentate.” Poor guy.
In a slightly different elbow escape class, my partner said, “She’s got that down.”
“Yes. She. Does,” Instructor said as he walked away to watch another pairing.
“Those four stripes aren’t just for show,” Surfer Dude said.
I don’t know what it is with me and this particular move. Not only did I do it with my eyes closed, but I was even humming! Not intentionally to be a punk, mind you. It was just… happening.
Meanwhile, I hate to break this to you, but in the most recent triangle choke class, Instructor told us to lift our head and smile at our partner if they forgot to keep head control.
My Jiu-Jitsu instructor explained how to trap someone’s arm when they go for a punch so you can more easily roll them over and get on top of the fight. Someone asked, “What if the other person doesn’t try to punch you? How will you trap their arm then?”
“You can say something like, ‘You hit like a kid!’ That will make them want to punch you.”
He didn’t say “like a girl” because I’m here.
Then Instructor added, “I would’ve said, ‘You hit like a girl,’ but Betsy’s here and she hit me once and it wasn’t fun.”
Knew it.
The guys on either side turned to look at me, but I kept my face forward and smiled. I’ve never hit Instructor! But it was funny.
Also funny: when Instructor leaned sideways to demonstrate something and said, “I didn’t have my V8 today… That used to be a thing.”
One guy on the other end of the line stuck his head out, looking at the rest of us with a giant grin that bit back a laugh. Everyone else ignored him, but I caught the smile and sent it right back. Seeing other people enjoy Instructor’s jokes is almost as much fun as the jokes themselves.
The Return of Surfer Dude
Remember when I named my first practice partner Surfer Dude because he had the look of one, not because I knew he surfed? Another guy was talking to him about his big yellow van. After class, I saw the van. There was a wet suit hanging to dry over a side mirror and these stickers on the back.
He IS a surfer dude. Called it!
Relating to Li’l Trejo
Thanks to Mark reminding me of a Disturbed song, I was able to say to Li’l Trejo, “Guess what song I heard on the way here. I’ll give you a clue… maybe. ‘Oh-wa-ah-ah-ah.'”
“Oh! Down with the Sickness,” he said immediately.
“You got it! I wasn’t sure I could do that well enough.”
“No, it was great. That was the song that got me into Disturbed. When I first heard it, I said, ‘Mom, Dad, you gotta get me this CD.’ They got me the clean version. I had to wait until later to get the real version.”
How young IS this guy?
Regarding ET
There was a moment after a class when I could’ve said something to Instructor about ET’s extra attention, but he was intently working at his computer, logging our classes, maybe. Lots of room for human error there. His expression carried with it an invisible “Do not disturb” sign around his neck, so I let it go.
Thank you, Koala Park Laundromat, of pixabay.
At the start of the next class, everyone moved away from the wall to partner up except for me, ET a few feet to my right, and Lopez a few feet to my left. I gave ET an apologetic smile as I stepped toward Lopez. ET threw his arm up in a “what the heck?” gesture. But because there were an odd number of people and Lopez is an upper belt, Instructor pulled him from me, put me with ET, and had Lopez roam the room, assisting as needed.
I’ve realized a few things about ET: 1. He’s harmless. He did make some comment about how something would make me “just a little bit prettier.” I missed the first part of what he said. I ignore half of what he says anyway. But clearly there was only one response I could give to this:
Motherhood and Martial Arts 