I’m beat up and have acquired new bruises, swellings and scratches, but I really enjoyed jujitsu today. I find it remarkable that the other white belts (who don’t have blackbelt ego but are advanced enough to have stuff to teach me) can do the whole full-body contact without feeling self-conscious or letting any sort of tension get in the way. One guy who was practicing for a competition this Sunday told me a story after class about how even tho his buddy is bigger and stronger than he is, that despite his injured elbow he was able to get his buddy into a submission hold half the time when they’re wrestling because of his more polished martial arts techniques. He started describing one foothold ‘trick’ that I couldn’t understand, so he showed it to me. He got on his back with his knees up, opened his legs, and told me to get on top of him. This was slightly uncomfortable, but then I’m not as deep into the martial arts mentality as he is. He clearly has no problem with this. So I did it and he demonstrated the leg lock and showed me how if I try to punch him (which I did), he could with very little strength yank me off balance downward (which he did), or push me over (which he did), and there’s nothing I could do about it or to even get up (which I tried to do and failed). He had me turn and look at the hold of his legs wrapped around mine, and the location of his feet around my ankles. And it was purely educational. There’s none of the winks and grins that the blackbelt did to me even on Monday. (Of course, my cold reception toward it on Monday made the blackbelt way more business-oriented around me today. Not stiffly since the whole class still jokes around and stuff, but it’s more platonic.)
As everyone was walking out after class, the instructor said in a year he was going to have me in competitions and I should start practicing now with that goal in mind. I looked dubious and one of the more skilled guys (who had taught me a lot) said that I have nice hip-throws. I was shocked. I said I couldn’t lift anyone in the class. Then they all looked surprised. They said I could, and my positioning on the hip throws is good. Maybe they’re just yanking my chain so I’d continue with the class, I dunno.