On this fine Saturday morning, since I did not have to be at work at 7:00 AM, I sipped my coffee leisurely. Getting ready for class, I brushed my teeth and gargled. Who wants coffee breath in their face? Before leaving I puffed heavily in my husband’s direction and asked, “How’s my breath?” “Fine,” he said. “Minty. But don’t you want it to smell? I mean, wouldn’t that be an advantage?” Perhaps he was secretly jealous that here I was, off to roll with the boys, divested of my wedding ring (broken fingers can happen), and worried about my body scents. Let’s face it: I don’t care if my husband has to smell my coffee breath. Nor do I rush to shave my legs at the first sign of stubble. That’s part of the deal when you’re married.
Today’s class was the most fun I’ve had so far. We drilled and practiced first, and then each member rolled with each other. I had the most fun with the other white belt. The higher belts are all pretty big guys and very skilled. When we roll, they tend to instruct me. That’s good. I certainly need that. But it’s lopsided. Today the other white belt (who is a smaller guy, but still much bigger than my under-5’ frame) and I were going at it pretty heavily. Neither of us know much so we were trying to get anything we could. We ended up tumbling over each other all the way across the mat. I think we surprised our classmates.
My last roll was with one of the advanced blue belts. Everyone else was tired and sitting on the sidelines. They cheered me on and shouted advice. Advanced Blue let me lock him several times, but made me work for it. I left sweating and out of breath. For the first time I felt that I had exercised comparable to a run.
This afternoon my family went looking for our Christmas tree. Well, searching really. After 2 ½ hours and four farms, we lopped down what is not the perfect tree, but is the tree that we could all deal with in our tired, hungry, and cold state. Two teen boys and a teen girl drove a tractor up to carry the tree to our car. The girl went to lift the tree and the boys made some statement about her not being able to do it. Then they disparaged her girl-hood. My husband said, “You should take Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and then you’ll be able to kick their asses.” “Yeah!” she said. Or, she could just drink a LOT of coffee.
Awesome. What that advanced blue did for you by letting you have things that you worked for, and thereby a good workout and some feeling of accomplishment is exactly what you'll be able to do (or are doing) for someone less skilled than you.
ReplyDeleteI am always thankful for how my coaches and the higher belts around are so gracious in letting me work things instead of just crushing me over and over. Okay, well sometimes they just crush me over and over, but I asked for it. ;)
Jits is interesting in that I feel like I incur a debt of gratitude to my coaches and those around me that I can only pay back by having the same attitude with someone less skilled than myself. I try to pay back all the patience, encouragement, and answers that I receive and I expect that the cycle continues.