There and Back

I got saved by the buzzer twice today at open mat. My partners had me, it was just a matter of me tapping. But in the allotted time which is five minutes, I survived. Barely.

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My head instructor asked me to spar today, black belt in JiuJitsu and black belt in judo, 60 years old, about 5’7, 180 pounds and built like a brick shed. I was a little nervous, but ready to roll.

What can I say he’s a black belt and I’m a blue Belt. He made his 180 pounds feel like 230 pounds. He stuck to me like glue, and didn’t give me an inch. The only thing I can say is that I didn’t get submitted, thank goodness so that’s a win in my books but I’ll never know for sure if he was going easy on me. That’s okay because I think I put up some really good defense.

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I rolled with a gigantic blue belt with an accent, who doesn’t take it easy on anyone. It’s my own fault. I got smashed and smushed. Before rolling with him I told myself “don’t get underneath this guy” and sure enough I did and sure enough it hurt. I also saw him rolling with a new white belt and he had him in a head and arm triangle and it didn’t look like he was going easy on him. He’s got maybe 100 pounds on the kid. But he wasn’t completely mean because he was giving advice to the young white belt after.

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I also rolled with a tall purple belt who is strong. I don’t know if it’s just me, but he seems like he has something to prove or he’s just very competitive. Either way it’s always a tough role with him, but I put up some good defence and he was definitely trying to submit me hard but I survived. We both had a good laugh after. Until next time purple belt, until next time.

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Here’s some cool news, a fellow blue belt just got a bunch of new mats at their house and they want to start a fight club that’s not a fight club. A place where we can go and drill outside of our regular scheduled classes. They thought I would be a good addition to their extra mat time group, and I said I would love to join them. We’ll see if it actually happens, getting a bunch of people to coordinate and schedule time for it, could be challenging. You never know, maybe this will help us all get better faster, a bunch of blue belts and white belts teaching each other techniques. What could possibly go wrong?

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Here are some A.I. Generated Images from Adobe Firefly 2.0, using the prompt, “JiuJitsu practitioners, sending in a circle laughing all wearing blue belt around their waist”