It Was the One-Armed Man!!

Yesterday was one of those days where I basically paid to get my butt kicked. No one hurt me or anything. They just out-grappled me. Honestly, I think I would rather be muscled around and smashed. Then I would have something to complain about other than my lack of skills. ;)

The pinnacle of my lesson in humility was a grapple with one of the blues, Salsa John. I love rolling with him. He's technical, fast, thinks on his feet, so to speak. It's always exciting. But he hurt his wrist and yesterday he had to grapple with one arm tied in his belt.

I knew I wouldn't have much of an advantage. I mean, even minus one arm, he is still more [insert any positive description of a grappler here] than me. But I also didn't expect him to still own the garbage out of me with one less limb than I had. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. Though he didn't get any submissions (I don't know if he was even going for any) he still dominated me positionally.

After class, I was sitting around listening to conversations and was hearing all these stories from three years ago or five years ago or whatever when the guys were at the old gym, long before I even knew what BJJ was, and it really struck me how much of a BJJ baby I am.

In August, I will have been grappling for one year. Fabio has been grappling since 1992. Ben has been grappling almost 9 years, I think. Somewhere around there. I don't know what all the stats are on the rest of the people in the gym, but most of the blues have been there a lot longer than me.

Being a woman, I am naturally talented at having multiple, conflicting emotions all at the same time. And, at that moment, I felt two things very distinctly. (1) I felt crappy because of how long of a way I have to go. (2) I felt excited about the years of Jiu-jitsu I have ahead of me.

Right now, I get dominated a lot. Georgette blogged this morning about feeling frustrated with her grappling and I have to say that I have felt the same way a lot.

But at the same time, in the back of my mind,I am excited to see the level of Jiu-jitsu that is kicking my butt. To me, that is evidence that I am working toward something great. If I was able to come in a grapple for a year and be able to beat blue belts that had been there three or five years, that would almost certainly mean that the BJJ we were learning wasn't up to par.

But I see how good they are compared to me. And I see how good our instructors are compared to them. And even Fabio will tell you that he still learns new things from time to time. He is always growing and sharpening his skills.

It just makes me excited to know that I will never be done learning. That might be discouraging to some people, but for me it is comforting. It's like being in the middle of a really great book series and knowing that I am not going to have to stop reading because I ran out of books. (Oops...my nerd is showing).

Anyways, being beaten by a one-armed man sucks. But seeing that Jiu-jitsu works and knowing what I have to look forward to in the future makes the suckiness worth it. So, thanks to all of you guys who push me to my limit. You guys remind me what I'm working for.