Another One Hooked

Last night, we had six girls and Phil (the lone ranger--lol) at my barn doing Jiu-jitsu. Three of them had never done jiu-jitsu before. We would have had three other boys, but one couldn't get gas money and the other two didn't do their chores and weren't allowed to come! (This made me laugh because I am an evil youth pastor).

This is us attempting to be scary. I generally fail at intimidating expressions.



One of the girls who came last night one that I have been trying to get into jiu-jitsu for about six months. I tried everything. Begging. Bribing. Sweet talking. Nothing worked. She said she didn't like closed spaces. I let it go for a while, but when she recently moved in with my husband and I due to some circumstances going on, I picked up my jiu-jitsu nagging right where I left off. I was convinced that if she tried it just once, she would be hooked. Finally, after questioning her further, I found out the real reason why she didn't want to try it.

She had a stepbrother (who I also know) who had trained jiu-jitsu for a couple years. Being an older brother, he frequently tortured her with what he learned. Didn't hurt her, but wrapped her up like a pretzel and kind of bullied her. This kid is well over 200lbs, and the girl is about my height, so she felt helpless and it really bothered her.

When we started doing jiu-jitsu out in the barn, I told her she could come and watch if she wanted, no pressure to practice. I told her if she wanted to try some moves, she could do them with me only if that would make her feel better. So, she came out.

We were waiting for the rest of the group to get there and she asked me if I could show her how to get out of something that her boyfriend does to her that really makes her mad. I said I would try. She told me he gets down (he was in her guard, but she didn't know what guard was) and would pin her arms down and then tickle her. She said he was too strong for her to get off. I have had people do that to me in class on MANY occasions, so I knew several techniques to show her, which I promptly did.

After the very first technique I showed her, she said, "Ok, Allie. I will be doing Jiu-jitsu with you from now on."

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees!! I knew she would love it! She stayed for the rest of the "class" (I don't know what else to call it) and talked about Jiu-jitsu all night. It was so funny because, afterwards, she came up to me and said, "I don't want to bother you, but do you think I could come out here and learn more than just two days a week?"

Clearly she fails to realize how obsessed I am with Jiu-jitsu. I said absolutely. It would be great practice for me to go through all the basic positions and submissions again. You can never practice those enough.

The other two new girls are hooked too. We started warming up at around 5:30 and the last few stragglers didn't leave until almost 10 at night. It just brings me so much joy to see these girls light up as they realize that they CAN do jiu-jitsu and that it DOES work.

Can't wait for next class on Sunday. :)