If you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d be doing jiu jitsu at this time in my life, I wouldn’t have believed you. More so, if you’d told me I’d be doing jiu jitsu with my pastor’s son’s wife, I really wouldn’t have believed you. I also get to do jiu jitsu with my husband. He’s actually my main training partner. If you’d told me I’d be married to him, I would have probably had a heart attack out of pure exhilaration. But that’s a different story. We’ve been doing jiu jitsu for three and a half years now and have our blue belts. We took about a year off after Richard tore his ACL.

Jiu jitsu is a martial art in which two people grapple. It’s a matter of controlling one’s opponent via leverage and skill. In fact, it’s often  called “the gentle art.” Submitting an opponent means you’ve either choked them out (so they’re unconscious) or you’ve broken their arm or torn their rotator cuff or broken their foot/ankle or ripped their knee. The gentle art. We call it that, though, because it teaches a smaller, weaker person to defend herself against a larger attacker. It’s a matter of using technique, not strength.

Some people who’ve never fought or have never grappled may assume that in a real-life fight/assault situation, they would just fight or know what to do. I guarantee this would not be the case. Some people who watch the UFC think it’d be easy to get in there and fight, that they could easily do it. I disagree.

Prior to doing jiu jistu myself, I had no idea how much of a skill fighting is. It’s really quite amazing. Like painting or gardening or doing any type of job. There are principles and systems.

Today, Richard and I worked in the back room of our school’s gym, forgoing the formal “Master Cycle” class taught by three black belts. We’ve decided to pursue the original Master Cycle course, as created and developed by Rener & Rydon Gracie. We spent a week watching the video on Lesson 1 in Master Cycle: “Super Hooks.” I love the names they have for some of the moves…more on this later. Super Hooks are your legs, precisely, your legs when you’re lying on top of a bad guy when his back is on the ground. If his knees are bent so that his knees are facing up toward the ceiling/sky, you have to use your hips and legs to keep him from rolling you off. So, you rest on top with your legs somewhat bent and knees flared out. You feel for any shift in his movements. You can tell he’s getting to roll you to your right when you feel his right glute/hip start coming off the ground or floor. To counter this, you have to shoot your left hook (leg) under his right leg as it’s bent and basically pin his hip to the ground by shooting your left foot up to the sky. While this is going on, you flare your right knee out a little bit on the ground for an extra base. You have to be ready to switch hooks at any second to keep from being rolled. Super Hooks are a great posterior chain exercise. Your glutes and hamstrings will start burning. But it’s amazing. The goal is to stay glued on top of the bad guy. Let him get worn out trying to roll you off. Whatever happens, don’t get rolled. It’s not fun being on the bottom and it’s hard to get out from the bottom, especially when everyone’s 100 pounds heavier than you. Trust me, I know.

But thankfully there is the beloved Gracie Combatives program, also created by the Gracie brothers. This program is perfect for beginners. It teaches people how to defend themselves against the most common street or real-life assault scenarios. And, it teaches with this in mind: that you as the good guy are going to be smaller, weaker, and slower than your attacker. Moves in this program include: the lifesaving “Trap and Roll” in which you are able to go from being beneath an attacker who is mounted on you (the worst possible place to be) to you being upright and between his legs (a place from where you can run away); “Elbow Escape,” in which you learn to fenagle your way out from being beneath an attacker who is on hands and knees hovering over you; “Haymaker Punch Defense,” how to not get punched in the head when someone is swinging at you and how to get out of harm’s way; “Double Leg Takedown,” a great way to be assertive and get your opponent down on the ground when he’s coming at you; “The Giant Killer,” a way to choke out a massive bad guy who’s trying to smash you when your back is on the ground and he’s coming at you. It’s fun stuff – and there’s much more.

Jiu jitsu is a great way to build confidence and to learn some basic self-defense. It can be a good workout, too. And, it’s fun. I’ve met some really great people through jiu jitsu as well, people from all over the place, who are so friendly and encouraging. The most important thing jiu jitsu has taught me, a 5’4, 128-pound female, is how much I don’t want to ever get in a fight. Jiu jitsu certainly has its limitations. Size and strength matter and men are very strong (trust me, I know from gently sparring and drilling with males who outweigh me by 150 pounds). This realization has sharpened my sense of observational awareness and ability to read social cues. I don’t want to say that I live in fear or am paranoid, but I will say just from watching a little bit of Dateline and the local news: a lot of people willingly walk into some BAAAADD situations. It’s best to avoid them. The day I need to employ jiu jitsu will be a bad day. I prefer to keep an eye out, carry mace, and always be able to run away. This means forgoing heels, debauchery, and late nights with strangers in dark alleys – things I loathe anyway. And being able to run away means running regularly, which I still like more than jiu jitsu. ~