nin137

Nick's Journal
2007-08-23 21:59:58 (UTC)

Fightin'

on wednesday i went to my first brazilian jiu jitsu class
(or more accurately, i actually participated this time). i
don't know what specifically drove me to martial arts again.
i guess on the one hand i just wanted to get back into
doing something physical other than lifting weights and
running and partly because i'm paranoid that people want to
kill me.
for all of my paranoia of getting into fights i've really
only been in one fight my entire life. ironically enough
the cause of the fight seemed to have come from my having a
black belt.
the fight happened in 7th grade. there was this guy, todd
who was just your general run of the mill bully, stupid,
ugly, and crude.
for some reason he couldn't stand the fact that i could
possibly have a black belt and therefore could possibly kick
his ass. so for a few months he would do stupid shit to
initiate fights, mainly just pushing me around. as is the
case with most reputable martial arts instructors, they tend
to incline you towards passivism and really only fight in a
true need of self-defense.
my dad in true fashion was the exact opposite, "yo you take
that nigga out!" i believe was his advice. finally it got
to a point where i was just beyond exasperated with it and
asked my sensei, who basically said,
"well normally i would say no, but this dude sounds like a
dick, take his ass out."
so the next time good ole todd pushed me, i said to him,
"alright i'll fight you." mainly i SAID that rather than
sucker-punching him was a.) i wanted it to be over all at
once and b.) i couldn't stand to do a sucker punch.
so he threw your usual roundhouse punch towards my head
which i blocked and i delvered a roundhouse kick into his
stomach. i still remember the sound the kick made, it was
the sound a plastic bag makes after you blow it up and pop
it. i must have knocked the wind out of him cos his eyes
bulged out, and i promptly delivered a punch into his solar
plexus.
that was it. all in all? maybe 10 seconds, not even.
and that was the one and only fight i've ever been in.
1-0.
but the deal with fighting is that i hate it. i've sparred
so much in my life i know it's not much fun to get hit. the
crazy thing about karate really is that it doesn't even
prepare you that well.
my sensei had also mastered jiu jitsu and he started showing
us a few moves when we got our black belts, he basically said,
"well karate is all good and great, but if a fight lasts
more than 10 seconds, one of you is ending up on the ground,
gravity always wins...and then what are you gonna do?"
well jiu jitsu is the answer to that question. within about
5 minutes i was on the mat yesterday with a guy the size of
texas applying a choke-hold.
and let me tell you something, there's something about being
in a choke-hold...it just scares the hell out of you. i mean
this was perfectly controlled, and i guess you get used to
it after a while, but god damn, if i were in a fight and i
got into the position i was in yesterday, i'd just freak out.
next the guy did a take-down move on me which promptly
caused my shoulder to shatter into a million pieces.
"that's normal." he said grinning.
and all of the guys (there were 6 of them plus the sensei)
were all hella nice. and as i mentioned in my other entry,
it's not like jiu jitsu was making me more afraid of them.
these were all big bruiser type of guys, the kind you see on
UFC. seriously, everyone on UFC looks like they're crazy.
well these guys are just like them, you can tell that they
LIKE to fight.
well apart from their salivating over take-down maneuvers
they were all really cool and it's kind of weird joking with
people who you know could kill you quite easily. i guess
that's why there's so much respect in a class like that.
they all know what they're capable of.
well as my shoulder is healing and i am sitting here
thinking about it all, i can't wait for my next class.




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