BJJ Grrl

My new license plate is generating controversy.

My sister (27 yrs old) and my brother (23 yrs old) have both told me that my license plate will be misinterpreted by people who don’t know BJJ. And in a very dirty, dirty way. (Take out the second “J”. Now come up with a sex act with those initials. Apparently the double “R” makes it worse [and is what makes the second "J" irrelevant], but “GIRL” would make it even more worse. I never saw it that way, but then a. I do jiu-jitsu and b. my mind doesn’t go straight to the gutter like theirs.)

My brother is concerned enough that he, the stingy miser himself, said he would pay to get me new plates. He says he’s really worried about what people might do. And that, at the least, I might find my car keyed, because that’s what kids in my town do to promiscuous girls, especially ones who flaunt it.

I’ve sent a picture of the license plate out to several non-BJJ friends and asked them to ask their friends how they’d interpret it, since I have few non-BJJ friends who don’t know I do BJJ. There are a couple of stickers on the car that say either MMA or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (spelled out), but my brother is worried that no one will see those and will just interpret it how they want to.

So I guess my question is, what would you do? Should I keep it and choke or knock out anyone who tries to make it dirty? Add more stickers to make it more obvious? Or take my brother’s money and try to find something else?

(If you’re reading this in a feedreader, there’s a poll below.)

I’m restless. I want to roll. But all my aches are still aching. My toe is still not quite right. So I’m taking this week off, too.

I texted Tim earlier to tell him I was taking another week off (“to heal and rest and get fat on cookies”). He sent back that that was okay, the academy was closed anyway this week while they moved everything. We’re heading to a larger place a mile or so down the road. Actually, the place we’re going to end up isn’t ready yet — the current tenants won’t be out until the end of January, but our lease is up the end of this month — so we’re moving to a temporary location about a block from the new place (I think; I’m still a little fuzzy on the exact place). So, new year, new places.

is official

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!

I left work at the first sign of flurries yesterday. But it had already been snowing everywhere else, so the roads were already getting bad. My normal 15-minute drive took me nearly an hour. By the time I got home, the world looked like this:

It snowed all night, and by morning it looked like this:

That’s 18+ inches (and some wind to drift it around), and there’s supposed to be more today and maybe tomorrow. I’m very glad now that I finally signed up for Netflix this last week and can get movies on my computer. I’m also very glad that our internet is still working!

But, that curtails any more jiu-jitsu I was going to try to sneak in. Next two weeks are for rest. (Ya hear that, self? Rest.) So, see ya’ll next year!

Random observations from the last couple of weeks:

Why are new guys surprised when a male blue belt or male brown belt taps them out six ways from Sunday without breaking a sweat? I can understand the surprise if I’m rolling with them, but against a brown belt?? C’mon… And then later, when watching said brown belt roll with someone else, going at maybe 60% and still getting him six ways from Sunday, same new guy is surprised that the brown belt has another gear than the one in their earlier match. Is it really such a surprise that people who have been doing something for far longer than you have are better at it than you are?

Also, why are white belts, no matter how long they’ve been training, surprised when purples pwn them? Why?

*****

Why do many guys feel the need to bring their “A” game when they roll with me? Why? It’s completely unnecessary. I should be flattered, I suppose, that they think I’m that much of a threat and challenge, but at the same time I’m really annoyed because their “A” game completely shuts me down and so I spend a round having to defend as hard as I can — which still usually does nothing — and not getting to work anything else. They’re not just barely better than me, either; they’re much, much better, and it basically feels as if they’re taking complete advantage of that. And it’s not that I’m just thinking this must be their “A” game: at least one of them has told me that he brings his “A” game every time he rolls with me. He made a distinction between the guys he tries stuff on, those of us he has to use his “A” game against, and those he has to defend against. I was too stunned at the time to say anything.

One theory might be that going harder on me will help me get better, but in these cases I’m completely overwhelmed, outmuscled, and overmatched. What did I do wrong there? I have no idea. (There are also guys who increase pressure and intensity to keep me working, but rarely to the point where I’m overwhelmed. I know they’re toning it down, and for that I am very thankful.) I get the idea that these guys, in particular, aren’t thinking of trying to help me at all; they’re just working their game. And then when I roll with everyone who I normally have to defend against, I’m still defending. And then when I get in situations like Submission Only where I’m supposed to be hunting submissions, I’m still generally defending. Because that seems to be all I practice. I sometimes get a couple of rolls during the week where I feel fairly evenly matched with or even slightly better technique-wise than the guy, so I try to work techniques I’m not so good at, to catch-and-release submissions, to put myself in bad spots and work out, and to work positions and control, because otherwise I’d never get to do these.

I guess my question is, should I say anything to the guys who purposefully bring their “A” game to every roll with me when they don’t need to? I try to step up with them every time, but even my “A” game is far below theirs. Or should I just resign myself to defending against their “A” game and try to get more rolls with the guys I think I’m evenly matched with and work my “A” game on them? But that just feels selfish to me.

Bah.

*****

I’ve seen threads on forums complaining that BJJ belts are becoming “watered down,” that it’s too easy to get a belt these days. I think a lot of these threads are coming from guys who aren’t happy about someone else’s promotion, either that they feel got promoted ahead of them (“I’m better than he is; why’d he get it and not me?”) or that they judge isn’t good enough for the belt. I think we like to throw around “10 years to a black belt” phrase because it intimidates some people from ever starting BJJ, it impresses others with our commitment to BJJ, and it makes our belts sound superior to TMA belts. (And then I see a BJJ “White Belt World Champion,” and I snicker.)

This even came up somewhat in class the other day, when a new guy asked Tim about the belts. Tim told him the oft-quoted “10 years to a black belt,” but also said that he feels times have changed since he was coming up through the ranks. Then, he had to travel to train — to Atlanta with Jacare, to NOVA with Lloyd Irvin and Pedro Sauer, to New York with Renzo; to judo schools just for 10 minutes of groundwork afterwards — because there weren’t any belts of any color around. He used to have to practice on his wife, since he often had no training partners around. He remembers when meeting a blue belt was a huge deal, much less a purple, brown, or black. He even started his school when he was a purple, maybe blue. Now, he said, since there are more instructors and more upper belts, he doesn’t think it should take so long to get a black belt. Also, you’ve got instructional DVDs and books and YouTube (he does have a VHS instructional around somewhere); you’ve got greater access to more qualified instructors; and, most importantly, you have experienced training partners. I agree with him: it’s easier to get better when there’s a bigger community doing the same thing.