New Blue

Each coloured belt awarded in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is a pretty big deal.

Since I attended my first class at the end of September, not even one has been given out. This just changed.

There is this tiny, little teenaged girl who is almost always at class. She has been the most advanced of our White Belts, and recently completed the lengthy testing process. Last night the results were in, and the instructor tied the new belt around her waist.

She is proud of being one of the first female Blue Belts in Canada (the 3rd), and to have earned it with only 13 months of training.

Some people think this is cute, but silly. How could this tiny little person handle a large adult male?

They don't realize how sexist they are being. There are quite a few teenaged boys in the class under 130 pounds in size. Although they are bigger than her, she handles them easily.

If I had to fight any of them, I would have no difficulty. I know what they know, and I'm bigger. Funny how nobody suggests that they are wasting their time.

In a real fight, I would rather have her on my side than any of them, and they actually fight pretty well.

Against somebody massively bigger and stronger, would she lose? I'd say so.

We recently had a visitor from another club. He was here for a couple of months, and he was 100 pounds larger than anybody else in the club. He wasn't fat, just huge. I was the second largest, and often ended up as his partner. I don't think any of the smaller people could really handle this guy, even with better technique. Sometimes I would have him well secured on the ground, and he would just stand up with me clinging to his chest or arms. It was if I wasn't there, and I weigh 180 pounds.

Well, if the small guys can't beat a giant, and if the large people have trouble as well, why suggest that if a tiny girl can't beat him she's wasting her time?

Increasingly, women are being attacked by other women. Our Blue Belt need never fear something like that. Males who attack women are not always giants. Need she fear an attack by any guy of average size? Nope.

Giants? I'm scared of giants.