Lady Blogs....

Today I was wandering about the internet, and stumbled on a Jiu-Jitsu blog called, "BJJ Grrl." It was interesting, and lead to other blogs by female Jiu-Jitsu people.

Each must be striking a nerve, as they have tons of comments from other female parishioners.

Certain universals seem to emerge.

They all have experienced guys who use size and strength to bully on the mat. They also all seem to train at clubs where free-rolling is a big part of things.

Free-rolling is like free-sparring in other martial arts, or randori in Judo. This is where you play with a partner, exchanging technique. Trying to score, or beat them, or whatever.

The Jiu-Jitsu they describe sounds like Judo fifty years ago. That was when Judo was recently accepted as an Olympic sport, and many clubs moved away from self-defense and self-improvement and into the sport aspect. Many insisted on competition participation, or even success, for rank progression.

Who would do that kind of thing these days?

And who would ever use size to bully a dojo mate? I outweigh the women in my class by fifty pounds easily. There are about half a dozen teen-aged boys who are equally small. If I put my full body weight on any of them with correct position, there would be a kind of moaning sigh as their lungs empty and their ribcage flattens.

Who learns from that? I sure don't. Does the pancake? Hardly.

I put weight onto them, but hold some off. This lets them work their moves. If they can do it, I might put on more force the next time. If they can do it again, I can continue to crank it up slowly. When they reach their limit, I hold there.

Maybe it's my Karate background. I've sparred with White Belts many times while wearing my Black. I could destroy them pretty easily, but to what effect? I go slower, and broadcast intentions, and leave openings. They learn from this.

Do they walk away thinking they beat that Black Belt? Hardly. They appreciate it and understand. So do my Jiu-Jitsu partners.

Another universal thread is that the women's blogs would advise other women not to worry when they cry on the mat. Cry? They don't cite injury, which I could understand. They relate it to frustration. Frustration?

Do they suck that bad? I've rolled with our instructor. I think he got one submission on me, but I was able to prevent the rest. I got nothing on him, except for a few positions. He did stuff to me I'd never seen, and still was holding way back. Frustrating? Not at all. It was packed with tiny victories.

If he'd gone crazy on me and treated me like a rag doll I wouldn't have learned much. Frustrated? Being dominated by somebody who can and should be able to would be no surprise at all.

Training with our Christmas giant hurt a bit, but frustrating? Even when I was supposed to perform the cunning move, and it didn't move him at all, I was learning. I found lots of ways to make moves work better. Sometimes even then I couldn't move him. Can't say it made me want to cry.

But like my wife sometimes says...

...I'm dead inside....