Strong as an Ox!

I had grappling in tae kwon do on Friday - though it's not part of the martial art of tae kwon do, they still teach it in our school. Grappling is more part of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It used to be we'd focus on it the last week of each month but now he's going to have it every Friday. I haven't grappled in a while - probably two months, it just has worked out that way. Sometimes I fear the class 'cause you can really get beat up and sore.

On Friday, I didn't do as well as I normally do - but I still did respectably. I was paired up with the only other female in the class. It was hard to do the practice portion because she was not really going at it full strength. Then when it came time to actually grapple - she didn't want to do it and sat it out. Normally this wouldn't be allowed but she's dating the teacher/owner so perhaps he just allowed it due to that. I took turns grappling with the different men in the class. One of them I should've done way better against. Then there is this one guy whose uniform is grimmy, he's extremely sweaty and it's just gross so I wasn't really trying to give it my all and get all that stink on me.

The highlight of the class was when I got one of the co-instructors in a lock. We started on one knee and from there I got up and put him in a headlock. Then we took it to the ground and I wrapped my legs around him from behind. He couldn't get out of my hold and he is a brown belt (2-3 belts away from black belt). Everybody in the class was amazed - another co-instructor getting Sabumnim's attention to marvel at what I was doing. Can't lie - it felt good. Felt even better when the guy I had pinned was remarking that I am strong as an ox! :) Felt good to impress the more seasoned people there. But I think I got lucky with getting the guy in position to begin with because he'd never seen me fight before and didn't know what he was in for. I don't know as though I'd be able to repeat it, but I'll sure try! He's a slender guy so that makes it easier for me.

I grappled with another one of the co-instructors and it was just lights out both times. He would just lay me flat and fall on top of me - that would be it. He was too heavy for me to move and try and do damage. The second time I thought I'd try to give myself some advantage so perhaps the match could last longer, even though I knew I was going to lose. So we started with me behind him attempting a headlock. He just flipped me over on my back and fell on top of me again.

I got to grapple with Sabumnim - but he wasn't really trying. He just got me in a hold where I was on top and he had his legs wrapped around me. I kept fighting but soon realized that as long as he had his legs around me - fighting with the top half was pointless. I had remembered what he said about people always forgetting to use the bottom half of their body in a fight. So I opted to stand up with his legs around me to get them off that way. He held on with his legs and then finally just released.

I got black and blues under my upper arm, I seem to get black and blues there whenever I grapple. I've always thought they were marks left from people trying to pry me off of them, but now I think they're just impact black and blues. Sometimes if you get slapped hard enough you'll get this splatter looking black and blue pattern. That's basically what I have under my upper arms. It's the only explanation I can come up with.