Day 8 - Self Defense Continued (and Concluded)

I decided that I would try out my new Gi yesterday for Ninja Training class. It is quite a bit heavier than the free one we got for signing up for Ninja Lessosn. Let me use an analogy a la High School SAT to see if I can better explain what I mean by "quite a bit heavier:" Old Gi is to wearing a cotton undershirt as New Gi is to wearing a rug. But it is a pretty awesome shade of blue, so I am definitely one of the more stylish Ninja Students in class now.

Class today was all about how to get out of a standing headlock. Remember what I said on Tuesday about these techniques being so specific to the position of your opponent? If you don't, let me refresh your memory -- all the stuff we have learned so far is highly dependent on your opponent/attacker/adversary being in exactly the right position. For example, yesterday we discussed a standing headlock where your opponent has his (or her!) feet close together and what you should do to get out of that. And then we discussed what to do when the person administering the headlock has his (or her!) feet spread far apart.

I've been a bit under the weather lately dealing with West Texas Allergies, so I was in a bit of a drug-induced fog last night. That means I went to Ninja Lessons a bit on autopilot, so I cannot report with the same Ninja Journalistic Integrity on the techniques that we learned last night. So, I suppose the moral of this story is that if somebody wanted to win a fight against me, the standing headlock is my weakness. I might try the wide base headlock counter when in fact your feet are close together and hilarity would not ensue... (For the record, when I say hilarity would not ensue, I mean that somebody's knees might get accidentally blown out -- that is the consequence for not doing these techniques right).

The highlight of the night came during sparring. I had a wide range of Ninja opponents, from familiar opponents such as Ninja Short Stuff (we sparred on Day 1, but she didn't make the final cut of people to talk about in that Blog entry), to new opponents such as Ninja Surprisingly Fit For An Older Guy. That dude was quick. And strong. And knew what he was doing. I was slow. And tired. And still have no idea what I'm doing. He got me in all sorts of locks and traps that I didn't even know existed. But the highlight of that 6 minute round was while he was trying to maneuver his leg over my head. But he missed over my head and made contact with my face. Specifically my nose. Giving me my first Ninja Nosebleed. It may be a misplaced sense of pride, but I couldn't help but feel like a badass for getting a more Manly Injury than just a sore back.

There is Ninja Graduation on Saturday, so we will only have 2 hours of Jiu Jitsu instead of the full 3. It'll be nice to have a little time off, since it's officially time to start studying for Non-Ninja Exams.