Day 13 - More Makeups

So remember how I ended my entry last week briefly writing about the girl who passed out as we were wrapping up our lesson? I need to clarify that a little bit because I think the Controllers of the Universe or the Karma Gods or whatever you want to call them tried to pay me back with a vengeance yesterday. More on that later. First, clarification. When that girl passed out, after I realized she wasn't faking, I was honestly a little jealous. I mean she was going all out at jiu jitsu. So intensely that blood couldn't get to her brain fast enough. Then *BAM* hit the mat. She literally could not have worked harder. And I admired that. So last night, I almost achieved the same intensity...

Like Monday, I went to both Masters Ninja Training as well as Basic Ninja Training. And also like Monday, I left absolutely exhausted. During the technique portion of the lesson, Ninja Master taught us how to counter the Half-Guard Escape that we learned on Monday. Unfortunately, my new buddy Ninja Chef (if I've been calling him Ninja Cook, I have been doing him a disservice), wasn't at Ninja Training all day yesterday, so I had to find a new Ninja Partner. We'll call him Ninja Corpse because all he did was lie (lay?) there and did not offer much in the way of a lessons partner. See, it's important while you are learning these moves that your partner offer some sort of resistance and correct positioning so that you can get a good feel for how the technique is supposed to work. But Ninja Corpse did not do any of that, meaning I probably am not a master of that particular technique. That's ok though because the Ninja Lessons are set up as a "rolling curriculum," which means that there is a set number of lessons and Ninja Master just cycles through them. It is alot like jumping into a lazy river... you just keep going and going and going...

Sparring yesterday was rough. Very rough. Again, because this was Ninja Masters class, I had a wide range of opponents when it came to ability. The White and Orange Belted opponents wore me out. I think it was a fluke when I went through a couple opponents without getting tapped out because I have been on a series of just getting beat down. Ninja Master calls it part of a "Peak, Plateau, and Valley." Clearly, I am in the middle of a Valley right now and hope for this stuff to start clicking here sooner rather than later...

It was the last round of Masters Sparring that caused me to just about mimic Ninja Fainter from last week. I went up against Ninja Buddy during my last round, partially hoping to take it easy, partially hoping that I'd learn some stuff to break me out of my funk. He definitely went easy on me and definitely offered some more good pointers, but it was definitely not the walk in the park I was expected. Once the buzzer went off and we stood up, the world started getting hazy. It was like what happens after you've had too much to drink and are about to puke. Only it wasn't puking I was worried about, it was passing out. So I immediately started shedding clothing. Actually, that's not completely true... I just took off that rug of a gi (also called a kimono... I'll have a tutorial on jiu jitsu right after finals, I promise) and sat down for all of 30 seconds before Ninja Master called us back to conclude class.

Ninja Basics was more about closing the gap, only this time your opponent is wildly flailing both fists. Again, the techniques are largely the same... kick the bad guy to piss him off and get him flailing, wrap him up, and then hip throw. My partner was not Ninja Corpse, but rather Ninja Stone Cold Steve Austin. But a nicer version of what I imagine Stone Cold Steve Austin is like. For whatever reason (I'm blaming lack of oxygen to the brain), I could not master the Ninja Basic moves last night. But Ninja Stone Cold Steve Austin was extremely patient with me, so for that I appreciated him.

Sparring in Ninja Basic was equally rough, just because I was 1.) Exhausted and 2.) Still have no idea what I'm doing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I know what it looks like when I'm wrong... I just don't know how to prevent it yet. So it has definitely been a frustrating couple of days. But Ninja Master said to keep at it and it'll start to click. I've gotta be honest -- at the beginning, I wasn't really buying into his philosophy, but the way he does things is starting to make sense. Plus, he could still kick my ass all over the place, so he definitely gets my respect. I've been doing all this complaining, but I need to clarify... jiu jitsu sucks right now, but it is still one of the greatest things I've ever done. Staying home all day studying creates a ton of nervous energy that I get to get rid of at these 3 times a week lessons. I would definitely recommend them to a friend.