#except steve

It was my first night back at fight club after about a week because I had a lot of school stuff going on. I was grumpy and exhausted but excited to finally be back doing the stuff I love. I get in there and it’s open mat night, meaning you do whatever with whoever. 

My buddy Rodriguez brought a girl named Jade over. Apparently they were doing something and he didn’t have time to drop her off back home, I dunno, she was there. Rodriguez introduced us, she said she’s really shy and was planning on sitting there until it was time to go and I was like “hell naw.” 

Ok not really. I actually asked her whether she wanted to learn some self defense stuff while she’s stuck here. I showed her as much stuff as I could in about 1.5 hours - basics like pay attention to your surroundings, verbally tell people to fuck off if they’re getting too close, kick them if they rush you, if the kick fails smack them in the face until they stagger and kick in the groin. Fun stuff! She did awesome I’m very proud of her. 

We defended a choke from behind, one of my personal favorite defenses, next. Basically when someone throws their arm around your neck from behind and tries to choke with the forearms or elbow crease, just dig your fingers in-between the arm and the neck, pull down with the elbows, shift your hips out to the side the arm came from and then take one entire forearm and slam it into your attacker’s groin. They’ll recoil, release the choke, then you turn and kick their knee in sideways. The thing people have a hard time realizing is that you will never be able to pull someone’s arm away and that’s ok. All you need to defend the choke is the ability to breathe, which the elbow strength can do. 

Anyway her and I practiced a bit, she did great, but she looked a unconvinced. She said “I’m not very strong though. I don’t think I’d be able to get their arm away.” I got super excited because that meant I got to show the cool as fuck demonstration. I run off to get Steve (who I thought wasn’t paying attention to us). The demonstration is having Steve grab me by the neck from behind and lifting me off the ground to demonstrate how effective the block is. Both my legs are off the ground, I’m holding myself up by his arm and I can still breathe. It’s effective, shock value is great and I love it. 

He took it a step further and offered to do the same thing for Jade and this awesome woman agreed to it. I am so fuckin’ proud. She hasn’t touched martial anything in her life and she’s out here trying new things <3

Afterwards, her and I practice stuff like “how to fall on concrete without breaking your arm”  before I go spar with Rodriguez for the rest of the night. At closing Steve did the nightly motivation speech followed by the hug line. When I hugged him, he whispered “see me after class” in my ear. 

I’m like “aight.” Also, very proud of myself for no longer assuming the worst when I hear that. As soon as he finished up talking to everyone, he comes to meet me in the hall and glares at me.

“I swear if your father does anything to fuck up your martial arts career, I will personally hunt him down and beat his ass.” 

That got my attention. Got lots of emotions like “!!!!I have a protective male figure that I respect in my life!!,” “awww,” “Holy fuck I haven’t heard him threaten anyone before” and “...career?”  

Dude claps me on the shoulder and said “If we didn’t have a three months experience requirement I’d give you your white belts right now.” 

I went :O and then immediately said “Wait why?”

He said “I saw what you did.” Normally that’s not a good thing but then he went on and on about how he was watching me be excited to help others and show what (little) I’ve learned so far. In his opinion, the four requirements for getting a white belt are a foundation in self defense (which I have), being able to handle yourself sparring/willingly and happily engage in getting hit (which I can), the basics of the specific martial art (which I don’t have yet but he said I’ll definitely have that down in three months) and a willingness to share and help others learn. He said he’s so proud of me that I’m already over the ego-boosting portion of learning this stuff, that I’m confident in myself. 

This dude is so fuckin’ aggressive with his praise too. I mean he’s cussing up and down and growling like he’s trying to suppress a yell. Anyone else looking in would’ve thought he was chewing me out for dishonorably beating someone up or something. I love it. Reminds me of my mom.