Hi, my name is Jenn, and I am a jujitsu-holic

Despite training 5-7 hours a week at jujitsu, I want more. More mat burn and jammed fingers; more sweaty gis and Gatorade; more joint locks, throws, movement and striking drills; more more more.

I plan to continue for the foreseeable future with my current school. I’ve been thinking about my future with the specific variants  of jujitsu and karate that I study, and though I’m not sure I want to commit to either long-term, I’m having fun with them right now. For the two or three people interested, here’s my lineage:

• Shinki Ryu jujitsu through Stanton
• Shito Ryu karate through Kuniba
• Daito Ryu aiki jujitsu through Yonezawa (not that I, a lowly green belt, get to learn much of that)

I enjoy the joint locks, weapons, and kata, but I want more groundwork and throws in my diet. Traditional judo and Russian sambo sound good.

So today I checked out a judo/sambo club. It’s located in The Middle of Nowhere, Missouri, and the facility resembles a steel barn with garage doors rolled up for air. As I walked up the driveway, I could see gi-clad figures stretching and moving around inside. The head instructor, Mike, greeted me, asked me if I had any experience, and had me jump right into class.

The warm-up consisted of a circular movement drill and then a couple minutes of grip-fighting. (This is a paired exercise using judo grips: you grab your partner by the lapel and sleeve, then try to jerk them off-balance and set up for throws.) I wasn’t too good at the grip-fighting and was out of breath by the time we finished. I’ve been biking a lot lately, but my cardio’s still not up to snuff. It probably didn’t help that I broke my toe recently and it’s still healing, making maneuvering a bit painful. (I dropped a heavy guy on my foot while my toes were bent at class a few weeks ago. Note to self: in the future, keep instep flat on floor when doing kneeling throws.)

The rest of the hour and a half class was filled with technique drills—all groundwork. At the start, I gravitated toward a yellow belt about my size named G. and ended up working with her all evening. We drilled variations on a simple gi choke, with tori taking uke’s back as uke is on her hands and knees, setting an arm under uke’s throat and gripping her lapel, and then tori rolling both over  to choke.

We also did several versions of an armbar and a shoulder lock. I tended to land with uke’s head between my ankles when flipping her over during an armbar variation, rather than landing with both legs on top of her throat as judo prefers. But Mike pointed out the triangle choke to me. I’m betting the triangle will become one of my go-to techniques—my legs are flexible enough to pull it off and short enough to set it quite tightly.

After class was a half-hour of open practice. A couple of the others did some randori (live testing of grappling techniques). I worked on throws with G. and a few others. We did Koshi Guruma and several hip throws whose Japanese names escape me at the moment. Oh Japanese names: the bane of my existence! Actually, the bane of my existence is putting together the elements of the throw, but perhaps we will examine that at a later point. At the end of class, we all lined up to throw one of the guys, as it was his birthday, and then bowed out.

I really enjoyed the fast pace, the number of techniques we practiced, and the friendliness of the other students and instructor. The mats, however, were a little odd—they’re bright red, and after sitting in seiza on them a few too many times, my pants turned a faint shade of pink. The other students assured me it washes right off. Hmm.

Definitely coming back again, and probably will bring the Gumby Ninja with me, since she loves grappling. I’m not sure how I’m going to juggle 36 hours of work, 12 hours of prayer room, a social life, and 5 hours a week at my other school with 5 hours at this one. But I will try.