Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things that starting Jiu Jitsu again has shown me:

1. My ankle that I hurt almost three years ago is still not perfect. It hurts to kneel on it in the traditional fashion so I'm hoping I can stretch it out and get it better.

2. My head weighs alot and my neck muscles are not strong enough to keep it off the mat for very long. Fortunately that is something exercise will take care of.

3. My legs are not in the awesome shape I thought they were in. Going into the Horse Stance (feet double shoulder width apart, knees bent) really makes my upper thighs scream. Again, exercise will deal with that.

4. Finding a good dojo is difficult. I was lucky nine years ago in that I found one I really liked and was high quality.

5. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is really hard. I'm still feeling muscle pains and sporting bruises from Monday's trial class.

6. Kim wants to take a martial art so she can beat me up.

7. There are a lot of different martial arts, some I have never heard off until I went looking for a good basic book on Jiu Jitsu.

8. Jiu Jitsu originated in Japan as the training for unarmed combat for Samuria warriors. Hence many movements and formalities are based on the concept of having a sword on the left hip and heavy armour.

9. Someone training in Jiu Jitsu is called a Jiu Jitsuka.

10. I really want to be a black belt. I didn't realize I had this desire until I started looking again.

11. My favourite is the throwing exercises. Not only throwing my training partner, but I get a thrill out of being thrown.

12. I'm surprisingly excited about all of this.

13. This is making Kim soooooooo jealous. Come on hon, you know you want to join me. :)