All choked up

Yesterday was my birthday, so naturally I celebrated it by doing Jiu-Jitsu! My husband went to class with me, and it's a good thing we showed up because when we got there everyone was standing outside of the dojo.  I guess The Boss forgot his key, so we unlocked the door and saved them from having to hold class outside!

Conan decided that the new tradition in Jiu-Jitsu class is that if you show up on your birthday everyone gets to take turns choking you before open mat.  My response was "You can try", but then he told me I wasn't allowed to defend, I just had to take it.  Someone remarked to Joe that I could tap out right away, and he responded "No, she's too stubborn for that, you're going to have to choke her."

Will was the first person to choke me, and a combination of my aforementioned stubbornness and his wicked choke, which came on quickly, resulted in me almost being choked out right then and there.  I have no recollection of which choke he used, or of much else after that, because I was a little out of it!  I do know that most of the rest of the chokes were very painful, especially whatever Greg and Conan did to me, my throat still hurts, and I remember Greg choked me with my own gi. Everyone who was there yesterday seriously better show up to Jiu-Jitsu class on their birthdays!

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Conan also let me chose what we worked on in class, and I picked side control escapes, because that is something I believe many people have difficulty with, so it was something I thought everyone could benefit from.  It used to be a huge struggle for me, especially against senior students, but now I am usually able to at least get to half guard. Joe said he thought I would choose triangle choke, but I don't want those white belts learning how to defend it! ;)

All in all, it was a great birthday.  In true Jiu-Jitsu addict style, I also received some new knee pads and headgear for my birthday.  I wore the knee pads to class yesterday (and they are awesome!), but I haven't debuted the headgear yet.  It's not quite as dorky as I thought it would be...I'm just glad Joe didn't get me a singlet to go with it!

"They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older. 

What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much." ~ Malcolm Cowley