Yesterday during Jiu-Jitsu class, Conan worked with the white belts, and he let the colored belts (Sara, Mike, and I) work on our own. Even though Mike was the lowest ranking one of us, Sara and I both deferred and we let him (made him?) teach. Once again, I am impressed with Mike's knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu, and his ability to teach it. Sometimes when people explain things to me, it's like they are speaking a different language, but with Mike, I can always understand what he's saying. It's obvious that he studies Jiu-Jitsu, and perhaps because he's a smaller guy he's really had to focus on technique, so he seems to have a strong grasp of the details. He tells me
why I should do things a certain way, which makes it easier for me to remember. One of the things we worked on was a cross collar gi choke from mount, which I've practiced many times before, but when Mike was explaining it, I saw so many nuances I'd previously missed that it was almost like a brand new technique.
Part of the way through class, Josh showed up and joined the colored belt posse. When we were trading partners, Mike asked Josh if he wanted to come over and try the technique on a "real man", instead of a "not man", which I thought was hilarious. I guess Sara and I aren't "women", we're just "not men". It did feel super cool that the two highest ranking students in class yesterday were not men!
I didn't do so well grappling with Mike and Josh at the end of class, because I recently tweaked my back, and I allowed the pain to distract me. I didn't even really want to roll, but I'm glad I did. After I rolled with Mike, he said "I want you to stop laying on your back in guard". Yeah Mike, we
all want that.
