As I have mentioned over and over again, like a crossfitting Vegan and was all like, “Emilio! Emilio!”, I’ve been studying martial arts for–the statistician in the household told me fourteen years now. We got started with the school when my oldest went to a birthday party hosted at the school at four years old, and we got him registered for the Dragons class. A couple years later, the younger was so excited to start they let him begin his classes at 3 and 359/365. My beautiful wife and I started classes. The oldest, my wife, and I got black belts in the tae kwon do which turned into tae kwon do/American boxing/muy thai/whatever kyoshi thought looked cool at the time. As the boys got older and into middle school, they resisted more going to classes two or three nights a week. In 2020, after having dropped for a couple of years, my wife returned briefly but thinks she broke someone’s nose, and she stopped going, and the boys stopped going as well. I’ve still attended, more sporadically than before, because it wasn’t a family thing any more. But the instructors convinced me I was ready to test for a third-degree black belt in January 2025, but my attendance dwindled to once a week…. Once every two weeks…. No actual visits in last September? Wow.
At any rate, my boys have been watching UFC fights for a while now, and they expressed interest in starting classes in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The school we attended had a BJJ program for a couple of years, but when I was looking, it disappeared.
So I signed them up for a school that one of my oldest’s friends attends, and I signed up, too.
Holy cats, is that a different animal from the explosiveness and cardio-intensiveness of the tae kwon do school. Or weightlifting. A lot of the instruction, especially in the n00bs classes I’ve been taking, involves resistance and holding that resistance for a couple of minutes while the instructor explains something or corrects something. Jeez, Louise, I was left walking like a cowboy after putting opponents in closed guard for long periods of time.
It’s been three weeks, and I’ve been to the most classes out of all of us. The school has n00b classes at 9am on Mondays and Fridays which I attend, and I went to a striking (American boxing) class. I’m not eager to get into a real rolling/sparring match until I can get a better sense of not only how to work in the martial art but also what’s cricket and what’s not.
AND I have tried to be more diligent about attending my other martial arts school as well. I am hoping for five or six classes a week between them, weighted more toward the tae kwon do for as long as I can. I may not learn to play guitar with my more-open current schedule, but I can spend the time better than refreshing job boards anyway.
As the Philosopher says, “I’ll never be this young again.”
ACKSHUALLY, Shinedown in their new song talk about being young and not knowing it.
Both Shinedown and Three Days Grace have released songs about getting older (see also Don’t Wanna Go Home Tonight). C’mon, guys. I don’t listen to you because I want to feel reflective on my accruing years. I want to listen to you loudly whilst I fight against it.
