… is that you don’t talk about Fight Club!

My year started with a bang. In fact, a bang to my face. In JiuJitsu class I was sparring with a beginner. As is often the case with white belts in BJJ they do unexpected things to get out of controlling positions. He did an explosive movement, trying to throw his legs over his head. You have to admire the ambition, but unfortunately, all it achieved was that he kneed me in the face, right below my eye. It didn’t hurt that much, and there was no black eye when I went to bed that night, but when I woke up the next morning I had a proper shiner.

The reaction of my wife was “you get no sympathy from me!”, with eyes to heaven.

The reaction of my JiuJitsu coach was “nice black eye!”, with a smile.

The reaction of work colleagues is a shocked “Ooh! what happened?!?!”, with concern.

I usually reply to the last one with “Well, the first rule of fight club is…” which puts them at ease. Then I have to explain that it was just an accident in training and no, I haven’t been in a fight, or mugged. It’s “ok”.

Because, well, it is. If you practice a martial art that has resistant sparring as a training method then getting the occasional black eye is just par for the course. You don’t think much of it yourself, or you are secretly proud, as it can be a badge of honour at your club. It’s other people’s reactions to it that are more interesting.

Anyway, now I’ve introduced some BJJ onto my blog my next post will be about the similarities between Tai Chi and BJJ, which is quite an interesting topic.