I have made several entries over the past few months. I have talked about strength training, tournaments, what I'm thankful for, and a few other things that are important to me. I would like to reintroduce myself and go over the past year and a half of Jiu Jitsu.
I, like many others, look forward to being rewarded for hard work. In Jiu Jitsu, this can be a disappointing part of the growth. I don't mean to say that I am not rewarded, I just mean that it is a life long journey and promotions are few and far between. This is something that I love about Jiu Jitsu because you have to truly earn each stripe with the aches, pains, bruises, and knowledge gained each day.
I'm a thirteen year old girl that has the same daily stresses as someone my age. I get stressed out about tests in school, I can't find hair ties in the morning, and I have to pick out which leggings to wear each day. 😂 Jiu Jitsu is the great equalizer where none of that matters. We drill submissions and defenses and then roll to put our new found knowledge to the test.
This game is not a one size fits all. Some of the submissions that we learn just don't agree with our body types. For instance, my dad has stubby legs and couldn't put a triangle on a Barbie. I don't have this issue with triangles, but I do struggle with a few other things at times. I go home disappointed sometimes days, but there is never a time that I don't absolutely love the training.
Coach Mat has a specific syllabus for us that is tailored to our strengths. He knows each one of us personally and makes sure that we fully understand before moving on to the next sequence. I have noticed on days that I don't want to train, these are the days when I absorb the most.
These days I have had a hard time finding training partners that are similar in size to me. The majority of the kids in my school are a few years younger than me. I am in between adult and child, but at this point, I think that training with the adult females at least once per week would be good for me.
I have slowly added strength training into my workouts and would like to see how this has been improving my game. I will always focus on technique over strength, but I also know that with added explosiveness, I could be much better.
The bottom line is, I have a lot going on for a thirteen year old with school, music, family, and Jiu Jitsu. I leave myself a little bit of extra time each day by NOT doing the dishes. 😂 My favorite part of each day is to get to the gym and learn something so cool with people that have become family to me.
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."-Helen Keller
I hope you enjoyed! 😜
-Raina 💗