The Spider Gym MMA Dojo in Wheeling, Ill. offered the opportunity for one of the members of the Torch staff to participate in a lesson. I graciously accepted the offer. This is a recap of my experience.
6:47 p.m. – Armed with nothing more than shorts and a T-shirt, I embarked on my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training. The part of the Spider Gym MMA dojo where the competitors train is a room no bigger than one of the back gyms at Glenbrook North, but it certainly looked state of the art. It is equipped with mats, new weightlifting equipment and, of course, an octagonal shaped ring surrounded by a menacing steel cage. The class I was joining was composed of people varying from an eighth grader to a borderline senior citizen and even to a professional fighter. The first drill was to practice a wrap around move used to gain control over an opponent. I was paired with a student about my age that had been practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for two years. He showed me the ropes of the move, and after several tries I got the hang of it. So far, no sweat was broken.
6:53 p.m. – Of all the things I tried at the Spider Gym Dojo that day, the strangest one had to be the body sit-ups. When the instructor yelled to start the body sit-ups, my partner turned to me in a robotic manner and, with only a warning that he was ready, grabbed the back of my neck to use as leverage to jump and wrap his legs around my waist. It was my responsibility to keep him and myself from falling to the mat. That wasn’t exactly what I was expecting out of my Jiu-Jitsu training. The key for me was to get my feet positioned in such a way that I could support myself and him. He then proceeded to do 20 sit-ups. And while he was doing that, it gave me some time to consider the question, “Have I ever been in a more awkward position in my life?” I came to the conclusion around sit-up number 10 that the answer to that was, “No, this has to be it.” When he finished, it was my turn. It only took me two tries to successfully wrap my legs around his waist, a feat that unfortunately was not as impressive to my partner as it was to me. Despite the awkwardness of the position, the sit-ups were actually quite the ab workout, but probably not one I’ll ever try again.
6:58 p.m. – Then came the submissions. A submission in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is when a competitor puts his or her opponent in a position in which the competitor has to make the decision to either tap out or suffer the consequences. In the span of 20 minutes that I was sparring with my opponents, I had to make that decision a lot. I faced three opponents and all were of varying age, size and weight. Master Asu Harvard, a 4th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, would later tell me that size and build don’t matter in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It is all about technique. I made the mistake of underestimating my opponent based on how he looked and was punished with a triangle choke. He managed to wrap his legs around my head and squeeze my throat, thus cutting off my ability to breathe. I really need my ability to breathe.
7:26 p.m. – After a nice, long break, I noticed my inability to move my left arm. Harvard decided it was a good time to give me a taste of another form of martial arts: Muay Thai. This is a fighting style that utilizes knees and elbows along with the traditional fists and feet. It turns eight limbs into weapons, and that’s cool. The Muay Thai coach Charles Syah was a jolly guy, but I’m fairly confident that I would never want to make him angry. He showed me how to kick with my shin and strike with my elbow. He released a loud, excited “Ahh” with every strike I made to his body. It was a fighting style that I had never heard of before, but definitely the most interesting one I have ever seen.
7:52 p.m. – I wasn’t able to compete any more after that, so I decided it was about time to go home. I certainly left with a few bruises, but I like to think of them as marks of character. My experience at the Spider Gym MMA Dojo cleared up some misconceptions I had about MMA fighting. Going in, I was under the impression that all there is to the MMA fighting on TV was some brawn and a lot of guts. But MMA is really a chess match of sorts that requires a complete understanding of technique. To underestimate your opponents because of their size is like giving up the match. You would be almost guaranteed to end up in a very uncomfortable position tapping your hand on your opponent like your life depends on it (because it probably does). My parting thoughts as I left the dojo were a sense of gratitude for getting the opportunity to try the sport and a sense of concern for the lack of feeling in my left arm.
8:06 p.m. – I regained feeling in my left arm.