| Essay One
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I first met my wife while doing ne waza with a Ju Jitsu black belt. Dave
Luth (I'm not sure how to spell his last name) was strong, 5'8" and about
180 lbs, probably 5% bodyfat. I'm afraid I gave her only five seconds
of attention before pretty much ignoring Wally's attempt to introduce us.
Gorgeous blond + Wally = no competition for ne waza (ne waza is another
word for matwork, the "wrestling" part of Judo).
The next time someone tried to introduce us it was, again, in the context
of Ju Jitsu, this time a Ju Jitsu instructor, Billy Joe Allgood, who got
a karateka (Bob Smith) to help him. They threatened me with violence
if I didn't come to a party with them. Since it was only a karate work
out I was giving up, I went with them. I saw Win's roundhouse kick
and was entranced. These days I'm just infatuated. (Gorgeous
blond and no Wally, obviously a different equation).
But my ne waza training never included the Brazilian guard, as everyone assumed
that groin attacks would occur in any realistic situation. I learned
a lot of arm bar defense. I've actually only been arm barred in a Shia
once, when I foolishly let someone sink an arm bar in, wondering if the guy
could make it work if let him sink it all the way before I tried to break
it. That's the story of how I lost the Utah State Championship at 172lb.
On the other hand, when I met my wife-to-be's family and her brother wanted
to wrestle, all 6'5" of 54" chest Nautilus instructor, when he wouldn't take
no for an answer, I didn't even have to break a sweat.
On books: go to your library, use interlibrary loan, and you
can order anything. You should never buy a martial arts book until
you've read it twice for free. On Masterclass Judo books,
there are much cheaper places to buy them than Amazon, but it is a great
place to read about them.
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