MAMA: Adventures in Martial Arts and Motherhood

I am sorry to disappoint you but I am not a billionaire. I know you may have been hoping to hear that I won the jackpot last night, and that your check is currently in the mail. But sadly I did not win. Of course, there was zero chance of me having the winning numbers. I know what you are thinking. There is always a chance right? I mean, someone has to win. A dollar and a dream and all that. But in my case there really was no chance because I never even bought a ticket. Yes, you heard me right. Despite all the media hype and the Facebook posts and the fun pics of signs that could not go above 999, I didn't buy a Powerball ticket. Don't get me wrong. I thought about buying one. I mean, everyone else was doing it. And who doesn't want to win the lottery. Actually, me.  Ok bear with me here. Because I actually gave this a lot of thought before deciding not to buy that ticket. And before we begin lets be clear. Yes, I like money. And yes, it would be nice to have a bi...

I am not one of those bloggers who gets paid to write about stuff. (That is not to say that I wouldn't accept some cash if you want me to blog about your diaper cream or rashguard brand or whatever, so go ahead send me the money!) But I normally do not use this space to endorse the things I've bought, or watched, or read, unless it is someone else's words and they have pissed me off greatly. But it is a new year and everyone is trying to make resolutions and better themselves and all of those good things so I thought I would write just one tiny post about this dude: http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Mind-Body-Connection/dp/0446557684. If you are friends with my husband you have probably already heard all about Dr. Sarno and his books. In fact, if you know him well he has probably already handed you a copy of this book and ordered you to read it. Especially if you have pain. And we are all martial artists, so who doesn't have pain? Dr. Sarno's th...

From a conversation overheard at a recent BJJ tournament at City College: Guy 1: I heard he is kind of a jerk to his students. Like he yells at them when they lose and stuff. And he doesn't pay much attention to lower belts during rolling, he mostly just rolls with the other black and brown belts.  Guy 2: But I heard he is a really good teacher.  Guy 1: Oh he is! He is really great at demonstrating technique. Really knows his stuff! I took class there once and it was awesome! Um, guys? If he is a jerk to his students he is not a "really good teacher". He just a jerk who happens to also be pretty decent at teaching jiu jitsu moves. I don't know who they were talking about. But I actually hear this kind of stuff in the martial arts world a lot. Apparently dojos are full of these "amazing" teachers who really "know their stuff". They have won a lot of trophies, these guys. They have important names. You go to their schools, watch them demons...

I first started my karate life at a small dojo on 99th street and Broadway. There are a lot of things I remember about that place. Most significantly, how hard it is to climb three flights of stairs on your way to a sparring class that you are deathly afraid of. And the broken parts of drywall where students had "fallen" into the changing rooms. (Read: punched through a wall by a man who will remain nameless. Well ok, his name was Paul. But we had like 7 Pauls in the dojo back then, and all of them will probably think this is about them, because it was, so its fine.)  The other thing I remember about those early years was that the dojo was above a restaurant. It changed multiple times over the course of my training, but when I first joined it was called Bahama Mama. I have no idea what kind of place Bahama Mama was because I was a teenager at the time. After class we went for pizza. But the grownups would sometimes go in there and we youngins assumed all kinds of wildne...

This morning I woke up thinking "Hey it has been awhile since I have written a blog post. Lets do that!" (Well to be honest, my first thought was "Cofffeeeeee." But after that it was all about writing.) It is Thursday, which means it is a BJJ day for me. I took class yesterday so my neck is a bit sore (spider guard) but nothing is too banged up. I really like my new school and I am looking forward to going to class today. So its going to be a great training day! Right? As I was weaving my hair into as many braids as possible in the hopes of it surviving rolling today, I had an idea for what I wanted to write about. In December it will be five years of BJJ for me. Yet sometimes I still am not sure why I am doing it. Despite hours and hours on the mats, I am still pretty bad at it. I still get tapped by white belts who are much bigger than me. I still forget every drill within a week of learning it. I am still not sure exactly what the point of all this is. Is it ...

I have spent a lot of time on my bike recently, to and from my new BJJ school, uptown to the dojo, to Petco to buy more crickets for the geckos. Sometimes I bike to the ferry terminal in Long Island City and take the ferry over the water to 33rd before biking uptown. I consider that the easy route. Other days, like today, I bike over the Williamsburg Bridge and then all the way to the dojo.  That's the hard one. It's not just that the bridge is uphill half of the way across, or that it is sometimes a wind tunnel up there. Those things are hard but mainly I don't like the bridge route because I am kind of uncomfortable up there. I am a little bit afraid of heights and a lot afraid of places that I cannot easily escape from. Like tunnels. Or stuck subway cars. Or a fenced in bike path high above the East River. Inevitably there is a moment every time I am biking up the hill when I contemplate just turning around and going back to Brooklyn. Then there is the point of no retu...

Training is hard. I am not talking about injuries, or sore muscles, or the emotional roller coaster that is inevitable when punches, kicks and chokes are involved. Those things are all there, but sometimes the hard part is just the constant going to class. Going when you are tired. Going when you are feeling lazy. Going when you would rather just sit on the couch eating chips and watching reruns of Game of Thrones.  It is all this going that is the hardest part. So it helps to have some extra motivation; techniques you are working on, friends you are looking forward to seeing in class, an upcoming promotion, or even the delicious cold beer you are going to have after sparring. Whatever gets you there. But sometimes you lose your drive anyway. Maybe your favorite training partner quits. Maybe you had a long work day of your boss being a jerk and you just want to lie down. Maybe you get a new job. Maybe you didn't get promoted when you thought you would. Maybe your back hurts. M...