BJJ and Me… My First Post

January 2010 I first stepped on the mat and really didn’t know what to expect other than what I had heard from my boyfriend at the time and what he taught me at home. I left my first class feeling great and I decided to come back for more, I had a month free trial and wanted to take full advantage of the classes that were offered for women. I of course dragged my cousin along for the ride and once we were allowed to roll we both loved it. I was in week three and we had some new students come and roll for the first time. Now keep in mind this was no gi jiu jitsu and I was fresh to all this but I still had some basics down.

What happened in week three took me out for months! We were told to roll and as a new student my sparring partner didn’t fully understand that when she tapped it was over and we would restart, so she attacked me from the side and I just heard about 5 loud pops and there went my ankle. I rolled over in pain and couldn’t move. I tried holding back tears as my boyfriend was watching me for the first time and I didn’t want to seem like such a well, “girl” about it. But hey it hurt so I just let the tears pour. He carried me to the car and we proceeded to the E.R. Finally after hours and leaving in crutches I was told I tore two ligaments. I was scared and mad at the same time. Thankfully my boyfriend at the time offered to come by and help when he was off work. A little relief but still I was in crutches !!!

It took about 6 weeks to be out of the crutches and able to walk fine. Still I couldn’t wear heels and I was scared to start training. However I went back and tried to start over again, too bad the female instructor was no longer at the academy. So there I was with no school and wanting to continue. I looked at an academy that was literally right across the street from work. I spoke to the owner a black belt that was very nice and welcomed me to his school. This is where I started my interest in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I trained at least 3 times a week. My training consisted of drills and repetition of everything we learned during class. I was hooked, but eventually life took over and I needed to stop training. However I knew I would be back!