Get ready with me for Jiu-Jitsu + what usually happens in class

Heya peeps! Welcome or welcome back to Hannah's Happy Thoughts. Today I'm gonna share some Jiu-Jitsu stuff for y'all. How I get ready and also what a session usually looks like. 

So at around 4:20 I grab my uniform which is basically a big ol' white outfit with pants and a shirt and a big ol' baggy jacket with sleeves that people grab onto when your training. There's a fancy word for these martial arts clothes but I don't know how to spell it so yeah. 

I change into that, and then I pull my hair up into a ponytail to keep it out of my (and my partner's!) face during training. Also, it's usually at least half undone by the end of the session. 

Then I put on my belt. I currently have a white belt with three stripes on it (One more than I get a gray belt!!!) and I'm constantly forgetting how to tie it so I usually make my best attempt then ask my Dad for help later. I make sure my water bottle is full, then sometimes I grab my phone and headphones, because my dad stays after for his session, more on that later. 

Then I put on my shoes and we head out. 

My mom usually drops me off because my brother's class is before mine and my dad stays and helps him. I get there any time between 10 and −10 mins before my class starts ( And by -10 I mean I'm late🙁 ) But I'm usually about 5 minutes early, which is like 4:55 My dad and brother come by the car and I grab my stuff and get out and my brother gets in. 

When we get inside we check in and I take off my shoes and socks etc. Now is usually the time where I have to ask my Dad to help me with my belt. If we still have a few minutes left (Or if I was there for my brother's session, more on that, also later) me and my dad get out onto the mats and do some like mini-sparring and pushing each other around, etc, until class starts. 

First we do warm-ups which could include any or all of the following 

Jogging — Just jogging around the mat. This is refreshing at first but gets tedious.

High-knees. Trying to get your knees up as high as possible while jogging. I'm ok at these but only if my feet are going smack-smack-smack as they hit the mat. 

High-kicks. Basically kicking your butt with your heels, again, while jogging. Same deal as hi-knees.  

Shuffling, facing inside or outside — Which for me is just like running sideways and clapping my feet together — Basically sideways shuffling (Like fast sideways shuffle) facing towards the middle of the mat, or towards the walls. 

Karaoke, inside or outside. If you don't know what karaoke is go and look it up (And no, it's not like karaoke-machine-music karaoke — it's a fitness term) but it's actually pretty easy. 

Running backwards. I. HATE. Running. Backwardsss!!!!!!!! Just plain and simple hate it! I literally cannot run backwards. 

Sprinting. This is alright sometimes, not alright others. The instructor stands about a quarter of the way to the walls, and everyone sprints from where he is to the wall when they get there. This is alright, sometimes. One thing I really don't like is you  still have to keep jogging the rest of the way around. Ugh.  

Lunge-walks. Uuurrrgh! Lunges while walking. 

Then sometimes we do classic fitness warmups: squats, lunges, push-ups, jumping jacks, etc. Random sidenote, why are they called jumping jacks of all things? What about jumping jills? Jumping juicers? (This'd be a good one actually because jumping jacks really do get your juices flowing if you know what I mean) Jumping jack-in-the-boxes? Was there really some little kid named Jack who did these things for fun? Well I guess "Jack" is an easy little alliterative word that goes with jumping and is just far easier than saying jumping-while-bringing-your-feet-apart-and-together-and-doing-the-same-with-your-armses. LOL! 

Then we do some drills: sprawls, downblocks, breakfalls and—ugh—tactical standups. I'm so bad at those. I'm also bad at downblocks and sprawls (especially cuz this is very fast-paced)

Oh and by the way, breakfalling is when you stretch your arms out to either side of you as you fall and smack your hands down to the mat as your shoulders hit the ground. I'm pretty good at these. I know though they're hard especially for the beginner who more knows the instinct of trying to brace yourself with your hands under you, and/or flail your arms around, because if you do that in Jiu-Jitsu, you're gonna get yourself hurt.  

Then line drills (Which we pretty much always do except for a few times) — This is were we get into three lines (I mostly do mine off to the side because I'm bad at keeping up with the class, but sometimes I do with the group) and then do the drills together. 

Shrimps—Forward and backwards 

Gator walks 

More tactical stand-ups 

Push-up-with-a-hop (this one is very self-explanatory. Just a pushup, and then hopping back up.) 

Forward rolls and backwards rolls. Also I don't know if I'm spelling it right in this situation, or if I'm supposed to spell it R-o-l-e . Looking at it now, I think of the kinda roll I put peanut butter on and eat for lunch(yum!). But I don't like jiu-Jitsu rolls, although I think I'm getting better at 'em 

Also half of these things I have no idea how to explain so you can just go look it up. 

Then we just get on to the moves (Otherwise known as the fun part) 

After we learn the 1 (or two) main moves and practicing fowr a while we may do some positional training (Like sparring , you each start in a certain position and have a certain goal) and then we do sparring.

Sometimes I may stay after for Dad's session. If that happens I'll sit at one of the little wheely desk thingies and listen to something. If I come before for my brother's session, the little kids' class, I just sit on the edge of the mat. Then once Dan's done, in those moments between the little kids going and the big kids coming Dad and I will go on and like roughhouse and push each other around etc. Not like full-on sparring, just pushing each other and stuff.  

There are some other stuffs we may do sometimes but I'm not gonna include those (I can't think of every possible scenario!) So anyways I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe found it informative (and funny!) and I'll see y'all again next time! 

PS. Do you think I should add "teenager" as my occupation on my Blogger profile? I feel like that'll be funny!