I took my first jiu-jitsu class last June. I feel like a lot of thought and trepidation went into decided to finally take a class. My first introduction to the sport was through my friend Nick. He had started training in 2012 when we were still in college and was instantly hooked. Nick likened jiu-jitsu to human chess and said that it would suit personality. At the time the interest was there but since I was a broke college student, affording a membership was a bit of an issue.

Flash forward to 2 years later: I had a real job and my friend Christina convinced me to take a trial boxing class with her at Rise Combat Sports! I absolutely fell in love with boxing and muay thai and the gym itself. It truly is a second home but that is for another post. Anyhow, after even more deliberation and my coach saying I was ready, I finally made up my mind for my first class.

My first class was great. That day ended up being a very small class and I received a lot of personalized instruction from Coach Chris and was really glad that my sister, Bianca, had decided to stay too. That first class was a lot of basics and fundamentals. We learned: shrimping, tactical stand ups, kimura, and kimura sweep. At first everything was a little awkward and nerve-wracking but by the of the instruction portion of the class, I was super happy I stayed. When it came time for the live training portion of the class, Chris said it was okay for Bianca and me to sit watch since it was our first class. But that didn’t really happen. One of the guys in the class, Marv, asked what we were waiting for and basically said to jump in. We ended up going over different positions with Janel, my role model and only woman in the class at the time. Overall the class was a success and I couldn’t wait until I could take my next one!