Your Best Martial Art Moment

**devilboy7778** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 9:12pm

What I mean by the title can be explained by my story
At the place I trained, there was a real egotistical bully. He was a year younger then me (I was a freshman in hs at the time) but had atleast 40-50 pounds on me and a couple years of MMA more then me. I know he was lying about being a 2nd degree black belt in BJJ but he still was a way higher belt (green) then I was at the time (White tehe). He used to always want to wrestle to prove his point and talk a lot of **** about how great he was, and of course at first he would always beat me. So one day me and my friend there are making fun of him because he can't tie this kids belt in front of all these people and he goes, "alright lets fight." I get into the ring and right away he gets me in a standing guillotine and starts to lift me off me feet and dropping me. Out of nowhere I get this brilliant idea that the next time my feet touch the ground ill drop my weight and lift him with my leg and flip him over me. It must of been beginners luck because I practically flipped him out of the ring. A grownup class was going on and I started to here ooooo **** look at this. a 2 minute all out bjj war had started. Long story short I got him with a neck crank. I said good match and went into the locker with my index finger pointing to the sky. The bully came in crying and challenged me to another fight, funny thing is he never came back and I was proclaimed a hero (well in my eyes). :karated:
anyways share your similar experiences.

**MartialSchools** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 9:23pm

I swear I read "Your best Martial Art at the moment"

Totally not what I expected....good story though.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 9:32pm

Mine was probably when my former sifu, who was moving the kwoon more and more towards a Mcdojo, was yelling at the instructors for not lockstepping with his will. At the end of his hour long rant, he said that if anyone wanted to quit, now was the time. That day, I stopped teaching and told him that I wanted to move on and study other martial arts. When he asked why, I went on a Matt Thornton style rant about everything I didn't like about the curriculum and teaching method. I don't think he expected anyone to leave, but I hope he took it as a wake up call. It wasn't a good martial arts moment in the cool movie sense, but I was proud of myself- it can be hard leaving your rank and familiar territory behind, but I had to do it at some point and the longer I waited the harder it would be. It was the day I once again became a small fish in a big pond. Unfortunately, that was my only job and the timing was horrible with the economy, so I've been doing odd crappy jobs for a few months, and I have to tell myself that what I did took some balls and ultimately it was the right choice for my martial arts.

***battlefields*** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 9:56pm

Where is a green belt in the BJJ hierarchy?

**Alucard619** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 10:15pm

When I tested for single black stripe back as a red belt. Very tough and challenging test but I pulled through and the masters were all very impressed. Said I was developing into quite the fine martial artist. After all the kicking, punching, sparring, defensive moves etc they said it was one of the finest red belt tests they have seen in recent years.

**omoplatypus** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 10:39pm

mine was when i had an absolute HORRIBLE week in training. i couldn't do anything right. i mentioned to one instructor that maybe i need to take a couple of weeks to a month off just to get in the gym, work on strength and cardio and come back with a clear head.

he said "dude, do you have ANY idea how hard we are working to hang with you now? you've learned to use your size and strength to your advantage and not just rely on them as your only tools. on your bad day's you're a hard guy to roll with."

i was back the next day.

***battlefields*** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 10:57pm

18 months ago, I thought I was starting to get it. 6 months later, I realised how wrong I was because I was only then starting to get it but a year down the track, at the present moment, I realise I still don't get it. There is nothing quite as humbling as knowing that with all you know, you still know nothing. And that is my best martial art moment.

**Petter** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 10:59pm

Originally Posted by battlefields

Where is a green belt in the BJJ hierarchy?

From what I understand—children’s belts go white, yellow, orange, green. (I never got the hang of the multi-coloured stripes. I guess they like to give children frequent but small promotions to keep them enthused.) Once you turn 16, you can then graduate to blue belt and join the regular BJJ belt hierarchy (white, blue, purple, brown, black).

**Petter** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 11:07pm

On topic: I’ve been doing judo for about three months, since my Gracie Barra gym started bringing in a judo coach. I’m loving it, but am of course quite terrible at it. I score most of my takedowns in randori by relentlessly attacking with hiza guruma until something happens. I perform a lot more good ukemi than good tachiwaza.

However, I have landed one really good throw. I was fighting a taller (and better) opponent, who went in for a throw, which I blocked, whereupon he stepped back. Normally I’m slow to react—my game is (pathologically) slow, defensive, and methodical—but that one time, some part of my brain said “Fuck it!” and sent me stepping immediately into the pocket. Being so much shorter, that pocket was a perfect fit to pivot right into a left-handed ogoshi (I didn’t think I could do anything left-handed).

Of course, this was just one technique, and it was randori, not shiai (and the guy I threw throws me far more often). But I know that it’s by far the single best-timed and perhaps the best-executed technique I’ve performed in four years of martial arts. And lets’s face it—when you nail a judo throw at the very right split second, it’s sublime.

**Dak** · Posted On: 4/15/2010 11:41pm

I have had proud and have had very good technical moments.

My proudest moment was when I had first started BJJ (about 2 years ago) and was just kind of learning the ropes. At the time I was the only youth in the youth classes so I basically got private lessons for several months (score!). I finally mustered up the courage to go the adult class. Naturally there were beginners there to. So there came rolling time and a fellow who was much more muscular then i was but around the same weight asked me to roll. Never saying no I agreed. I got slaughtered and eventually RNC'd.

I saw something though. When he put his hooks in, he crossed his ankles. Now I didn't really know what this meant, but my instructor always said that this was bad. I offered to roll this large man again and this time I gave up my back intentionally so he would do the same thing. He did and crossed his ankles again. I was able to keep his choke at bay as I brought my feet up and cross my ankles over his and bringing my hips forward, heel hooking him. He tapped and gave me an immediate high five. I felt like a bro at that moment.

My best technical moment was when I was battling to get a triangle from guard on this guy. I had it locked, but i just couldn't get the pressure tight enough (turns out he had his hand between my legs and i didnt notice). ALl of a sudden the magic word "omoplata" popped into my head, I was able to execute it. I then realized that you can transition from the two very easily. This was also when I was fairly new, maybe 6 months at the time.

This last one was recent. I have just started fencing (AWESOME) and am enjoying it, but I noticed that people could read my very easily. Their blade always found mine to block and riposte. I thought about it and watched a lot of videos, nothing came of that. Over the next few weeks though I have begun to be a good "absence of blade" offensive player meaning I flick my blade over or under theirs and lunge at almost the same time with almost no blade contact as they always try to parry or retreat. It has proved very effective as has learning to catch the opposing blade with my bell guard and keep it while executing offensive manuevers.