"Jits, bitch!"

I understand that some celebrities and other well-known personalities are often portrayed as targets for public aggression, but sometimes all that static is justified. I didn't need to see the entire video of a rapper trying to game some neighborhood kids to know that it's not right for a grown man to sucker punch a teenager, no matter how much a youngin' sasses back at you. Anyway, what the heck is he doin' trying to run a soccer game in their 'hood? He ain't from Atlanta. He's from Ohio (I checked), so why does he step up to manning their game? Is he a soccer pro? What's with the one-glove action?! 

What makes him qualified to step in and boss some kids around, kids who look like they're having a local game on their block, not some group team practice? Chill, mutha! And if you got grown-ass men actin' like children in your game, then do what this smart kid does: drop him in a tackle, take the back by holding your mount, then finish him with a reliable hold like the "rear naked choke". That's how you win without ever having to throw one single punch (might hurt your hand, yo!), and that is the magic of Jiu Jitsu, friends. Stay safe out there, kids. Urban jungles can be rough with the wrong crowd!  And have fun :)

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_jiu-jitsu

Osu!

Over the years, I've trained in martial arts, and because of that, I've collected a nice set of belts in different forms. Years ago I started it off proper with Taoist Tai Chi, but I didn't receive any belt rankings.

Fast forward years later, and I began a fitness course towards kickboxing and then grappling that became MMA, which got me into Jiu Jitsu. It was fun, but the injuries suck when you aren't getting paid to be hurt and the bills keep coming in, so I took time off.

Recently I've gotten back into Tai Chi, in a shorter form that incorporates animal styles, Wushu, and Qi Gong. It's a blast, and its actually hard for me, because it's the exact opposite of MMA. Whereas one style needs twitchy muscles and quick explosive action, the other strives for precise, carefully considered hand-and-foot placement, slowed down to an almost inhumanly graceful art form. It's the "Yang" to the "Yin"—the total opposite—and I'm finding muscle control and limb placement as challenging as the very first time I threw a punching combo. 

But none of these forms would amount to any kind of sense for me if I hadn't undergone some serious ballet training as a girl. I liked it, but I didn't love it as passionately as an artist has to, in order to make a living from it. I left it behind, not looking back, to continue wrestling and fighting with my bro. We loved martial arts, but none of the strip mall places around our town appealed to us at the time, in the more common dojo forms of Judo and Tae Kwon Do. My middle bro would go on to belt in TKD, BJJ (twice), and even Krav Maga, but it wasn't until we put everything together in an MMA class that it finally made sense to us as a fight form.

I hope I go back to it at some point, but for now, I'm belting in Tai Chi Ch'uan, and staying in the moment, enjoying an art form that I didn't know had masters who gave out belt rankings in service to it. Here's my tally so far:

Taoist Tai Chi: 1 year, no belts
Tiger Schulmann's: 2 years, 6 belts
BJJ: 10 mos, 1 belt
Tai Chi Ch'uan: a month's reintroduction, 1 belt. I have 2 belts.
UPDATE: got a 2nd belt in tai chi ch'uan at the end of the summer
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Total: 8 belts   Make that 9. Nope! Make that 10!

And I want more.