Sparring with my brothers

When I woke up this morning I laid in bed for a moment and as I have done after many a crash made a mental check of everything that hurt. Starting with my feet, the knuckle under my big toe is swollen and bruised. I have several lumps and bruises on my left shin, and skin scraped off of my knees. Not to mention the size 12 foot print on my butt! I cant even touch the right side of my rib cage it is so sore. Then again I can barely touch the keys right now to type this because my fingers are bruised. To top it all off I have a head ache.

But whats that you ask? How did I crash when I am at home in Michigan in the snow? Although I feel like I did three cart wheels followed by getting planted by my bike I haven't ridden since last week. I did however get the crap beaten out of me by my brothers. Now before all of you guys out there freak out on my brothers for hitting a girl let me explain that I asked for it, well kind of. Five years ago my younger (no longer little) brother Ben who long ago gave up racing after he had to learn how to shift a 60, found his calling in martial arts. He is now a black belt in 2 different forms of Karate, Arnis (stick fighting) and going for his black belt in Japanese Ju Jitsu in February. He is pretty much a bad ass. A couple of years ago my older brother Terry started training with him as well. This spring and summer I started going to the gym with them to work out and some how found myself in the dojo along side of them.

With the way the world is today I believe every girl should take some sort of self defense classes. I am still just starting out but with as much as I travel alone I feel better about myself already. In Ju Jitsu I learn all about defending myself from attacks and escaping from different grabs, all of these moves end with them on the ground and me stomping on their face and groin before running away. This isn't for messing around, and hopefully I never have to use it. In Karate I learn about striking, how to kick and punch properly. I have been told my punches are coming along pretty good after my guy friends make remarks about women belonging in the kitchen and not the track.

I have my very first belt test on Monday and I am getting pretty nervous. Luckily for me I have two brothers to get me ready for it so this last week we have been working extra hard. Last night however to break up the monotony of punching and kicking at a bag we decided to play a game of round robin. Most of the time when we spar we bring out the mats and ground spar, more like wrestling except instead of pinning each other you have to submit them with an arm or leg bar, choke, or something else of that matter. As much as I enjoy that I prefer when we stand up spar. I mean my entire childhood there have been times I have wanted to punch my brothers as hard as I can in the face, and now they let me do it. In fact if I really get them good they smile and tell me good job! Just imagine if my parents would have given us boxing gloves when we were little and told us to go at it we probably would have gotten along a lot better.

So last night after about a minute into my first round with Terry when he punched me straight in the eye (unfortunately it wasn't black this morning) I decided to put on some head gear. The rules: no kicking between the legs or the inside of the thigh, sometimes after making contact your foot will slide up the leg to the groin, ending the round fast. No take downs since we were fighting on a wood floor, and of course we weren't going all out to try and kill each other. But that didn't mean we didn't get a few good hits in.

Though Terry wasn't going all out a kick from him (all 240 lbs) would send me flying across the room. He also learned that kicking me in the liver will send me to my knees gasping for air. Another lesson? Don't taunt me repeatedly then leave your face wide open. Ben is the reason for my bruises though it was mostly my fault. First I went to do a leg kick only I'm still bad with my aim and he saw it coming and bent his leg, toes straight to his knee cap hurt me way more than it did him. Then I went to grab one of his kicks only with my fingers out and watched as they bent backwards. Ben also followed Terry's lead knowing my ribs were sore and gave me a few good punches. He just wanted to show my that I left them open, as terry would hit me on the head of I didn't protect that. I know this may sound weird to many of you, what kind of girl likes
getting punched and kicked by her brothers? The same type of girl that at three years old didn't like sitting and watching her father and older brother ride motorcycles. I cant stand not joining in on the fun, and growing up with only boys I wasn't allowed to be a wimp. I still have along ways to go when it comes to fighting, but fortunately I have some good teachers who aren't afraid to let me know when I let my guard down. As with riding you only get faster if you train with faster people. So I figure taking a beating from them will only make me better, and besides when they do let me get a good hit in there's no better feeling. OK well its time to train again, wish me luck for my test on Monday:)