Thursday, May 28, 2015: Urumchi, China
This is a day in the life of my time training jiujitsu in China. This particular post was written during my second of four trips to Urumchi. This was the first day of training since returning to Urumchi after I had been in the States for five months.
I walked into the jiujitsu dojo and immediately noticed that Coach Wang had lost a ton of weight. His potbelly was gone and his face was slim. Compared to last fall, he was extremely youthful looking. He looked very small and almost skinny! “26 pounds,” he told me when I exclaimed about it. He said he was cutting weight for an upcoming competition in Shanghai and he was still one kilo overweight. We caught up. Then we rolled. He was slow and calculating in his movements, and eventually he submitted me. I was happy and impressed by his improvement. He said I had gotten stronger, and my technique had improved. He reported that the power and skill of my legs in particular had gotten better. I said that I'd participated in three competitions in the States since I'd been gone. Coach Zhi asked me to give him some advice: What do you do against a stronger opponent? What about an opponent who has better technique than you? I didn't really know how to answer. I told him that in competition and on the street, you don't have time to stop and think, you just have to think to yourself, “I gotta kill this person.” "But don't actually kill them, right?" he joked, laughing. I also rolled with Lin, a white belt, and submitted him. I told him he'd improved. “You're only 19!” I said, “You have so much time. You see I'm 26 and I'm still a blue belt!” “And I'm 35 and I'm a white belt!” Yin Jiaolian said, laughing. “If only I'd met you when I was 26!” he said. Age and progress is a funny thing. When you start something new means a lot and also doesn't mean anything at all at the same time. I dId a few more rolls with Lin, who submitted me at one point. Everyone said, “hasn't he improved so much so quickly?” I agreed. I helped Coach Wang a little bit more. He wanted tips on guard passing, mount escapes and the front collar choke. When we rolled, I passed his guard several times, and we worked on side control, and we worked on some escapes and I rolled with each of them once more. The adorable, skinny girl with braces came up to me. I gave her a hug, and she said, "Oh! You're back!" She put both hands on her face and jumped up and down with her mouth open. She asked me some more questions in the locker room later: "Did you enjoy Christmas with your family? How long will you stay? When and how did you get here?" She looked shocked when I told her I'd come on the train from Nanjing: "That's so far and such a long ride!" 42 hours exactly. Before I left, I gave Coach Wang two hugs. Lin hugged me a couple times too, saying he was so glad to have me back. I wished them safety on their road home. It was so nice to see them and have a little community, a little jiujitsu family, people I can feel comfortable hugging, and people I'm genuinely excited to see and who are genuinely excited to see me. People who want to see me.
I walked into the jiujitsu dojo and immediately noticed that Coach Wang had lost a ton of weight. His potbelly was gone and his face was slim. Compared to last fall, he was extremely youthful looking. He looked very small and almost skinny! “26 pounds,” he told me when I exclaimed about it. He said he was cutting weight for an upcoming competition in Shanghai and he was still one kilo overweight. We caught up. Then we rolled. He was slow and calculating in his movements, and eventually he submitted me. I was happy and impressed by his improvement. He said I had gotten stronger, and my technique had improved. He reported that the power and skill of my legs in particular had gotten better. I said that I'd participated in three competitions in the States since I'd been gone. Coach Zhi asked me to give him some advice: What do you do against a stronger opponent? What about an opponent who has better technique than you? I didn't really know how to answer. I told him that in competition and on the street, you don't have time to stop and think, you just have to think to yourself, “I gotta kill this person.” "But don't actually kill them, right?" he joked, laughing. I also rolled with Lin, a white belt, and submitted him. I told him he'd improved. “You're only 19!” I said, “You have so much time. You see I'm 26 and I'm still a blue belt!” “And I'm 35 and I'm a white belt!” Yin Jiaolian said, laughing. “If only I'd met you when I was 26!” he said. Age and progress is a funny thing. When you start something new means a lot and also doesn't mean anything at all at the same time. I dId a few more rolls with Lin, who submitted me at one point. Everyone said, “hasn't he improved so much so quickly?” I agreed. I helped Coach Wang a little bit more. He wanted tips on guard passing, mount escapes and the front collar choke. When we rolled, I passed his guard several times, and we worked on side control, and we worked on some escapes and I rolled with each of them once more. The adorable, skinny girl with braces came up to me. I gave her a hug, and she said, "Oh! You're back!" She put both hands on her face and jumped up and down with her mouth open. She asked me some more questions in the locker room later: "Did you enjoy Christmas with your family? How long will you stay? When and how did you get here?" She looked shocked when I told her I'd come on the train from Nanjing: "That's so far and such a long ride!" 42 hours exactly. Before I left, I gave Coach Wang two hugs. Lin hugged me a couple times too, saying he was so glad to have me back. I wished them safety on their road home. It was so nice to see them and have a little community, a little jiujitsu family, people I can feel comfortable hugging, and people I'm genuinely excited to see and who are genuinely excited to see me. People who want to see me.
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