Lights out

For those of you who didn't agree with what I wrote in my last post, this one will give you some poetic justice.

A large part of Brazilian jiu jitsu and submission grappling is, well, submission. You work to improve your position so you can put on a finishing hold and make your opponent submit, either by tapping or by yelling. Well, sometimes people don't submit in time, either because they are stubborn/stupid, or because a submission sneaks up on them, or because they tap the mat instead of the opponent, so the opponent doesn't know to stop until it's too late. Hence the phrase "Tap, snap, or nap." "Snapping" happens when you don't tap to a leglock, armbar, or shoulder lock in time. "Napping" happens when you don't tap to a choke in time.

Well, I napped last night for the first time ever. And I have to say, it was borderline pleasant, as strange as that sounds. Allow me to explain.

Johnny was teaching the beginner class and I was serving as the training dummy. He was demonstrating the collar choke from the back and the corresponding escape, commenting on how in order to escape, you must move your body to your opponent's weak side (the side where his/her hand is grabbing your lapel under your arm) as opposed to to the strong side (the side where his/her hand is grabbing your lapel across your throat).

The drill for the students was for one person to put the choke on at about 20% strength and the other person to escape to the weak side. Johnny put a choke on me as he was saying this, to demonstrate, and the last thing I remember thinking was, "That's way more than 20%!" as I flopped to his weak side.

I pieced this together later, because at the time I was unconscious, but apparently I went out and just stayed slumped on Johnny's leg for about 5 or 10 seconds. He told me later that he thought I was kidding, and eventually he just shook his leg to get me off him. One of the other students told me later that my eyes stayed open and the left corner of my mouth twitched. Creepy!

Here's what I remember after I woke up: The first thing, seriously, was, "Ooh, look at the pretty lights!" (Remember I was face up, lying on Johnny's leg.) The next thing was, "I need to add TP to my shopping list." The third thing was, "Is my dad here?" And the fourth thing was, "Oh! I'm in class! Awesome! I should probably roll." And then when I stood up I was all shaky and unstable.

Like I said, I pieced this all together later. The best part, though, is that Johnny had been trying to get me to let him put me to sleep for months, but I was really apprehensive about it. It's one thing to have it happen accidentally (as I found out on Wednesday), but another to plan for it. So I had promised him that if I ever let anybody put me out, it would be him.

Well, it was him. I kept my promise. But he didn't even notice, so he didn't get to enjoy it. Sucks for him. I actually found it pleasant, as I said. I woke up weirdly happy.

Now, lest you think Johnny is a sadist, there actually is a sound reason to be put out once or twice, namely, that you develop a better sense of how much time you still have to work on an escape before you really will go night night. At least, that's what he kept telling me every time he tried to convince me that putting me to sleep would be "fun."

But even though it was kind of pleasant, I think I'll be tapping quickly in the near future.