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Right off the bat I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t have shorts to wear under my Gi — the jacket, pants and belt ensemble people typically practice Jiu Jitsu in.
“Its just that sometimes the pants come down a little,” Flow State Jiu Jitsu and Yoga founding member Skylar Bayer said.
But Bayer saved me from that fate and found shorts for me.
Once we were all suited up, we began to practice holds that everyone else had already learned. I was the only new person, so Bayer walked me through what’s called a mount, demonstrating the move on a willing volunteer.
“I’m on top of her, her back’s on the mat,” she said. “This is a very, very bad position for her, because my hips are on top of her hips, which means I can choke her, break her arms, all sorts of things.”
That willing volunteer was Margaret Katzeek, who gracefully quickly threw her. Then, it was my turn to escape.
I wormed my way out from under Katzeek, a bit less gracefully. She was a good sport about it.
Next, the three of us practiced a chokehold. This was harder for me.
“Bring these elbows in and down,” Instructor Becca Charbonneau said as she checked in on us. “How’s that feel, Margaret? What are we missing?”
Katzeek kindly indicated I wasn’t really doing much of a chokehold.
“Yeah, I’m kind of afraid to choke her,” I said.
But Bayer told me getting over fear is sort of what this whole thing is about.
“One of the things that often happens when people do martial arts is they become more confident,” she said. “So the way they just carry themselves makes them less likely to be targeted.”
She told me the space is built on consent, trust and care for the people you’re literally grappling with. The people in the holds “tap out” when they hit their limits, patting either on their partners’ arms or legs or on the mat.
Instructor Charbonneau told me before class that Flow State started as a way to share Jiu Jitsu with the community. She said they try to bring that mutual respect off the mat and into every area of the business.
“There’s a group of us in town that have trained jiu jitsu for a long time in different spaces,” the instructor said. “Started in different areas, but became a good group of training partners and friends over time, and all really value different styles of training, diversity of thought, and experiences”
And Charbonneau loves Jiu Jitsu. She’s good at it; she competes across the country.
“I got bored of running and lifting, I needed something more mentally engaging,” she said. “And if you do jitsu, you can’t think about literally anything else when you’re trying not to get strangled, to be honest.”
Bayer, who was acting as my personal coach for the evening, walked me through another hold and escape: the backpack hold. We were seated on the mat. First, she wrapped her legs around my waist from behind like a koala. Then, her arms slid under my armpit and over my shoulder.
“This is what’s gonna control you really well. And so what she was just going over was like how to escape that,” Bayer said.
“Like wiggle out like a little animal?” I asked.
And wiggle out, I did. She showed me how to choke someone from behind. She did it first. I had to get over my fears of hurting someone, and did a bit better that time.
After class I checked back in with Margaret Katzeek, to make sure there were no hard feelings about my attempt to choke her.
There wasn’t.
She said she started learning Jiu Jitsu years ago for the self-defense aspect, but now, she keeps coming because it really engages her.
“Like I play softball, basketball, volleyball, it’s just such a different sport,” Katzeek said. “I think it is just mindful strength in your mind and body. I think it touches all those aspects.”
And she stays engaged even when she’s not in class by thinking about how to improve her escapes. She hopes the space will encourage more people to give the sport a shot.
“You just got to try it,” she said. “You’re starting out at the same place that anybody else has started out.”
Flow State also has yoga classes, available by punch card, but this beginner class was enough for me. The weekly schedule can be found online.
