[krav] [sexism] One of the major rules in this gym is 'leave your ego at the door'.

oh no

straps in

It means that things are very egalitarian, without ignoring consent. If we're doing very close combat, I'm always asked if it's okay to proceed. It doesn't matter if I'm with a male or female partner.

When I first started, every guy who came in saying he wanted to be a cage fighter had to work with my head instructor's then-wife for a few weeks. The men with fragile egos left when it became clear that yeah, she's small, but she cannot be beaten by brute force.

Tonight, a lot of my teammates were single moms, and Joseph encourages them to bring their kids if they can't afford a baby sitter. There's a room for the kids to play. The goal is for everyone to be able to train, and family shouldn't be an obstacle.

So there were four kids: three boys from ages 9 to 12, and a girl, who was about 8. They set up an obstacle course with our unused tombstone bags and took turns jumping over them onto a mat. They weren't disrupting class, so whatever.

Until the 8 year old girl jumps higher and cleaner than the 12 year old boy.

And then he starts throwing a FIT. Because "If she can do it I can go way higher!" and he starts knocking over the bags when she's getting ready to run.

And head instructor goes over and lays down the law. Even kids are not allowed to be sexist douchebags here.

So the 12 year old had to spend the rest of the night standing by his mom. He was Not Happy.

But I cheered inwardly.

And remembered the fact that my douchebag cousin got his ass handed to him by a woman in another krav gym and quit before he even got his yellow belt

SPEAKING OF: I'm going to test for my Level 2 in June. exciiiiited

Woo you! And hopefully that kid learned a lesson

Yesssss to everything in this plurk

niiiiiiiiice