Grappling with Nicole Ch. 01

Chapter 1

Growing up, I was never much of an athlete. I was always undersized, uncoordinated, and lacking that killer instinct you need to win. My timidness just always got in the way. I loved sports though, couldn't get enough of them. I watched everything; baseball, basketball, football, hockey, you name it. I knew all the strategies, but competing was a different story. While I enjoyed being known as the stats guy, the one my friends would go to for every fact about every player, there was always a part of me that wished I could be out there instead of on the sidelines.

In my late teens I discovered a new sport. It was just starting to gain popularity, but was not yet mainstream. It was called mixed martial arts. It felt like the ultimate sport. Only a few rules, no teammates, just two guys squaring off to see who would emerge victorious. I would watch clips online and beg my parents to buy the pay-per-views whenever I could. What intrigued me the most was how unpredictable it could be.

There were so many different disciplines and fighting styles. A fighter could dominate one opponent and then get knocked out in his very next trip to the ring. Which is why any of the champions who stayed at the top for years at a time were so unique and rare. I watched and studied them to figure out why their strategies worked better than anyone else's.

I remember one fight in particular, I was watching with a few buddies in my parents basement. The first guy that came out looked like a monster. His body was covered in tattoos and looked like it was carved out of marble. They showed his highlights as he walked to the ring and it was knockout after knockout. The camera panned over to him and he looked like a wild animal. This flame of unhinged aggression just flickering behind his eyes, ready to explode when the bell rang.

The lights dimmed as his opponent came out next. And to all our surprise an average looking joe made his way into the arena. There was little fanfare as he made his way to the ring, a picture of calm and focus. He was clearly in good shape, as anyone would be with the level of training these fighters go through, but he was completely unassuming. You wouldn't look at him and think this is a cage fighter. Especially compared to the beast staring across from him.

My friends laughed and started making bets about how long this guy would last in the ring. It almost seemed unfair that they would put these two together, only furthering the stereotypes that this was nothing but a brutal and violent excuse for a sport.

The fight started and the bigger man rushed in, attempting to quickly land a vicious blow. But his opponent was faster. He dodged and circled around the ring. Again, the animal launched himself towards the man, sure that once his hands connected the fight would be over. But again the smaller man was too quick. My friends jeered that he was running away, stalling for time. But the look on his face was confidence not fear. I watched intently wondering what this man's secret was.

The two fighters squared up now, the larger one realizing that his attempts to bulldoze his opponent were not succeeding. He slowly began to stalk the smaller man, trying to trap him. As they moved towards the corner, you could feel the tension in the air. There was no room for escape now.

A strong punch was thrown with bad intentions, the crowd cheering thinking the end was near. But the smaller man never waivered. He just slightly slipped his head away from the punch and quickly ducked under his opponent's arms. Within seconds he had grabbed onto the larger man's body and effortlessly took him to the ground by blocking a leg and tripping him, using momentum in his favor.

The two men scrambled for position on the canvas, the larger one using all his strength to finally end up on top. My friends cheered seeing him in the dominant position, sensing trouble for the smaller man once again. I felt bad that all that effort was for nothing as he was now in an even worse position with this monster on top of him, ready to pummel his face.

But all of a sudden the man on the bottom grabbed his opponent's arm and used a technique I had never seen before. He wrapped himself around the larger man's neck and began to squeeze like a python. The larger fighter stood up, but the man never let go. They stood in the ring for a moment until the larger man crashed back down to the mat. The referee quickly jumped in and lifted the larger man's arm and watched as it fell lifelessly to the floor. He waved his hands signaling the end of the match and the smaller fighter finally let go and jumped up cheering with his hands in the air.

We were all stunned as we watched this behemoth lay completely unconscious on the floor, several doctors surrounding him trying to wake him up. The announcers were going crazy as was the crowd. In less than two minutes the smaller fighter had completely incapacitated his opponent. He had faced off against this beast and handled him like it was nothing. I was mesmerized.

It was that day that I learned about jiu jitsu. I began to follow some of the MMA fighters that trained in this martial art and they always seemed to come out on top no matter how outsized they were. I read more and more about it online, watching clips of some of the greatest grapplers on the planet as they performed these wild techniques with ease. And yet none of them looked like the athletes I had grown up watching and admiring. It was an art of deliberately controlled aggression. The best fighters never wasted any movements or tried to overpower their opponents. Instead they waited for just the right opportunity, sensing when the moment was right to let out a burst of offense and finish their opposition.

I continued to watch for a few years, always too timid to try it myself. My past sports failures echoed in my head, reinforcing the idea that anything athletic or physical was not for me. But for some reason jiu jitsu felt different. I was drawn to it like no other sport before.

What if I just try it? It can't be that bad, can it?, I thought to myself. When I turned 20, I finally decided this was something I needed to do. I was petrified of going in and getting completely destroyed. Maybe even badly hurt. But there was another part of me that thought back to that unassuming fighter I watched all those years ago. The one that started it all. I had to know the secret to his confidence and I knew jiu jitsu held the key.

There was a local gym in my town and after weeks of reading reviews online and driving by, I finally forced myself to go in. I was nervous, but after my first class my only regret was that I hadn't started sooner. I loved the atmosphere of the gym. Everyone was pretty laid back and was just looking to train and get better. There were guys of all different skill levels, from beginners like me, older guys just looking for a workout, all the way to guys who were training for competitions. Within a month I had been paired up with all of them at some point. Each one was kicking my ass, but I could feel myself improving with each class. And all the guys were happy to give me tips after they made me tap out.

The facility itself was okay, a little hole in the wall in a strip mall. I imagine there are way better gyms where real MMA fighters train, but I'm sure there are worse ones out there too. Most of the space was taken up by the mats, but there was a back room with some lockers, a small sauna and showers. It was always kept nice and clean and it quickly became my home away from home.

Before each class everyone would get warmed up so we could be loose before the instructor began. I was off to the side one day, stretching and listening to some of the guys chat. I had on my fresh gi, which was the standard uniform we wore. It looked like what the karate kid wore in those movies. My white belt was tied around my waist, the knot still not perfect even though I had tried several times to get it just right.

The door to the gym opened, the little bell above jingling so the instructor could hear someone had entered. I looked up and was surprised to see a woman walk in. As far as I could tell, there were only men training at this gym. Not that it was explicitly stated anywhere, but I had not seen any women in the classes. Granted I had only been there for a short time.

While the rest of the guys continued to talk, seemingly not noticing or caring about the new female presence, I watched her come into the gym and stand by the two chairs that could be considered a "waiting area". She seemed to be holding a piece of paper and was looking around unsure of what to do next. Our instructor for the day, Billy, got up and greeted her.

She gave him a big smile that lit up her whole face. I was close enough to just barely make out what she was saying. "Hi, I saw this flier about taking a free class and wanted to see what it was all about," she said.

"Ah yes, come over to the front desk and I'll have you fill out a waiver. Have you ever trained before?" Billy asked.

"Nope, never. I just found the flier on my car the other day and wanted to check it out."

"Well don't worry, you'll be glad you did! I'll run to the back and grab you a uniform for the day," Billy said.

The instructor went into the back room as this woman filled out the forms. I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was beautiful. Dark brown hair tied up in a ponytail. Her body was slender, with long legs, but she still had curves. She was probably in her late 20s or early 30s I estimated. By any standards a knockout.

I stared at her, just soaking in every detail. She stopped writing and put down the pen. She looked up towards the mat and our eyes met. She flashed that beautiful smile again and I quickly looked away. I could feel my cheeks burning red.

The instructor returned to the desk empty handed. "I'm sorry, it looks like we're all out of small gi's. You're welcome to come back another day, unless you're comfortable training in what you have on, just to try it out."

She was wearing leggings and a sports bra, appropriate for any normal physical activity, but definitely a far cry from the long pants and full jacket of a jiu jitsu gi.

"I'll be fine in this," she responded. "I'm just really excited! It looks like fun!"

"Okay then! Let's find you a partner for the day," Billy answered, looking around the room, finally settling on me.

"Jay, come on over here. You two are at least somewhat close to the same size."

I blushed again. Unfortunately he wasn't wrong though. Looking around the room, I was clearly the smallest guy there.

I hopped up and made my way over to the woman and extended my hand.

"Hi, I'm John, though everyone calls me Jay."

"Hi, Jay. I'm Nicole," she shook my hand with a bright smile. Up close she was even more beautiful. She barely wore any makeup, but was just naturally pretty. Her eyes were an incredible hazel color that changed with the light. And she had little freckles on her cheeks that were barely noticeable on her tan skin. I could barely keep eye contact with her.

Nicole slipped off her shoes and I brought her over to the mat. As you might have guessed, my timidness wasn't just in sports. Women were also an area where it reared its ugly head. It always felt like my words would get lost in my throat and my brain would fog over. Especially with pretty women. And Nicole was way past pretty. Walking over to the mat that familiar awkward feeling crept in, like I wasn't in control of my body. Each step robotic and over-thought. She followed me to the side where I had been stretching and we took a seat. I tried my best to remain calm and explained to her about how the class usually went and what to expect. She began to stretch as I talked.

Being 20 years old, I hadn't yet developed any level of discretion and I just couldn't help but steal glances at her ass as she bent over at the waist. It looked absolutely stunning in her tight yoga pants. As she pushed the stretch further, the material stretched around her plump cheeks and I thought I could make out the slightest outline of her panties. I could feel the blood rushing down below as I wondered what color they were.

Her head moved and she looked at me.

"Jay, did you hear me?" she said, catching me off guard. I had zoned out while we were talking and now she had caught me staring at her ass. I blushed with embarrassment again.

Smooth, John. Real smooth.

Wish I could say that I was usually better at this kind of thing, but this was par for the course for me. I didn't exactly have women lining up. It wasn't that I was ugly or anything, but I hadn't really filled out yet as a man and I was shy which kept me from approaching women myself. So obviously my experience flirting and getting close to women was limited.

I wasn't a virgin though. I did manage to date a girl in my first year of college. She was pretty, definitely nothing like Nicole, but still I was just excited to be around a woman. We had met in class and I guess she found my awkward timidness endearing. She basically forced me to take her out one night. She got me drinking a bit and before I knew it we were back at her place undressing.

I fumbled around in the dark, not knowing what to do, it being my first time and all. She had climbed on top and guided me inside her. I got about halfway, but she looked like she was in pain. We ended up just fooling around in other ways, but after a few times she ended it.

Nicole's giggle brought me back to the gym. She gave me a coy smile and went back to stretching, clearly realizing what had been the cause of my distraction. She didn't seem offended that I had been checking her out though, but that didn't stop my uneasiness. I cringed on the inside, not having any idea how to save face.

Luckily before I could make the situation worse, the instructor called out to begin class. "Circle up! Today we're going to drill a few positions from the guard. For those new folks, the guard looks like this." Billy sat on the ground and pulled his opponent towards him. He laid back and wrapped his legs around his partner. His legs were locked around his partner's back preventing him from getting up or moving out of this position.

"From here, even though I am on the bottom, I have control of my opponent. He cannot easily escape and from here I can set up several offensive moves." He moved easily and showed off a few submissions that he could catch his opponent in.

"This is one of the core principles of jiu jitsu. Even though I look to be at a disadvantage by being on the bottom, by perfecting these techniques, I can instead go on the attack. Today, we'll drill a sweep from this position and then the rest of the class will be open mats. Try to work the sweep into your matches."

After watching the move a few times we broke away into our pairs to practice it. Nicole looked at me for instruction, a situation I wasn't really used to, being a newcomer myself.

"Umm, I guess I can start," I said.

I laid on my back and opened my legs. I waved to Nicole to come in between them. It was strange doing this with a woman. But Nicole didn't hesitate and scooted herself in.

I wrapped my legs around her and began doing the move the instructor had just shown. Being so close to Nicole, the smell of her perfume was intoxicating, a mix of vanilla and lilac. I looked up at her face and into her big beautiful eyes and I walked through what I was doing step by step, trying my hardest to sound confident and not think about how close this woman was to me. Nicole listened intently. It was the most attention I had gotten from a woman in a long time.

For the sweep you needed to use your opponent's momentum for it to work, so I quickly pushed Nicole's slender frame as my legs swept across. In one motion I went from being on the bottom to being on top of Nicole, straddling her with my legs and sitting on top of her body in a position called mount.

I looked down at Nicole, wondering if she felt awkward with me on top of her like this. But to my surprise she had a huge grin on her face.

"Wow! Jay, that was so cool! Let me give it a try," she exclaimed.

Her excitement was cute and I couldn't help but smile back.

I got off of her and crawled over to her legs. She opened them to allow me to get in position between them. I couldn't help but glance down at her crotch though. The faintest hint of a camel toe greeted me. I could feel my eyes go wide and linger, but I quickly looked away, not wanting to get caught again.

I moved her legs around my waist. She pulled me close and locked them behind my back, just as Billy had shown. I realized for the first time how close to missionary this position actually was. The thought had never really crossed my mind until now, even though I had drilled this position a ton of times before. I could feel our bodies pressing against each other. I looked down at this gorgeous woman on her back in front of me and couldn't help the naughty scenarios that began running through my head. Nicole continued to look at me with excitement though, clearly not having the same thoughts as me.

I quickly snapped myself out of it, trying not to let my awkwardness be the thing that Nicole took away from her first day. I began instructing her how to perform the move on me. I moved her legs so they were in the correct position, feeling the softness of her leggings against my hand.

"Ok, so you pull my collar, while doing a scissor type motion with your legs and that will force my momentum to fall--"

Before I could finish my statement, Nicole tossed me onto my back and was sitting on my stomach. She instinctively pinned my hands to the ground as I looked up at her with surprise. She had on that wry smile once again.

"How was that? Maybe I'm a natural at this," she said so confidently.

I was in love. Wow, what a woman! She was perfect! She liked jiu jitsu, she was damn beautiful, what more could I ask for!

We practiced a few more times. Nicole asked how long I had been doing jiu jitsu and complemented my skill level so far. It was hard for me to talk to a woman like Nicole, let alone get a compliment from one. I just blushed and tried to brush it off.

"Nah, I'm not that good, you should see some of the guys in here."

"Nonsense," Nicole said as she now effortlessly tripped me onto my back again.

She looked down at me, "You clearly know a lot and you're a great teacher," she said with a wink.

Was she flirting with me? I had so little experience that I had no idea what that would even look like. It just seemed impossible that this absolute stunner would have any interest in a guy like me.

Although...

I thought back on our interactions so far. We had locked eyes when we had come into the gym. She had been talking to me a lot and giving me compliments. And she hadn't taken any offense when she had caught me looking at her ass before. She smiled at me a lot and laughed at things I said. Maybe she really was into me! Maybe I should ask her out! The thought sent butterflies fluttering around my stomach.

The instructor interrupted my quick daydream. He shouted out that it was time for open mats, meaning we would grapple each other trying to get the dominant position and go for submissions. No one was trying to hurt anyone, just trying to catch the other person and get them to tap. Just practicing actually applying the techniques while our opponent did the same.

Nicole got off of me and we squared off with one another, both starting from our knees. As is customary I reached out my hand. Both competitors will slap hands to signal respect and also the beginning of the match.

But as Nicole reached her hand out, something sparkly caught my eyes. It was then that I realized she had an engagement ring on.