I got in a really good workout tonight. I got exhausted, but it was a really good exhaustion. Good exhaustion is fairly rare. I’m not really sure what constitutes good exhaustion. Mostly, I know it when I feel it. But let me try to break it down anyway. Here’s some characteristics:

• It’s productive. For example, you’re completely out of breath because you’ve just shot four or five attacks in a row, not because you’ve been holding on for dear life and the muscle tension wore you out. And some of those attacks were decent, not totally deformed bullshit that would never work even if you put the strength of the Incredible Hulk behind them. Maybe one of them even worked!
• You’re excited. For whatever reason, you believe that, hey, maybe I can throw someone tonight. You’re not thinking, I haven’t scored, I’m never gonna score, I suck, and I’ve never been to Compton.

OK, actually, cancel the unordered list. The difference between “good” exhaustion and “oh, please let it all end now” exhaustion is the presence of hope. I bet Obama is able to push it to the limit in his workouts all the time!

It’s rare, but tonight was one of those nights when I felt like I was actually getting better at judo. Most of the time, I feel like “Hey, not bad for a guy with mild motor skill retardation,” but I definitely don’t feel like I’m as good as I should be. However, I do usually feel good for just making it through the workout, which is quite demanding. I’m telling you, though: It’s way better to feel like you’re getting better technique-wise and sparring-wise than it is to feel like you’re just getting more stamina.

When you do feel like you don’t suck completely, it is a little easier to continue to try to set up and shoot throws even after you feel that out-of-gas burn in your chest. Hope is indeed very important, even in fighting.

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This really cocky new kid showed up at judo last night, at the fundamentals class. That doesn’t happen very often. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone come in with ‘tude.

I don’t think he’s brand new, or he’d be working on his breakfalls and rolls with his own instructor instead of working out with rest of the class. However, he hadn’t been around long enough to lose his inflated sense of ability. The kid, who I’d guess was eighteen or nineteen, went on about how he was a natural, talked up all the high school wrestling he did, and generally screwed around a lot. He kept trying wacky moves instead of working on the technique being taught.

The head instructor of the judo club happened to be teaching that night, and he noticed. The sensei’s a friendly guy, so I wondered how he’d deal with this. However, he teaches a lot of classes, so I should have been able to guess that this was not really a new situation for him.

First, he agreed to roll with the kid during a water break. He ran over him, but while he stopped to talk to someone, the kid jumped on his back. The sensei took it with good humor and turned around and choked the kid, with what looked like ryote jime.

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