Lily looked at him for a bit before asking why he had come.

“So Father and I have a mutual friend with the owner. He will probably come for the open section after. Why are you here?”

“My brother. He has too much energy. And my parents made me come too.”

“You don’t really want to be here then?”

“No, fighting is for boys.” Lilly seemed quite upset about that. “Everyone says so.”

“Well at our age there aren't many differences in strength between us, so you shouldn’t worry too much about it now.”

“Maybe with them. You look strong. Besides, it is not just strong. My brother is really aggressive, and I don’t like touching him when he is sweaty and gross.”

Sevs wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. Talking with kids was always odd. Sometimes they were mature and knew what they wanted. Other times they were just confused. Sevs considered Lily. If she were standing, she would be on the shorter side. It was hard to say how much that would matter at this age. She was neither rail thin nor chubby. It did seem like she was active. “Do you not like being active?”

“Ehh, I don’t mind it.”

“What about sports?”

“I do gymnastics, but there are no boys there.”

“Our instructor is a girl.”

“Huh, I guess it's fine then.”

Sevs was left scratching his head. What an odd conversation. He continued stretching, and Lilly continued to imitate him. This continued for only a couple minutes before Susan clapped her hands to get everyone's attention as she stepped on the mat. Susan took a cross-legged position, sat on the ground, and gestured for the kids to surround her. The kids got in a half circle facing her. She quickly thanked them for warming up and getting ready. “Now we are going to do a couple simple drills to get used to rolling around on the floor.”

She had them rolling somersaults in a line down the mat. Later she also had them laying back and scooting on their backs, pressing with their legs. There were two lines so that each time a couple would go, there was someone to race against. This competition really encouraged the kids to try hard. Most didn’t want to lose. Sevs found he was actually having fun rolling down the mats.

While they were finishing up the last exercise, the front door opened, and Markus stepped in. He gave Sevs a wave, which Sevs promptly returned before taking his turn.

Susan called everyone back once they had all got a few goes. This time Markus was with her. “This is my lovely assistant Markus. He is going to help me show you some of the moves you will be learning.” She paused, and the children coursed out a welcome Markus. “Good, so this is a BJJ class. BJJ stands for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It is a way of fighting on the ground. When fighting or rolling, the most important thing is to be in a good position. Simply put, the best position is usually on top. I am going to use Markus as a training dummy to show you a position. Markus, come lay on your back here.”

Sevs looked around. Each of the kids' postures mirrored his own. Every one of them had their full attention on Susan and Markus. Susan was quite aware of this as she took the opportunity, “Before we start, I need to tell you a few rules. First, no hitting, biting, hair pulling, or grabbing of the clothes. You do not want to get hurt. And if I catch you doing any of those things, you will sit out and watch for the session. Second, you must let go and stand up if you feel someone tapping. It doesn't matter what position you are in. If one of you taps like this.” She tapped Markus a couple times on the shoulder. “We both stop moving, let go and stand up. Understand?”

“Yes, Susan,” the kids chorused.

“Good,” She smiled. “Now we can get to the fun part.”

Markus was still lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. She knelt by his side. “So I am going to show you Side control. Then we will do a drill. So the person on top put a knee here and here….”

Susan quickly went over the salient points of the position. The explanation was quick and easy to follow, but Sevs was sure that a few kids had already stopped paying attention. Susan got off of Markus, who looked like he had fallen asleep. “She clapped her hands once. Okay, we are getting into pairs.”

Each kid quickly grabbed someone, and the couple who looked like they might get left out were paired up. There was an even number of children but an odd number of girls and boys. So one group was mixed. Sevs was surprised that he was not one of the kids Susan had to help find a partner. Lily grabbed his upper arm and moved them to an open spot on the mats.

“I thought you didn’t want to fight?”

“Well, better with you than my brother.” She nodded to one of the kids that Susan helped find a partner. “Besides, this seems less violent. I don’t want to hurt someone. I don’t like hitting.”

Susan clapped one more time. “The drill we are doing is quite simple. One person lays down and lets their partner get side control. Then the person on the bottom will try to get up, and the person on top will stop them. Once you get out, reset and try again. Count how many times you can get out. After a bit, we will switch. Whenever you are ready to go.”

As the groups started to get in position, a couple were not sure of something. Susan moved to the group that seemed to need help. Lily had already laid down on her back, and when Sevs looked at her, she motioned to her side. Feeling slightly awkward, Sevs went chest to chest with her. He put his elbows in position against her shoulder and hips. “Whenever you are ready.”

Lily started bucking her hips, and Sevs had to lean slightly to prevent being swept off to the top. She started pushing with her arms as well. Sevs just kept shifting his weight. After a couple minutes. She flopped limply and started shaking. Sevs was concerned; it almost seemed like she was crying. He lifted his head so he could get a look at her face. Definitely not crying. She laughed at him, and at that moment, she bucked and rolled, squirming. She managed to get on her side. Sevs tried to hold on, but it was too late. With the extra space, she wiggled free enough that she could just scramble to her feet. She pumped her fist in victory and gave a little cheer. Coming back down to the mat, she gave Sevs a winning smile. “Come on, you can do better than that.”

Lily and Sevs went back and forth for about three minutes. During which Lily had only gotten up one more time; by the time they were done, they were both covered in sweat. Sevs hair was dripping into his eyes; it stung as his eyebrows were over-saturated. They could not hold back the liquid anymore. After the timer went off, they both sat there panting.

“Good job, everyone! rest for a minute, then switch positions.” Susan called out.

“You seem to be enjoying this more than you thought you would,” Sevs said as he cocked an eyebrow at Lily. She just laughed, too out of breath to respond. Sevs flopped down onto his back. What felt like a second later, Susan signaled them to start. The sweat on their bodies had just begun to cool down. So when Lily got in the position, it was accompanied by a cold, wet sticking of the shirt that made it a whole new level of uncomfortable.

“Ready when you are.” Lily declared. Sevs tried to sit up, but nothing happened. He braced his feet against the ground and bridged his hips. As he bucked, he also pushed with his arms. Lily simply went up on her toes, putting even more pressure on him. She performed a twisting motion that made it significantly harder to press than a barbell. The few inches he had managed to get with his arms collapsed as Lily crashed back into his chest. He thrashed around some more. Eventually, Sevs got onto his side and thrust out with his arms and knees. This slid him far enough away that he could rise to his knees. Sevs stood, panting with his hands on his hips, trying to get as much air as possible.

Now that they were both warm again, getting back down on the ground was nearly as uncomfortable. Sevs managed to get to his feet two more times during the next couple of minutes. When the timer went off, they all stopped struggling on the floor. Susan called them all to order and circled up again.

She spent a few minutes explaining a fundamental escape for side control. How to press with your elbow and use the shoulder as a lever. How to make space so you can get on your side and slide hips out from under your opponent. This time there were no distracted children. The competition had won the attention of these kids. No one wanted to feel trapped, each was excited to learn how to get out of it.

Instead of repeating the previous drill, Susan had them go through the moves slowly. Lily and Sevs took turns going through the motions; the person on top was compliant and let the others do whatever they wanted. After Lily had managed to brace her knee off Sevs hips and use it as leverage to get out from under him a few times, they switched again. "I'm not going to just let you do it this time. I want to see if this works against resistance."

With that declaration, Lily resisted his movements this try. She didn't switch to other positions, probably because they didn't know any other ones yet. However, only static pressure made each step of the escape many times harder. On the first try, he was incapable of getting his knee into the joint of her hip as she kept it pressed against him, so there was not enough space for it to fit. As he struggled with it, Susan stopped by, "Lily, you should still be taking it easy to ensure we all have the steps down first."

"But why isn't it working? If she can stop it so easily, how will it work in a more active situation?" Sevs asked.

"You need to use your elbow for leverage a little better. Move your hand further down her shoulder a bit... yeah right there. Now use your shoulder to pivot on that point and drive your elbow end of your forearm against the side of her neck... You see how she moves up a little, and you have less pressure on you? So now you can roll a little bit on your hips, on the other side. There, see that little gap between her hip and yours? That's where your knee goes.”

Sevs was able to get his knee in there and push, getting free. Susan continued, "There is a process to this. We need to learn the steps then we can add some resistance. But just because a move works against resistance doesn't mean it is good. Why is that?"

Lily piped up, "There is something better you can do?"

"Maybe anything else?"

Sevs thought for a second. "A move could get you out of the situation and leave you open to something worse? Maybe I could roll over on my back, then Lily would just be sitting on me, and there would be nothing I can do?"

"Good, both of those are true. So we don't train with just resistance very much. Once you know more positions and some attacks, we will do this more, but that is where rolling comes in. We can start you in a position, and then you go at it until the timer runs out or one of you gives up. That way, when you make moves that put you in a worse position, you will know." With that Susan went to help another group struggling to get it right.

Lily and Sevs continued taking turns, each time they got a little more serious about resisting the escape attempt. When Lily wasn't able to get her hand on his shoulder, they stopped and talked about it. "Maybe you can go from the other direction? Instead of grabbing my shoulder and sliding your arm under my head, you can work your hand under my chin, then when you grab my shoulder, your arm will already be in position."

"Yeah, when I am trying that, what if you were to grab my arm?" Lily asked. Sevs tried it.

"See, I think if I do that, you now have enough space to work your knee into my hips without the whole arm thing." Sevs rebutted. They went back and forth with the person on top, finding a new way to resist, and then they both worked on finding a counter. This continued until Susan called the group back to order.