Private Lessons

Packed gym despite the fact that we were closed!

I got in a lot of BJJ this week. On Wednesday morning I met Jackie at the gym to grapple a little bit. She is training for a tournament in September, so she wanted to get in some NoGi in the morning. There is a decent group of people Jiu Jitsu students that show up when there is open mat time to get some extra rolling in.



I scheduled a private meeting on Saturday and also arranged to roll with Jack afterwards since the gym with closed because of Jordan Stiner's fight (he won his 5th professional fight that night making his record 5-0). The private lesson was with Mike, a Brown belt that has been training at Renzo's for 6 years. He's relatively small which makes him a nice person a drill with. We worked on some guard passes. After an hour a whole bunch of other people started showing up to roll. I tried one of the guard passes on a purple belt about three times my size. It didn't work, he just smiled and told me that I did had at least done it right.



For being closed for the day there were a lot of dedicated people that wanting to get time on the mats.

Kyra Gracie on October 12th

I am officially going to the Kyra Gracie seminar in October. I'm siked. I have a little over a month before I move to Brazil. I will be buying my plane ticket tomorrow as well as finalizing my reservation at Connection Rio. I'll get there on a Sunday morning. Before I buy my plane ticket I want to confirm that they provide transportation from the airport to the house in Tijuca. I wonder if they have class on Sundays...

New Rashguard from Renzo Gracie PA

I've been living in Pennsylvania for a week now and training at Renzo Gracie PA. The owner Rich Latta has been doing be a real favor helping me get my Jiu Jitsu ready for Brazil. It's nice to finally get to know people in class. A lot of the blue and purple belts are really helpful so I've learned a lot from them. I'm in there everyday, but they only have BJJ classes there Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. I do boxing, Muay Thai, and Nogi in between. Despite the fact that I'm clearly better on my feet, I've really been wanting to roll more. I've definitely been getting better in the short time that I've been here. 

I wonder what classes in Brazil will be like. I'm used to working out twice a day, but I always switch up my routine. It will be interesting to transition into doing nothing but BJJ for three months. Starting off my trip with a Kyra Gracie seminar is like a small dream come true. 

New State. New Gym

So, I finally moved out of Virginia (and out of my cubby at MiKiDo) and I made it without crying! Before leaving I stopped by the gym one last time because I forgot my Bo staff. I got a chance to say goodbye to Umaer (one of my trainers), and my title belt, that is now hanging on the gym wall.  Then I had to drive a Uhaul truck all the way up to Pennsylvania by myself, which I was not happy about! Well I broke all the stereo types about women and driving. Not only did I make it up to PA in great time, I backed the truck into my driveway in my narrow one way street!! Needless to say, I feel pretty accomplished. 

I left VA at 1:30pm which gave me enough time to get to PA park the truck, unload a few bags (i.e. unleash chaos in my room),  and make it to Renzo Gracie PA in time for their 6:30 Jiu Jitsu class. 

This happened, but I found rashguard 

and compression shorts!

I got in a nice hour of rolling. We went over the arm bar, how to finish the arm bar if your getting stacked, then triangle and triangle escapes. What I like about their Jiu Jitsu classes is they teach a series of techniques that flow together over a week or two period and continuously reinforce those specific techniques. The end results is a lot more drilling and technique perfection then I normally get. At other gyms they drill arm bar for 10 minutes then go live. Then the next day they'll drill another unrelated technique and go live. As a smaller person, I need all the technique that I can get because there is no way I'm going to over power a guy thats got 50-100 pounds on me!

Victorious!

2013 IKF World Classic Strawweight Champion (108lbs)

My first fight via Regan Gower. Unanimous decision

Won my weight cut. Lost my bye.

Bidhan and I waiting for our plan to florida

to compete in IKF World Classic

Cutting weight is never fun. Every fight that I've had I continue to drop down to lower and lower weight classes. Now I know for sure where I'm comfortable fighting. 110-115 is a good range. 108 is a maybe I should hire a personal chief and a nutritionist if i'm ever going to do this again kind of deal. 105 is just not going to happen.  Half my problem with cutting weight stems from that fact that I am not good at cooking, and I'm even worse at cooking low carb, sodium free food that a weight cut requires. Therefore, I end up eating too little instead of eating stuff I shouldn't. It's crazy how you can work so hard to make weight for one day, half a day really, and then you try to gain it all back as soon as possible.

This time last year for my first weigh in ever

I was dying!

I made weight but for some reason I lost my bye. There are only three people in the division that I am fighting in so one person will only have to fight Sunday for the title fight, that was supposed to be me. Now I'll have to fight tomorrow and Sunday for my title. Initially I was pissed, but when it comes down to it this is a tournament, which means more than one fight, and taking the easy way to a title belt when my other teammates are fighting two or three times doesn't seem right. The girl I lost to last year fought three times to get to the title. I don't just want to have the title. I want to be the best.  

The fight skirt I made honoring my cousin and good friend that passed. 

Hard questions to answer

Não olhe para os defeitos dos outros, o que ele fez e nao fez, olhar

o que voce tem feito eo que você deixou de fazer. 

~Sakyamuni

People ask me all the time why I am going to Brazil. My answer: "To train Jiu Jitsu".
To which they ALWAYS reply: "well can't you do that in this country for cheaper".


But its not the same. Maybe I need to change my answer to, "I want to live Jiu Jitsu".


Second most popular question: "When are you coming back"
That doesn't seem like it should be a hard question, but I don't know. I've narrowed it down to, "Uh, I'll be back to test for my black belt with Joe, or The Boy, as we call him".

He is a belt under me; last month he got his brown belt and I got my advanced brown. That should give me 2 years to get back from Brazil to test for my black belt with him. That seems just to me, we make a good team. He can tap me out, but I'm way better at forms and weapons. Who's better at standup is still in the air (poor boy thinks he's Mike Tyson, I think I'm Superwoman, either way we're a good match up).  We're both the same weight class so we are always paired together, and we both work our asses off at the gym for Brent, the owner. We are also both tied for fourth in line in the "hierarchy" of who gets to act like their in charge when Brent is gone. But unlike Joe, I'm old school MiKiDo. I started under Brent's dad so I've learned every form since white belt, got my Kali at green belt, Nunchuck at blue, Bo staff at brown, and now I will be bringing the Coma, my new weapon, with me to Brazil.

ROHAI: Me (front right), Rob, (front Left), Joe (back right)

Most students don't learn their forms until its required. As a blue belt you have to do Rohai and at brown you have to go back and learn ALL the forms. Rob and I practice our forms all the time but trying to get one of the other fighters in the gym to pick up a weapon is..... challenging to say the least. I'll be proud to know that when I finally do get my black belt it will be because I've dedicated myself to mastering EVERYTHING we do at MiKiDo from fighting, to forms, to weapons. Now, with this trip to Brazil, I'll be adding my own thing to the mix that only Brent and his dad have: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu experience. Real Jiu Jitsu experience. So even though it pains me to leave the gym and watch others advance without me, I feel like it will make my black belt so much more legitimate, like I'll have earned it so much more. 

Another hard question: how the hell am I going to get all my weapons, plus my kimonos, plus my other training gear to Brazil AND still have room for regular clothes? 

4th of July- 16 days to fight

My sprinting field 

I was supposed to go home for 4th of July to visit my family, BUT my friend told me Renzo's would be closed over the holiday and through the weekend so I was forced to push my trip off to next week.

16 days til I fight for the IKF classic world champion belt in the Straw Weight division (108 lbs). 4th of July or not, I still had to get a work out in, so as guests started to arrive at my house for our cookout, I was in the driveway jumping rope and shadow boxing. Today being a holiday I decided to take a break from doing sprints on my normal soccer field and opted for the "20th Street Hill from Hell" instead. I haven't hit that hill since.... well possibly since training for this same fight last year. I picked a particularly hot and humid day at 1pm to tackle it, but I figure that Rio will be like this, if not worse, every day.

I stood at the bottom of the hill for a minute wishing that I was back in the comfort of my house, but I remembered the only thing I could think about before I stepped into the ring for my first fight ever was, "Shit! I wish I had done more sprints!". So I sprinted up and jogged down, sprinted up and jogged down until I did the allotted number of sprints at which point I generally pat myself on the back and half ass jog the three blocks back to my house. Today being an extra special day, instead of returning home, I sucked it up (literally I could have thrown up by then),  added two more feet and then did it all over again.