Back to the Grind

        My deepest apologies for not blogging in the past week or so.   After the Vegas trip I needed a few days to relax and recoup (and eat some bacon).  Tomorrow I start back to training for the Nogi Pan Ams.  I am thoroughly excited about this tournament as I have not competed in a nogi tournament before.  I am nervous, anxious, and overall excited.  I felt comfortable at the Lutador tournament during the nogi portion;  I was able to submit my first opponent in my weight division and then in the open I was able to go to referees decision against a heavier, higher ranked, and more experienced opponent.  I am eager for tomorrow!   Also tomorrow I start classes in grad school (blah).   A necessary evil!  I only have this semester of classes and then an internship in the spring.   The good news is that while achieving higher education I get to train at will for the most part.  ;)  
        A lot of peoples' BJJ blogs have a lot to do with pet peeves.  There is nothing wrong with that.  This blog is not dedicated to my pet peeves, but rather to my life/training and the melding of the two.  However once in a while there are some things that just plain rub you the wrong way.  I will list a few.  (for a great bitchy blog check out extremealphamale@blogspot.com)  White belts teaching other white belts.  As a matter of fact, unless you are asked or until you achieve the rank of purple belt I don't think it is EVER your place to try and tell other bjj practicioners what to do.   I keep my mouth shut, and always call Traven or another higher ranking person over to coach.  Coaching is not my place yet, and I find it disrespectful when blue and white belts try and act like experts in the game.  Just because you have a high GPA or have 6 degrees or are a world famous sommolier, DO NOT act like you know everything about spider guard, wrestling, and leg locks.  The end.
        Talking during the entire class.   Oh my gooooosh.   Unfortunately females hold the crown for jawjacking while doing technique.  Girls are somehow able to do advanced sweeps/submissions while talking about the dumbest stuff.   Yep.   Whats worse is the person who talking in the middle of a roll.   Like "so how is training going?"  Or "oh I didn't see that pass coming, how did you do that?"   Yes, right in the middle of a roll.  One time I received this from a a fellow in class "do you feel like you overtrain sometimes?"  Dude.   Can we talk about my training schedule after class please?
           Enough of the pet peeves for the time being.  Ready to get back to the gym tomorrow!   I feel as if I have been going through laundry withdrawal.  I am so used to washing gi's everyday that not washing them for a week due to the time off seems very weird!   Cheers!

Drill to Win

On Monday I was able to train all three classes.   In the mid morning class, there was a lull in the attendance due to the tournament on Saturday.  Traven made it open mat, and there were about 10 ppl who showed up to roll.   Because I wanted to save some gusto for the evening training I rolled 5-10 minute rounds and called it a morning.   In this 6:30 evening class there was a solid group of people to train with.  After technique we had  pairs on the mat and the remaining people on the wall; if you tap you go out and another person comes in.  We did this for about 30 minutes.  The 7:30 class was drill time.  We warmed up and then Traven split us up into two groups.   This was the schematic for the evening:  1 person on bottom closed guard drill for 6 minutes.  During that 6 minutes every 2 minutes the person on top would change.  This took about 25 minutes and then we changed the roles, i.e. there would not be a person on top for 6 minutes and every 2 minutes the person on bottom would change.  This was not a cardio taxing exercise, rather it forced me to work on top, which is exactly what I have been trying to work on.  Drilling has so many obvious advantages.  The most important is that it forces you to work on positions/scenarios that may otherwise fall by the wayside during training.  I will use myself as a classic example:  every class I want to go in and work on top as much as possible.  Depending on who I am paired up with this either will (25% of the time) or it will not (the other 75%).  In some situations it is unavoidable as some big dudes will illegally grap your pants leg and throw you up in the air and onto your back.  The majority of the time I find myself on my back working guard, either put there or for some reason I put myself there.  I leave the class saying "why did I do that?!"  Needless to say I enjoyed the training session!
           Something else popped into my head last night as I was drilling with one of the guys.  The kid is phenomenally strong.  Granted almost every guy is stronger than me in there, they're dudes.  It has been a while since he and I have rolled together.  There is not any particular reason for this, it just so happened we did not have the same training schedule.  I would say it has been about 6 months or so, probably even longer than that.  He was on bottom first and I was inside his guard.  Saying he was strong is an understatement. Grips, pulling, base, everything was so strong.  It got me to thinking.....the changes that people go through while training BJJ.  The last time I rolled with this person we were both new blue belts (I mean we still are but I'm talking baby blue belts).  I don't remember this ridic strength.  Whether he had just been doing BJJ, or strength and conditioning as well, whatever it was, I was being treated like an infant.  It could be that you are finally able to pair that strength with technique together instead of just "muscling" your way through things like we all try to do as white belts.   I believe I even said to this person "dude, you're strong as s***"   Alas, the evolution of the BJJ athlete.

Lutador Results

Yesterday was the Lutador Grappling Challenge at the Cobb Civic Center in Marietta Georgia.  It was a great event that moved smoothly and quickly and was staffed well.  TRT showed up with over 200 competitors and as you can imagine the team took home the title for the second time in a row.  I believe the final score was 476 to 225 for first and second place for the team titles.  This is a great victory for the team seeing as how this tournament is an Alliance run affair.   =)  Yesterday was a nice warmup for the 5 tournaments coming up in the next few months.  I was in a gi and nogi division with 4 ladies including myself, one of which was a fellow teammate Denise.  The first match of the gi portion was against a lady from North Carolina named Christy.  I knew of her but had never seen her compete so I didn't know what to expect.  I pulled guard (yeah i know) and swept.  Then I'm not sure if I got cocky or I was being nonchalant but she was able to sweep me back.  I then worked for a gi choke, received an advantage, and then swept again and the match ended.   Denise was able to control her opponent and we both made it to the finals.  I bowed out to her so we closed out the division.   Nogi was next.  I was eager to compete nogi because I have been training nogi a lot lately and wanted to see how I performed.  I went against a tough opponent from Knuckle Up and I told my coach and Denise that I was going to go for a takedown in that match.  I was going to shoot in for the single as I had been working on this in class.  We started.  Touch hands, go.  We fought for grips, moved our feet, everything was going smoothly.  Then she smacked me on the head.  You know how wrestlers place their hands on each other's heads?  Well I do believe that't what she was trying to accomplish but instead she smacked me...  right on my forehead.  Then I hear her coach say..."Yes, that's it, do it again!" Okay.  I saw red.  I was not going to wait to take this to the ground.  I wanted to be there and I wanted to be there right then.  So I yank her head down, jump guard, we scramble a minute and then I lock in a triangle and finish.   Forehead smack = angry Victoria.  On the other side of the bracket Denise was able to dominate her opponent and we met in the finals again, this time Denise bows out to me.  Then comes the nogi open.  I did this division for experience and of course it would have been nice to win, but I was pleased with my performance.  There were only 6 girls and in the semis I met a purple belt who is a weight class above me and a pan am and world champion this year as well.  It was 7 minutes of me not sweeping or attacking and her not being able to pass.  0-0-0-0 across the board.  She was way more aggressive and won the decision; I was just pumped that she could not pass. :)
           The rest of the team did AMAZINGLY well yesterday.  There was a great turnout on part of the kids and teenagers for the team and that is exciting!  There was a sea of TRT competitor shirts; so many that an Alliance member who came in that morning asked why he didn't get a competitor shirt when he signed up.  (There were so many of those shirts he thought that every person at Lutador was supposed to get one.  Mrs. Avecilla informed him that Jacare would not approve)  haha.  Excited to get back to training tomorrow.  Only a few more training days and then Las Vegas Open!   I looked at the final brackets, there are only 3 of us in the medio division.  This is ok because I am really looking forward to the open more than anything!   Off to the gym, no rest for the not so wicked!
             Congrats to the team for taking the title yesterday!!!   So happy and lucky to be a part of the best team around ;)

Training and Big Macs

Yeeah!   So the start of another tumultuous and fun tourney season starts in two days.  I will be able to breathe again in November.  I am excited about what the next few months will hold.  I started it off right this am with a massage from Jennifer, who by the way, works wonders for sore and tight muscles.  Then A few cardio sessions and then rest tomorrow in lieu of Lutador Challenge this weekend.   A few of the guys and myself were just debating an issue which is a hot button one for Coach Traven.  The concept of getting a massage, loosening up tight muscles, and then going to train afterwards.  Traven said that it is like having a really great training session and then going to McDonald's and eating 4 Big Macs.  He says no training after a massage.   If you ask some of the other fellas, they get the massage just to loosen up so that they can go and train  BJJ again.  Me?  I had my massage and knew full and well I was going to drink a bit of water and then hop on the stair master in a bit.  I had my upper body worked on today, mainly my shoulders and neck, so I figured the least I could do was tackle the stair master and give the upper body a break.  I definitely see Traven's point however I know for a fact that I have done Jiu Jitsu immediately after a massage before.  oops :)  I will post again after Lutador with team results.

2 Thumbs Up!

Today I tried a new rashguard from mmahq.com.  As soon as I opened it I knew I was probably going to like it.  It was soft material, and I could tell by the cut that it looked snug and (gasp) looked to be a longer fitting top.  I have found that the rashguards I have purchased in the past have never fit me.   The sizing is always a little "iffy" if you will and it will be tight in some places and loose in others.   And let's talk about the elastic bottom.  I am NOT a fan of the elastic bottom.   The draw string and tight elastic bottoms on rashguards tend to force the top to ride up almost immediately and I spend half of my training time pulling it back down.  This rashguard is different!

Design:  The Clinch Gear rashguard I received is short sleeved, predominantly light gray and has black trim on the sides.  The Clinch Gear emblem is inconspicuous making it easy to don the top with a team name or other logo.

Material:  Fantastic!  Super soft and the rashguard is not too thick.  I mean who needs to sweat even more when training because the rash guard is too thick (especially in the gi, it makes you hot enough!)

Fit:  So I assumed that there was going to be some kind of flaw when I put the rashguard on.  For Instance, the sleeves are either too big or the sleeves are tight and the midsection is enormous.  This was not the case at all.  It fit me like a glove, and when I pulled down the bottom of the top......it stayed in place.  I trained Gi this am for 1.5 hours and had no issues with having to constantly readjust (except in between rolls of course, that is unavoidable).  The cut is a bit longer than most, almost like a surfing top.  So I didn't feel like I needed to be 5 feet tall to fit into it.

Overall:   I really like this rashguard.  The material is nice, I like the design, and it fit very well.   I cannot attest to the durability of the product since today was my first time wearing it.  I will cross that bridge if and when I come to it.  :)

Check these guys out for sure!   http://www.mmahq.com  or http://www.bjjhq.com    What I like about this site is that they sell one item per day and here is the kicker:  a $5 flat shipping fee!  They sell everything from rashuards to gi's to mma shorts.   Enjoy!!

Double Doozie

Today there was no BJJ for me.   It is kind of weird to take a day off of BJJ during the week, but I got the chance to go to Come Fly Away this evening.  It is a musical based on Frank Sinatra music.  Needless to say, the show was fantastic.  So today I pulled a double dose of the cardio good times.  I teach Cardio kickboxing classes so I took one of my classes (and taught it, yea yea) and then a few hours later I gulped down some GU and pushed myself through a grueling stair master interval session.   Sweat box.  You know how people say girls don't sweat, they glisten?  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this girl doesn't sweat, my skin rains puddles onto the earth.  Today the brackets were posted for Lutador Challenge this weekend, and I am relatively disappointed at the number of girls registered!  The past few years there have been big divisions and this year I have 4 in gi, 4 in nogi, and there are 8 of us in the open this tourney.  But this small number of females doesn't change my desire to win...AT ALL.  So the countdown is on....Lutador, then Vegas, then Chicago!  

What just happened?

Do you ever have those training sessions where you feel like you wasted your entire session?  You tell yourself you're going to give it your all, you're going to go in and try new techniques, take risks, and who cares if you get tapped.  That was my intention when I woke up this morning.  However after my first session at 11:30 this am I felt like I did not accomplish any of these goals.  I found myself getting very frustrated with everything I was doing....I was doing the same stuff.  I was in my safezone and I did NOT want to be there.  I want to be that BJJ player that can do it all, and today was supposed to be the start of that mission.  I said its ok, I am going to train again tonight so I will start then.  Well it is now 9:45 at night and 2 more sessions later I am telling myself the same thing.  I have no idea why I trained the way I did today.  Was I just tired?  I felt like after I did 3 classes today that I did not even train hard.  And that is completely my fault.  During the advanced class a majority of the time was dedicated to drilling.  We started from mount and had to escape, winner stays on top.  This is all well and fine and I always tell myself  "hey, youre the only female in here, don't get mad if the bigger guys throw you off of them."  And this is what happened, and I still found myself getting frustrated!   Then we moved onto open guard drills.  Finally my strength.  Oh no, the winner stays on bottom. And I was starting on top.  SO basically I went repeatedly with the same guy who would let me pass and then throw me over top every time. I said "Victoria don't get mad, he is stronger and much bigger than you."  But once again I kept getting mad at myself.  I believe this then carried over to my rolls later on.  I am not chalking today up as a loss, but rather as a lesson that I can't be so damn hard on myself.  Tomorrow I do not get to train due to work and then I have a show to go to tomorrow night, so maybe a day off will do me some good.  Then Wednesday is my last day training BJJ before the tourney Saturday.   TRT!!