The Transgendered MMA Fighter Dilemma

I’m in the middle of running around getting ready to fly off to California, so to be perfectly honest I haven’t done that much writing, here or creatively (it feels wrong not to, so that’s a good sign the routine is taking hold).

However, here’s an interesting article for you to read though: it’s about a transgendered MMA fighter who underwent surgery to become a female in 2006 and now wants to fight other females. One fighter is saying she will not fight her, due to the unknown element of what has changes in concern to the fighter’s body composition versus what has remained from her time as a male.

It’s uncharted territory, and just when I think I know what side of the fence I am on, something else comes up and I’m unsure again.

I have to admit I am not well versed in how gender reassignment affects the body in a long term sense, and I think not many others know either, and that’s what bothers people. From what I can tell, transgendered male to female patients receive hormone replacement therapy treatments for up to 10 years to fully go through their change. Fox has her gender reassignment in 2006, so she may (or may not) have been taking hormones up until now. We tell women all the time that they can lift a bunch because their bodies can’t produce the amount of testosterone it would take to bulk up, so theoretically shouldn’t that be the same for Fox? She no longer produces that key hormone which I feel would give her the  strength advantage over her opponents. Men also tend to be stronger in the upper body than the lower, but again I don’t think there would be much of a difference to consider it unfair.

I know in some ways I am simplifying the matter, but again, I don’t really know that much about gender reassignment. I’m more of a Shakespeare, sci-fi, comic book kind of gal (which btw Joss Whedon’s “Much Ado About Nothing” is coming out on June 7th! Squee!) so this isn’t really something I have interest in reading into.

I think with time this issue most certainly can be resolved. Rules will be made, regulations will be put into place in concern to transgendered females and males (hey, it could happen. Maybe.) when it comes to competition and proper testing. In the meantime we here in the peanut gallery will continue to scratch our heads and hope someone out there has a better idea of how to handle the situation.

 

Big Apple BJJ Open Tournament

So in addition to the New York Open, there is another tournament, the Big Apple Open Jiu Jitsu tournament.

Taking place on May 18th, they have an early bird registration fee now- $90, until March 23rd. It’s taking place at Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan.

I took a look at the results: it looks like a small tournament at the moment, but who knows, it was just promoted by Graciemag, so there’s a chance with the additional publicity it will have more competitors.

Check it out if you are interested: Big Apple BJJ Open Tournament

The Olympics and Wresting

Well, this seems to be the week of major announcements: the Catholic pope resigns, North Korea plays its hand as being all aboard the crazy train, and wrestling is removed from the Olympics.

I do think that practitioners of any sport removed of course would be upset, but wresting I feel just doesn’t make that much sense. But again, I speak from a grappling background. I just really feel if they had to remove some sports, there are a number of other ones that should have been either removed- I’m looking at you, table tennis.

Maybe wrestling will be reinstated in the following games, maybe not. If this is something you want to petition, I am currently scouring my facebook feed for the link to one someone mentioned. I’ll be sure to post it up if I find it.

What other sports do you think they could have done away with before wrestling was put on the chopping block?

Oldies but Goodies

While jiu jitsu is still evolving, and there are new guards, submissions and positions it feels like every couple of months,  it’s nice sometimes to see a “blast from the past” so to speak- an old technique that’s like that you loved and for some reason or another moved away from. It’s like that song you used to play all the time, stop listening to for a couple of years and then hear on the radio again. You may not remember every single word, every nuance, but everything has a warm, familiar ring to it and tends to bring back memories. Some probably good, some probably a little frustrating, but that’s part of the whole process, and advancing in rank.

Tonight’s Oldies but goodies were some sweeps from x-guard- have you gone through any techniques you would consider an old friend you were re-acquainted with recently?

Gi Commercial Review

There’s a new commercial for a gi company, Mata Leon, that’s been posted around Facebook -which means I am probably the last person to watch/comment on it, but whatever. Here it is:

Kind of an interesting concept, and I like the fact they chose a woman, rather then just go straight to marketing for dudes. I kind of expected that last shot, but all in all pretty good.

Funny enough, the main thing I noticed was her hair cut, and how she seemed to solve the problem of having those side pieces from being ripped out: she just shaved the sides off. If my hair wasn’t so curly, that would be extremely tempting.

What do you think of the video?

Lloyd Irvine BJJ Kumite

I am so behind on this sort of stuff…

So apparently Lloyd Irvin has put together a massive, week long submission tournament where brown belts, including his own top guy, Keenan Cornelius, will fight to be crowned as the ultimate brown belt male.

If I had more free time I would follow this a little more closely, but here is the article from onthemat.com

Check it out!

Kurt Osiander’s Leg Drag Pass

I’m totally borrowing this from DSTRYRSG’s site: it’s Kurt Osiander and an interesting pass: my only pseudo issue lies with someone holding onto your ankles and attempting to either ankle dump you, or simply block your pass. It shouldn’t be an issue, but the possibility is there.

Enjoy!

IBJJF Black Belt League Rankings

So, I was just perusing the IBJJF website, when I found this little page:

The Black Belt League Top 100 Male and Female Black Belts. 

Since my brain is still a little fuddled with this cold, maybe the answer to what I’m about to ask is somewhere on the page and I’m just not seeing it: how far back do the rankings go?  I mean, are we just looking at the past 6,8, 10 years or are we kickin’ it all the way back to 1996? If you look on the site there are results for the 1996 tournaments, so it’s (sort of) a legitimate question.

(Update: just saw it only goes back 3 years. Not sure I agree with that, but then again no one asked me)

One thing I am definitely noticing is that they girls certainly outpace the guys when it comes to points. Gaby Garcia outpaces the top male black belt by almost 600 points.  Dang.

It’s kind of interesting: check it out!

A Little Inside BJJ Joke

I saw this on Pinterest and found it pretty funny: Sambazon, take note…

 

That is all. Enjoy your Monday, everyone!

Rest vs Recovery

A friend of mine posted this article on facebook, and it’s kind of interesting: it gets a little vague towards the end, but all in all it’s pretty good stuff. The article talks about the importance of not just resting, but recovering from all the training you may be doing.

As I’ve mentioned before, taking the time to listen to your body is one of the hardest, but most essential things to do: the article calls it under recovered, I call it over-trained, but the symptoms are the same. It’s a miserable place to be and will do nothing but frustrate you. I’m also looking up some specific tips on effective recovery methods, other than ice baths, so hopefully I’ll have those up in a day or so.

Check it out!: Rest vs Recovery