BJJ Eyes

So you know how we talked about losing your contacts on the mat and how uncomfortable that is? Even so, it’s still a fairly common occurrence- I’ve even left one somewhere on a mat at IBJJF’s Nationals last year…. This guy left his cornea on the mat.

His cornea like, nature’s contact lens. I’m horrified. And intrigued. And horrified.

Read all about it, and wish this poor guy a speedy recovery. Although he now has a legitimate reason to wear an eye patch, which I have to admit is pretty cool. I’m sure he would rather have the cornea rather than the eye patch, but you know.

Metamoris II Update: the Lineup

The Metamoris II line up just came out, and it looks like it’s going to be pretty interesting:

Shinya Aoki vs. Kron Gracie
Roldolfo Vieira vs. Braulio Estima
Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu vs. Brendan Schaub
Mackenzie Dern vs. Michelle Nicolini
Andre Galvao vs. Rafael Lovato Jr.
Bill “The Grill” Cooper vs. Ryan Hall

I’m happy to see women on the card, and I think it’ll be pretty interesting to see Lovato and Galvao go after one another. Or maybe it’s because I imagine them epically smashing one another. One can dream.

Who are you looking forward to seeing compete on June 9th?

Double DQ For Keenan Cornelius and Paulo Miyao

Well, I figured something like this would happen someday, I just didn’t think it was so soon or that it would be Abu Dhabi Pro Jiu Jitsu championships that would bring down the hammer. I watched the video and I have to admit there was some action going on: definitely more then what was happening in their Pans fight just a few weeks earlier, so I’m not entirely sure it was fair to penalize them, but I think for the health of the sport someone needed to put their foot down.

Watch the video and judge for yourself: if you’re wondering why it’s a link and not the video itself, this is still apparently week where every small, stupid thing goes wrong: my wifi doesn’t work, and Comcast isn’t showing up until tomorrow, so this is all being done from my phone. I’m not even surprised at this point: fortunately I subscribe to the philosophy of “this too shall pass”. But anyway, for now here’s the link.

Learn, Don’t Obsess Over Your Mistakes

We all lose at one point or another in a tournament match: there are few BJJ players, if any, especially at a higher rank who can claim they have never lost a match. And I will admit, it can be crushing sometimes: you train day and night, put in hours upon hours of drilling, and even with all that hard work, someone else’s hand is raised at the end of the match. Maybe from a submission, possibly from a ref’s decision.

It happens, and yes, it’s absolutely important to learn from your mistakes, but not to obsess over them. If you videotape your matches, watch them, even ask your instructor or a high belt you trust what they thought went wrong if you are not sure…Just don’t sit alone in your underwear, clutching a glass of bourbon in the dark as you watch those mistakes over and over again. While an interesting mental image, it’s quite counter-productive. And creepy.

I’m just trying to look out for you, so you don’t re-enact this scene from Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (this is actually changed slightly for some recent football player, but you get my drift)

The Locker Room Situation

The more I read around the internet about where people train, the more spoiled I feel when it comes to our facilities. I just read Jiu-Jiu’s locker room shower situation- they have one unisex communal changing area and one shower. Actually, I have heard of similar situations in the area around our academy.

Again, I feel a little spoiled when saying this, but we have separate men and women’s locker rooms: each locker room has two bathroom stalls, two shower stalls and two sinks. Separate hot water sources too, I’m pretty sure: there have definitely been a few occasions when the boys had to deal with cold showers while the girls were totally unaware of any issue.

It wasn’t quite always this way: we were temporarily displaced when the building was being remodeled, but men and women always had separate changing areas made with stacked lockers.

I’m sorry to hear this is a situation in some gyms. I understand sometimes owners/instructors make sacrifices when it comes to real estate: a space with the perfect square footage and the right location can make someone overlook the bathroom facilities, but I have to admit, if I was just starting jiu jitsu and someone told me that I had to change in a communal area, I probably would have quit, or brushed up on my locker room ninja changing skills from highschool gym class. Most likely the latter, contorting myself like I was in a straight jacket, with my arms inside a t-shirt when attempting to change from a regular bra to a sports bra.

For ladies who put up with all of this and still train, you absolutely have my respect. For guys who have women in their academy in this situation, I agree with Jiu Jiu- please understand that it can be a stressful situation for a girl, especially for one that is starting out in the sport. I’m not saying you should let this theoretical white belt girl walk all over you and take an hour shower, but understand that’s an uncomfortable situation for most women, and sometimes it takes women a little longer to get themselves sorted before leaving the locker room. I don’t even know what I would do about a single shower. I would most likely either go home and shower or only use the gym shower in extreme emergencies.

On a side note, congratulations on Meghan getting her blue belt! Hooray!

On a geek-tastic side note, I haven’t watched the season premiere of the new Game of Thrones, but I did take advantage of their site Join the Realm and made a Coat of Arms for the blog.

 

…Oh yeah.

IBJJF Pans: Personal Highlights

So we’re back, and here are some of the things I remember from the trip:

The trip was long, partially due to a layover in Minneapolis. But, they have iPads in their restaurants!

I was told this isn’t too uncommon, especially in more metropolitan areas- but I have actually never been to Minnesota, so to me the state is comprised of farms and the Mall of  America, so I was surprised when I saw their totally modern airport….And if anyone is from Minneapolis, I apologize for underestimating you and I’m sure your city is lovely.  And your coffee is pretty good as well: although I was a little weirded out by all the fish options on the menu… anyway, moving on.

Jiu jitsu! And more jiu jitsu!

we had people fighting every day, which was great, but we also have a really close team that wants to root each other on and spend hours upon hours upon hours  sitting in the Bren Event Center, which can be a little tiring after a while.

Our team did all right: we had a lot of first timers out at an IBJJF tournament, some won some medals, some didn’t. Some of the matches were pretty interesting, if you are crazy…er, committed enough to looking through all the footage of the tournament. The most notable one that comes to mind are the fact that MMA fighter Ben Henderson competed (at brown belt) and the black belt final between Buchecha* and Andre Galvao. 

And I competed as well!

 

As I reported earlier, I lost my first match in my division, but due to a by (bye?) I was able to compete in the absolute. Which I also lost. Welp, just more stuff to work on for the next tournament. Speaking of which, any brown belt girls registered for the New York Open?…Anyone? 

*Cricket* 

 

And then….Go Karting! 

 

 

And the Beach!

 

The Panorama turned out a little weird, but I didn’t want to spend all my time taking and re-taking photos while I was standing in warm, gorgeous weather just a few hours before I had to head back to the East Coast. 

It was all fun and good times were had, but now it’s time to get back to work and get ready for the next tournament. 

 

*for anyone who reads this and doesn’t do jiu jitsu: Buchecha is a nickname for black belt Marcus Almeida. On an adorable note, it’s a Portuguese nickname meaning cheek, because when he started jiu jitsu he was overweight and had chubby cheeks.  

Saulo Ribeiro Seminar Photos

It’s been a little over a week, so sorry for that: I wanted to get permission from the photographer, Maggie, before putting them up.

It was a good seminar and good to see Saulo here on the East Coast: we learned some different things, cleaned up a few techniques, and overall had a good time. Here are some photos!

Interesting Article About Women Starting Jiu Jitsu

Jiu Jitsu black belt Val Worthington wrote a pretty interesting article about helping men better understand the perspective of a woman starting out in the sport. While it may appear to be a large word count, it’s actually a pretty quick and easy read that I hope more guys read and take into consideration the next time a new woman starts their jiu jitsu program.

Check it out! 

 

Keenan Cornelius leaving Lyod Irvin’s Team

My internet is a little wonky today, so I’m going to make this really short, while the internet gods are still on my side.

So word on the street is brown belt Keenan Cornelius left Lloyd Irvin’s team.

I’m a terrible jiu jitsuka and I really don’t know that much about Keenan, other than the fact that he is a young man who happens to be ridiculously good at jiu jitsu. I’m sure he has good reasons for his decision and I wish him the best of luck in his new team/academy (Atos, I believe?).

Women and Whether They Can “Handle” BJJ

I know everyone has probably put in their two cents at this point, but when I first read the heading to Keith Owen’s post, “Can Women Really Handle Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?” my first reaction was to recall a scene from the movie 300, which I have (painfully) recreated for you with a free gif generator, so sorry for the poor quality:

“Clearly you don’t know our women…”

Granted this guy doesn’t make his living writing, he makes it teaching  jiu jitsu. Also granted there is an expectation that as an instructor he should have a little more open mind and less sexist attitude when it comes to recruiting women students into his academy. 

Maybe it’s just me, but in his post the instructor creates an “us versus them” mentality, which may also reflect in his teaching at his academy. In an attempt to not scare women away, he in fact is creating a segregated culture by putting women to the side where they won’t be”harmed” or “made uncomfortable” by rolling. By putting women to the side you create a double standard; a perfectly healthy man is pressured to train, where the “delicate flower”of a woman is not pressured to try her new skills out on the mat. 

Aye, but there’s the rub: to try something new, jiu jitsu or not,  is about getting out of your comfort zone and being challenged. And while we know the joys of overcoming those challenges in the art, they can be immensely frustrating and practically a deal breaker for ANY beginner. It takes time and patience to get a new student through that first obstacle, regardless of gender.  I’m sure if this is he notices a lot of women walking out the door, there’s a good chance a lot of white belts in general are walking out the door, frustrated with the experience: it’s just women are the smaller group and so their absence is more noticeable. While you will find a few exceptions to the rule, your white belts aren’t quite “in love” with jiu jitsu up to the first 60 to 90 days-you have to share that passion, that enthusiasm with them. Challenge them, but also make sure someone isn’t smashing the living daylights out of them the first week in.

I do find the mention of the married men a bit out of line though. I could be totally wrong, but to mention it as an issue means there’s a good chance someone is making it an issue on the mat which would make any female uncomfortable no matter how much they love training.

I never thought I had to be Captain Obvious, but women don’t think about sex when they are training with male partners. We are there to learn and improve, not to “get our grind on”. Just….ew. And if the wives of these guys are complaining about women training with men, encourage them to try a few classes to see what the whole thing is really all about. Who knows? Maybe you’ll have a few women sign up that way.

My point is treat everyone in your academy with respect, encourage that respect among one another, have  relatively little to no double standards (guys in our academy are not allowed to wear a shirt under their gi, but women are allowed- that sort of thing) and most importantly share your passion for the sport with your students. That is how you will get women to stay: by focusing on the sport and everything you love in it, and not a woman’s perceived “delicate sensitivities”.

I’m linking to Julia’s post on the subject, mainly because she was the one that brought the whole thing to my attention, and also I don’t want to give this guy any more publicity than he already has gotten in response to the article. If you are going to read it, read Julia’s analysis first, and like her post so she gets the readership traffic boost.