The Future Is Now…The System Is Down…

Has anyone else seen that Strongbad email?

I have been actually been getting some real legitimate traffic on this page! Yay! I am just tickled pink at the thought of people coming here and reading my semi-coherent thoughts, usually thrown out there after training (hence why more often than not they are only semi-coherent).

I have been thinking the past couple of days of things to make this site more interesting-I know only a little more code than a monkey so grand, sweeping changes to this site are kind of out of the question.

On second thought, he may know more about code than I do....

I am thinking however of putting up another page of other  women who have blogs about jiu jitsu, because I am kind of lost on the whole “Blogroll” thing on the side of this page, and I feel these ladies should receive credit where it is due.

So, if anyone has any other suggestions as to make this little corner of the internet a little more fun, I’m all ears. 🙂

Just some quick food for thought

Ok, so while I totally get some of the gear that is made for MMA training, headgear, mouthguards, handwraps, there are some that take a little more cognitive processing to understand.

Exhibit A:

and even then, I eventually get it. There are some pretty vital organs in there and no one wants to be stuck in a chest guard that makes you feel like you are squeezed into a Victorian Era corset.

But then I found this; logically it kind of makes sense, but still at first glance my gut reaction is

WTF?!

(for those at home who were as baffled as I was, it is labeled as a “Female tuck-under guard”…obviously.)

One legged X guard and beating up the White Belts

Ok, so I’m not really beating them up, I’m just happening to use them for positions that I am not too sure of at the moment.

This works to both of our benefits, as they get the opportunity to defend a position that they are not familiar with, but still have a fighting chance since it isn’t something that is my “A” game, if you will.

Lately I have experienced a rut in my training: it feels like the same positions, the same reactions, the same defenses to moves..It’s been a little frustrating, but nothing we have been learning the past couple of weeks has sparked an irrepressible need to practice and master. And I understand that these things happen, because the classes that are taught are most certainly not taught with only me in mind, and maybe this may pique the interest of one or some of my teammates: it’s just stuff that I’m not chomping at the bit to learn and do on other people.

So, I’m forcing myself to do the new stuff anyway, partially because I know it’s good for me, and partially with the hope that once I do it a couple of times my competitive nature will take over and I will want to ‘beat’ the move, kind of like how I wanted to ‘beat’ bikram (aka ‘shweaty’) yoga… Which I only took one class of…I’ll go back, some day.

Who knows, maybe I’ll come to love all of it and will never work on spider guard ever again.

…Nah.

Girls’ MMA brands…Oh my.

With the growth of women’s no-gi and MMA, it’s hard to believe that there is relatively little in the way of appropriate wear for women who want to train. So, in response to my search for the proper attire, I have decided to write a letter to all these fight-wear, MMA brands:

Dear makers of no-gi wear,

I realize and accept that vale tudo, no-gi and MMA are all still considered male dominated sports, may I humbly suggest you look into styles that may appeal to the ladies.

We are slowly, but surely, growing in the sport, and while board shorts originally intended for surfing can do the job for the most part, it would be nice for lazy people like myself to buy gi and no- gi gear  on the same website.

I would like to caution however, if this is something your company would be interested in, may I also humbly suggest you refrain from the following common mistakes with jiu jitsu, MMA, no-gi gear:

-Not all girls want to wear super bright pink. Nothing screams “I have a vagina” more than rolling around in bright pink gear.

-Not all girls want to wear leopard print, or (god forbid) pink camouflage. Some girls may like that, but others prefer to be a little more understated in their clothing. We want to train, not announce our arrival on the mat.

-Most girls do not care how they look in said clothing, but more how it feels and if it will impede their training. If I was that worried about whether or not I looked fat in an outfit, I probably wouldn’t be wearing a 4-5 pound gi.

-This may sound hypocritical, but while we would not like to stand out with ridiculous prints and bright colors, we would prefer a little style to our clothing. A little design here and there, with some other colors (there are other colors than pink that girls like: I personally prefer blue) that would appeal to us ladies.

I do hope you take these suggestions seriously, if you would like for women to take your brand seriously, as this is currently an under-served market.  And think about it, women love to buy clothing-department stores don’t make the women’s section of clothing the largest just for fun, they understand it’s good business practices.

Thank you and good day.

Limited posting for now

The internet is not really working in our new apartment (and by not working, I mean it’s there but the people who use it can’t remember the password for access), and since I feel weird about taking work time out to write and post (because none of this is pre-planned, as you may have noticed) there will be limited posting for a while.

Just a quick update though, I signed up with Livestrong.com to track my caloric intake…I have mixed feelings about this, which I will explain later.

Otherwise, still going to no-gi, still doing gi, and am planning on going to a NAGA tournament in August.

1,2,3, go!

This is going to get me in trouble, but whatever:

I don’t think I’ve posted this here, but since it’s short and sweet, I’ll put it up:

Why I don’t have the hots for Robert Pattinson, the dude from Twilight, which girls seem to go nutso over:

Most girls see unkempt, wild but sensitive bad boy whatever-the-hell.

…I see ringworm and staph just waiting to happen.

Call me shallow, but I like avoiding MRSA.

That is all.

No-Gi!

It’s sweaty. It’s gross. It’s a little obscene.

It’s no-gi time! Everybody, get your spandex on!

For people that have issues with other people’s sweat, this may not be the sport for you. It is certainly fun, it’s just…well…

Slippery.

Last night was a good class: we got to some technique, which was a no-gi centered butterfly guard, at first a sweep, and then a set-up into the X guard, which was pretty sweet to practice.  The more I think about it however the more I feel the need to comment (just bear with me for a moment) on the position and the lack of it among jiu jitsu women.

I just don’t see that many women employ the X guard-and there could be a number of reasons for it: we are convinced our legs are too short to effectively use it, we don’t like being flat on their back which is an essential part to the standing up in base bit but whatever the reason may be, I just don’t see that many women jump into the X guard, myself included. I remember one of my instructors indeed commenting that the x guard itself is a very powerful and effective position to be in, almost easy for the person on the bottom to put themselves into a better, more dominant position. It’s getting into the set-up that’s difficult, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Maybe that will be the next thing I work on: spider guard doesn’t work so well in the no-gi arena, so maybe x-guard will be the thing to get into. We shall see.

For now, I’m going to hose off (and maybe bleach) my spandex in preparation for the next no-gi session.