Girls from Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Austria, England, Belgium, Italy and more eat, sleep and train together BJJ and Grappling for two whole days. 

Hard training, friendship and comradeship were perfectly combined in a way that (maybe) only girls can do. Unlike many male fighters (specially when they are from different teams), we are able to fight hard against each other and still be best friends. Many of us are even rivals in competitions, but does it mean we cannot have fun together and even establish a friendship? Of course not.

Through my competition life I have met so many girls and some of them have become good friends of mine, independently of who won or lost. Katja Schulze, Elisabeth Olbert, Mimi Rodriguez and Charlotte von Baumgarten are some of them. I was happy to see there in the camp too. We love training together because we have a common passion: fighting and it is hard enough to find girls with that same passion, which by the way it also determines up to some point your lifestyle, so why to ruin the possibility of making a new friend, with the one you share such a strong “hobby” and probably have the same lifestyle than you (a lifestyle that so many other people do NOT understand) just because you will face her in a future competition. Competitions are just that: competitions. And we love the adrenaline rush, beating our opponent and stepping in the podium as high as possible, but what we love the most is the game of BJJ, the fighting itself and to see how our game evolves. And that is partially only possible thanks to training as much as possible with other girls.

Back to the Camp: We had several training units of BJJ and Grappling every day, with breaks inbetween for resting and eating. The training consisted on good warming-up/condition training, technique and rolling. Yasmin was a great trainer and we all learned a lot from her. We also learn a lot from each other. We tried to roll/fight with so many different girls as possible, since that was an unique opportunity to train with so many different girls. On the top of it, we had also dance lessons on Friday morning and Saturday night. And of course, we also talk non-stop. ;)
The conclusion?: I am coming next year again, are you?

More pics on: SportMMA in Facebook or https://picasaweb.google.com/fofolover4ever/BJJGirlsOnly?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPqStZTi9KuQaQ&feat=directlink

The new black belt Talita Nogueira from São Paulo, Brazil, is the new big name within the female BJJ world since she beated several black belts, including Penny Thomas in the medium heavy final, at the 2011 Worlds two weeks ago.
When on 5th June she won the most important BJJ championship in the world, she did not only make her dream true, she also inspired and became an idol for many people, specially women, since she is not a simple athlete, she is also a mum of a 7 years-old—daughter. She showed us that combining family and a World Champion title is not only possible, it is a reality.
 

Despite the injury, she never gave up with the idea of coming back as soon as possible, that meaning to compete in the Worlds 2011!

She worked against  the clock and trained first sparring  on April 18th. On June 2nd, she was in Long Beach, in the famous piramid competing in the world biggest and hardest BJJ competition, the IBJJF World Championships. There are no words to describe what this girl has achieved. She got to be back on the mat in a record time. She didn't get it to the podium (won first fight but lost second by disqualification) but there is no doubt that she is a real champion and a true example of overcoming difficulties and fighting for what you really want.

Katja Schulze is an experienced Luta Livre fighter from the  Fight Academy Mülheim. Her passion for fighting took her to contact other people, specially women, with the same passion. And so she contacted me through Studivz (a german network similar to Facebook) some years ago. We started chatting and exchange experiences. She talked to me about Luta Livre and I talked to her about BJJ. We got to know each other better when she came for a competition to Hamburg and stayed at my place. I was pregnant and actually I was due that day, but I was so happy to have her and her team at home. She won that competition and I believe it was her first competition with Gi. 

She continued to train mostly without Gi, in part due to the few possibilities she had to train with Gi, and she continued to compete and win. Eventually she got her blue belt at Luta Livre.

I don't know exactly when and why, and how much I had to do with it, but at some point she became more and more interested on training with Gi. And she decided to come to the European Championships and so we ended training together at New Years' Eve. Really crazy, isn't it?

We were together in Lisboa, Portugal, for the Euros' (where Susanne was too as the most enthusiastic cheerleader all times!) and we were again together in London for the Abu Dhabi Trials. Her jiu jitsu was improving considerably but she had still a lot to learn. She decided then to start training with Black Belt Peter Schira, a wise decision and her decision and hard work finally paid off when the last week she got 2nd place in the World Championship  after 2 wins and one lost by advantage. Even if i was not able to be there to watch her fights, I know she fought really good. In the last 2 years since we first met we have shared a lot of laughs and some tears too, and I have witnessed how hard she has worked to improve her game. And she did it. She showed everybody what she has. I am so proud of her! So BJJ female community: be aware! Katja is coming. She has long legs and she knows how to use them ;)

as many of you may know, Samuel Sanvicente and I are opening a full-time BJJ school in Hamburg. The first full-time BJJ school with training units in the morning, afternoon and evening. 6 days at week!

For our big proyect, we have had already the support and help from many people, but still we need more help. For that purpose, we create the proyect Adopt a Mat

http://www.graciebarrahamburg.de/adopt-a-mat/

So if you have some euros, pounds or dollars and you are willing to contribute to our school, please donate!!

By donating you are not only helping us, but also the children in Japan (please read the Adopt a Mat Link for more info) and you can win an Estilo Gi sponsored by GiDirekt

Thanks in advance!

Samuel had two hard fights, the first he won by armbar, the second he won 8:0 in an amazing fight in which Samuel make the other guy to look like a white belt instead of a purple belt. Samuel did takedown, sweep and mount and an attempt of foot lock. Really beautiful.

I must admit that I had it easier. There were not purple belts for me to fight against, so I had to fight blue and white belts. I won my first fight 2-0 and the second one with an armbar that almost ended in a broken arm because the girl didn't want to tap out... and what am I supposed to do? It is a competition... so Tap or Snap

The competition run smoothly, the Compettior Tshirts were of good quality and good design, the level was high (except for female purple/brown/black belts that there were just anyone except me). They sold Acai for a good price (not like in other competitons). The hall was big and easy to reach.

So, in conclusion, a good tournament. Just one complain from my side: the winner of the male Elite class got a Gi as prize. The women nothing. This is just annoying. As usual.

Here some pics (iPhone quality) of the event

I got a third place in the purple/brown/black -63 kg division, after beating Dominique Vitry by kimura but then losing against brown belt Shanti Abelha in the semi-final by mata-leão.

Morena Cuba, from Team Aranha in Barcelona Spain, won in white/blue female division +63kg and got his free ticket to Abu Dhabi. Congratulations!! She did a great job!

But my biggest congratulations goes to Yasmin Wilson, purple belt, who made an awesome competition and won first in a very fast fight against Leoni Munslow by triangle and then submitted Shanti Abelha with a foot lock in the big final, taking the big price of the purple/brown/black belt female-63kg.  Very well deserved girl! Just awesome.
 

Last Saturday 26th March, I attended the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials in London. I had fun, enjoyed once more being in a competition, fighting and getting to the podium. But to be honest, I expected something more when I registered for this event.

Ok, let's forget about it. You pay 75€ (registration fee + Abu Dhabi federation), make all the arrangements neccesary for the trip and flight to London for one of the best competitions nowdays. Ready to fight, ready to get the big price.

One day before the event, still not pre-schedule to be seen online, only one statement: weight in will take place between 8:30 and 9:30am.

Everybody got there at that time for the weight-in. Still no timetable can be found anywhere, neither online nor directly there in the sport hall. No brakets. Nothing. For your 75€ you don't even get a tshirt. You could buy it for 10 pounds though.

Some of the organization people said that timetable and brakets would hang after the weight in finishes. But it was not truth. there was lack of information during the whole event.

I was said that I fought at 17:45... almost 12 hours later! and I could consider myself hapyy because at least I knew when I was fighting. Many others just didn't know.

The brakets were not hang anywhere at all. You didn't know who you were going to fight. You could not know how you were doing it because there were not brakets nor final list of competitors so no idea if you were fighting semifinals, finals, just got a third position or whatever else. 

There were not medals ceremony. You just had to go to the medals table and pick yours up and if you wanted to get to the podium and get a picture, well,  you could do it by yourself : look for the other people who were supposed to be on podium too (if you were lucky to know their names) and asked them to come with you to make a podium picture.

So yes: there were great fighters there, tough fights, amazing BJJ competition atmosphere and for sure, the prizes (Abu Dhabi flight tickets, money and whatnot) are the best ever seen in a BJJ competition. But my question is, was it the 75€ worth?

Angie is not an average spanish girl. Yes, she is pretty, has dark hair and eyes and I bet she likes to party and be with friends, but she is definitely  not a common girl. She is a fighter, a BJJ blue belt, and she is now pregnant too. Her story reminded me of my own one, and now I write about her to show everybody that I am not a rare case: combining  BJJ and family it is perfectly possible!

Here she tells us a little bit about her pregnancy and how is she dealing with this new situation in her life from the point of view of a BJJ practitioner.

After she found out about the pregnancy, it took her some time to assimilate her new condition. The first thoughts that came to her mind was that she would have to stop practicing BJJ. From training every day to not training at all.... it is a big thing to digest. But after the initial shock and worries (and nature and some hormones doing well their job) she realized that it was in fact a good new: having a baby! and that pregnancy doe snot last forever. After all, she would be back on the mat sooner than she would think.

She found my website through her husband and we got into contact. I was able to give her some advice about how I dealed with the same situation 18 months ago. I am happy I could help her. I know how many doubts a women in this situation may have. Specially in a topic that intertwines the practice of a fight sport with something so delicate as pregnancy, a topic about which there are not so much written.

After our talk, she continued to train BJJ until approximately the fifth pregnancy month. Of course always careful. No hard fights at all, mostly techniques and mostly with her husband and trainer.

After the 5th month, she had to stop. The belly was already big enough to get in the way and she started having some aches and pains. It was the moment to stop with the physical training. As I always say: the best thing to do is to listen your own body.

Now she is close to the 7th month and continue to train, but in a different way. She attends the classes and watch the people train. She also watches BJJ videos at home. It is unbelievable how much can one learns only through observation.

Angie is now looking forward to be back on the mat but above all, she is looking forward to have her baby girl on her arms. She, her husband and the baby will make another wonderful BJJ family. I am very happy for them and I wish them the best!

Hopefully we meet some day and our kids can play and roll together! 

Another promising fighter with already a very long list of wins is: Peter, der Zerstörer (the "destroyer" in english) who won again his weight division in white belt and the open class with Gi. He won his weight division noGi and due to several injuries, he decided not to compete in the noGi Open Class. He is right now one of the best white belt fighters. So blue belts, be aware of Peter! he is coming after you! ;-)

You can find more pictures on the website of the event: http://www.germancompnet.org/

"Jiu Jitsu Style" is the new BJJ magazine on the market for all BJJ lovers!

It is edited in the UK and intends to cover all relevant topics of BJJ, but focusing mainly on  BJJ in the old continent... yes.. here in Europe! It seems promising! Finally a magazine that writes about what is going on here and not  only oversee in the USA and/or Brasil ;)

The magazine will be published every two months. The issue February/March is now for sale!

You can order it in www.gidirekt.de. For more info about prices and delivery, please click on "read more"

For Samuel's students there are always the 10% disccount.

If you are a group of 5 or more people, you can get some good disccount on it. Please contact me if you are interested.

For my spanish readers: 

Single copy: 5,80€ per issue plus 4,10€ Postage = 9,90€
2 copies of single issue: 5,20€ per issue plus 8,33€ postage = 18,73€
5 copies to 30 copies of single issue: 4,90 per issue plus 20,50€ postage = min of 45€ for 5)
Subscription of 6 issues= 54€ including postage.

I read it and enjoy it, hope you like it too!

Samuel and I showed up in partner look, wearing our new rashguards and shorts sponsored by GiDirekt. It was a great and successful day, about which I would like to talk you about. So, this is not a review of the competition, it is just a short account about my own experience at this competition.

But then I saw Alexandra Sanchez in the competitors list. She is well known MMA fighter in Germany, who has won 4 out of 5 fights. And I just had to do it. I had to take the challenge. That was a grappling competition and I am a BJJ purple belt, so I had good chances to defeat her. And I did! 

However in order to fight her, I had to sign up in a higher weight class category than my real one. I was 58 kg on the scale. My opponents were 67, +70, 68 and 66 kilos respectively. So it must be. Technique against strength and weight!

I won my first fight with a wrist lock, the next two fights with triangle and the final with an armbar.

Fighting against Alexandra was great experience. She is a good and strong fighter and it was not easy to win her but I am proud that my technique was superior to hers and that BJJ won over anything else. Hopefully we meet some day for some good training or in another competition!

The best thing of the competition though, was to see the new generation of fighters running around the mats, playing on the mat between fights and cheering up their friends or better said, their parent's friends. After all, they are the only thing that really matters.