I don't want to KISS a Cagefighter; I want to BE one!

Okay so I don't know if I really want to BE a Cagefighter.

But I DO want to be able to train like one in clothes that fit ME!

Why do so few MMA/submission grappling clothing companies offer options for the female fighter??

Okay I get the fact that not as many women train/compete as men. But women shop WAY more than men. And we care more about how our clothes fit because we worry about things like whether or not our underwear is sticking out. Ugh! I hate that.

Why do a lot of the companies that do sell women's clothes have the stupid "I'm a hard ass" look to them that the guys all like on their clothes? I don't need my clothing to shout "Look at me! I'm a hard ass! I'm a girl and I want to wear clothes made for a girl. Thank you very much.

So here are links to a few places that I know make MMA/NoGi BJJ clothing especially for women (please add a comment if you have any to add):

Fight Chix by Felice Herrig = http://www.fightchix.com/
FighterGirls by Debi Purcell = http://www.fightergirls.com/
Tough Love & Total Knockout by OTM = http://www.onthemat.com/
NHB Gear = http://www.nhbgear.com/Womens-c-14.html
GurlGear = http://www.gurlgearshop.com/index.php?main_page=index
Atama = http://www.atama-kimonos.com/WOMEN.htm

Female Positivity

So I was training with Shanna the other night....and DAMN she is getting good fast! I can't wait to see her compete in a few weeks. Same with Hollie, I actually have to work pretty hard to get her off of me when she gets to start in mount. Hopefully, we can convince Hollie to enter the US Grappling in April, by then she'd have almost 3 full months of BJJ!

We had another woman come by last night who is interested in signing up. She had some training in BJJ at a Krav Maga school in Falls Church, so at least she wouldn't be starting completely from scratch. Hopefully, she comes in to try an actual class soon! (She seemed excited so I'm crossing my fingers.)

Phalexx (otherwise known as Alley, lol) from Jeff Gordon's is planning to drop in tomorrow, Chrissy is planning to come up from Richmond next weekend to train, and Nikki is planning a trip out the weekend after and may drop in to train! This is awesome!!

BJJ Chicas UNITE!!!! :)

Wrestling and Frustration

I'd been needing to work more on stand-up and now we have a wrestling coach coming in to teach 2-3 days a week! I have a long way to go but am beginning to feel more and more natural as it goes. I love the new drills he's having us do that I've never seen before. I think they are going to make a HUGE difference in my take down abilities.

I'm starting to feel frustrated that I can't train hard very much. The other girls are getting good fast but it's definitely not the same as where I used to be. The guys will roll and some of them will go hard but it's still not the same as rolling with a girl who isn't even slightly worried about hurting you. Even though Ryan says I'm grappling on a whole different level than even a few months ago, my cardio is suffering. I have to get back on the treadmills religiously between now and Pan Ams. I hate running but I'm getting basically no cardio in BJJ anymore since there isn't anyone for me to roll as hard as I can with. By next year these girls will be sick! Unfortunately however, patience is not my strong suit...

V-Day Blues

Ryan left me alone Valentine's Day, so he could go teach a seminar in Reno, Nevada. 

I was slightly annoyed that he scheduled the seminar without checking the date. But I was WAY more annoyed when I found out the gym he went to has 30 women in their BJJ program! 

I couldn't be more jealous right now of Ryan for being able to train with a bunch of women. 

(Funny that only a BJJ chick would actually be jealous of her boyfriend for having the opportunity to roll around on a mat with other women and not be jealous of the fact that other women are rolling around on a mat with her man. What a twisted world, huh? Lol!)

I have to find a way to recruit that many women for my program NOW. 

Recruiting away! =)

Choking from the Back

Wow.

Moments like this come very frequently during BJJ practice for me, especially now that I'm training under Ryan full-time.

This time it was my response to a detail Ryan showed us in class last night while we were drilling chokes from the back in gi.

Just wow.

How did I ever lose a gi choke from back mount? Never again should I be in back mount and be thoroughly unable to complete the choke. I can't believe something so simple escaped me for 3 and 1/2 years of BJJ...

I love these moments. And these moments are why I love BJJ!

Pan Ams

I bought my ticket to Pan Ams just now! And reserved my rental car!

I need to work my ass off to get my cardio back online after all my bouts with various illness over the last month or so.

And I can't WAIT!

Missed my workout last night :(

I teach swimming on Monday nights and hurried back to the gym afterwards to get in a good run and workout before it closes since I can't train hard til my finger heals. I decided to drop by the BJJ class before my workout and look in. I've never seen so many people in there! So I asked Ryan if he needed me to stay and help since there were so many brand new people. I missed my workout. :(

BUT, I did get one roll in. The guy was going fairly easy (I do have a broken finger) until Bill stopped him and whispered something. Bill won't tell me what he said but all of a sudden the guy started going super hard...until I triangled him.

Apparently, those flyers at the UFC on Saturday really worked! We had a bunch of new people in the room and two officially signed up immediately! I think a couple of the others will probably end up signing up by the end of the week as well. This is awesome! (And I think we need to buy more mats)

I love BJJ!!!

Broken Finger

I slammed my finger in the car door a week and a half ago. I haven't trained since then (although I've taught a couple classes). I went to the doctor today finally to get it x-rayed. It's not just broken, it's broken in FIVE places!

I'm still not sure whether I should be super mad/frustrated or vindicated that I really was going through a lot of pain. I was taking a little bit of crap for skipping a tournament last weekend and not training all week (despite the fact that one of my coaches nicknamed my right index finger "Zombie Finger" because it looked so gross).

Good news: It will be healed before Pan Ams.

Bad news: It severly affects the level of my training going into Pan Ams as it will take another 2-4 weeks to heal and I really wanted 8 weeks of hard training. Ugh.

Of all the dumb things to do!

I'm going to buy some extra padding and athletic tape and wrap this sucker up so.

GSP v Penn

Well, it was an extremely disappointing fight. I like GSP but I was pulling for BJ the whole time. Damn.

On a positive note, we had our whole team out for the party, we more than filled the space Bailey's gave us.  I walked around for about an hour handing out more flyers and talking to people. It was fun and we had lots of interest! One of the guys I talked to last night showed up at the gym today!

I went to the gym today, but still can't train because of my stupid smashed finger. I go to the doctor tomorrow for an xray and to have the blood drained out from under the nail, hopefully I can train on Tuesday. Oh, and we had another female come by today who wants to sign up! Yay!