Day 1. We arrived yesterday morning for an ice breaker at 9am. This was followed by a Gi session on the guard taught by Emily Kwok, before Queen of the Hill (yeah that's right, QUEEN not KING) drills and open sparring. After grabbing lunch we showed back up to the gym for an hour discussion on the psychology of coaching by Lily Pagle for anyone interested. This was sandwiched by a no-gi guard session taught by Felicia Oh and Val Worthington. We followed that up with ambush jiu-jitsu (definitely spiced rolling up a bit) before moving on to more regular rounds.
Next we took a quick break to grab dinner and bring it back to the gym for an evening discussion on women in Jiu-Jitsu. Why do we do it? What issues have we had with continuing our training and maintaining our love for the sport? What can we do to help promote women in the sport? And why is it so damn awesome?! Yeah, pretty much covered everything, lol!
Okay so there were a few tears in the last discussion as the women shared some of their relevant life/jiu-jitsu experiences but they were always surrounded with happiness, laughter and the camaraderie gained through a shared love for the sport. It was absolutely amazing to hear that everyone from white belt to black belt goes through so many of the same issues in regards to training and competition scenarios. I am so glad that I was finally able to come out for one of these and believe all BJJ women would benefit from participating in an event like this.
Come on ladies! It's up to you!
Attend an open mat in your area or begin hosting one. Participate in camp. It's totally worth every penny and every minute!
p.s. I almost forgot - we have a surprise schedule change and Lucas Leite is arriving today to give us a free seminar this evening. Holy Sh*t!!!!
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Jen, I'd love to hear more about the women in jiu-jitsu discussion and/or your view & takeaways. (When you're back/have time, that is.)
ReplyDeleteHave a great time at camp!
I agree with Leslie. I'd love to hear about some of the discussions you ladies had. My sister-in-law and I are trying to set up a once a month open mat for women only in our area (Central Florida). Our instructor said we could use the gym one Sat a month, but we'd have to charge for a mat fee of $5 a person. Do you think people would pay to come to an open mat for women only?
ReplyDeleteI have actually been in the process of starting an all girls open mat.
ReplyDeleteAny pointers or ideas to get things rolling? =)