We took our 3 most dedicated ladies (Tammy Dominick, Megan Lomonof, Lisa Ivy) to the Converse sponsored women-only US Grappling tournament in Hampton and they came back with 4 gold medals and 2 silvers with 5 submission victories out of 7 wins and only 2 losses to women of higher ranks than themselves. Tammy and Megan both succeeded pulling out wins over girls with much more experience than themselves.
But the best part was the poise with which they each held themselves during their matches. Each one of the ladies was calm, collected and working hard until the end.
Then this past weekend, Megan Lomonof and I headed up to Grapplers Quest in Vegas for her first mid-level tournament. She did not disappoint. Megan has been training for almost exactly 1 year but has spent the last half of that year training at different degrees due to a neck injury. At one point they thought she would need surgery. But she didn't let this deter her from competing and beating two blue belts in the beginner nogi division at GQ bringing her total win count over blue belts to THREE. Megan won her weight class nogi, and the absolute beginner nogi division, AND her weight class in the gi (there was no absolute gi division).
We look forward to seeing how Tammy, Megan, Lisa and all the ladies progress over the next year as a few of them look to enter their first IBJJF tournaments in 2011.
See our ladies in action here....
On top of this, we just started our kids program last week. The first day I was shocked to have SEVEN children in the room. We haven't been able to get that many in one room since but I am happy to report that we had a few sign up and have the interest of a few others arriving in the near future. I am taking Alex up to her second BJJ tournament this Saturday to another kids only event in Williamsport, MD. This time she will be more prepared for how other kids fight back!
Wait there's more...we have new Fifty/50 t-shirts on order, this time with a new graphic and special sizing for the ladies. We are waiting on the new kids logo to be completed. (We're calling them the 25/50's.) Once the logo is finished we will have the shirts designed for them as well. And next on the list are new rashguards...
And lastly, Ryan just released two new DVDs on half guard and taking the back.
Lots of changes and additions coming to Fifty/50 as we begin our third year of existence. Although the beginning is always more difficult as you build something up, it's also exciting to look forward to what it will become.
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Um wow. The women in your program look amazing! There were some SOLID submissions in there, good passing, and I'm pretty sure that I saw some very slick deep half guard sweeps from more than one of them!
ReplyDelete...Definitely a mark of good coaching. That stuff doesn't happen on accident.