Happiness

I survived! Our first week of official Competition Team Practices are over and I don't feel anywhere near as tired or sore as I thought I would (not saying I don't feel sore at all - just better than expected)...AND we even did the Danny Ives special "Super Legs" Set after Comp Team tonight which was after our regular practice (all stand up today taught by Anthony) and before that earlier today I wrestled with one of the high school girls for 2 hours...the most amazing thing is that I am still standing, haha! (Although, in reality I'm not sure I would have made it through today if not for my 20 minute massage yesterday at the awesome place across from the gym, lol.)

So I am officially signed up to wrestle (aka drill, learn, and pretend I'm a real wrestler) twice a week with the ladies from now through August! Woohoo! In just three practices my stand-up has already progressed at a completely ridiculous rate. It definitely pays to learn from not just a REAL wrestling coach (and not a bjj coach who learned from someone else and is trying to pass it on) but a real wrestling coach who has both competed at AND successfully coached male and female wrestlers to very high levels. Total sweetness!

Tomorrow, unfortunately, I have to miss evening training to go teach a swim class in Maryland so I plan to get in a good LONG cardio and lifting workout earlier in the day. No, this is not something I would usually do before a tournament but the tournament this Saturday is just a warm-up for the big deal in a month anyway. (And no one in my weight class at blue belt or above is expected...surprise of surprises I'll probably have to compete up in weight again (and perhaps belt rank), but it's not so bad because I'm a little fat right now anyway - 115 tonight after practice - ugh, lol!)

As a side note: Ryan and Brendan went out to Vegas to join up with Cameron Diffley as part of "Team Guard Pullers" to compete against "Team Takedown" in a pro match-up at Grapplers Quest on Saturday. Kick butt, baby!

p.s. Our new website has been moved off the development site to it's new home and will be launched online officially sometime tomorrow! Thanks, Erik!! Your design skills are amazing! Check us out soon at: Fifty/50 BJJ

Training Blahs

I was still pretty sore on Saturday from working out with a trainer last week and wrestling practice on top of my regular bjj classes and I think the rainy weather had me feeling extra lazy so I didn't really train much at open mat after teaching the women's class. However, I was still really looking forward to wrestling practice on Sunday. Except I woke up (many times) on Saturday night/Sunday morning with the most violent sickness I've ever had.

Although I did go out drinking Saturday night, I think on top of the alcohol I actually had food poisoning or something because I've been sick from alcohol many times and usually after you throw up once or twice you actually feel much better. This was not the case for me on Sunday morning. I have never vomited more times in a short period of time in my life. I was stationed at the toilet bowl about every 30-60 minutes until the only thing coming back up was more stomach acid. My abs got a serious work-out though...

Needless to say I had to miss my wrestling workout on Sunday after not training hard on Saturday THEN I showed up today for training and long story short, didn't end up getting to train. :(

I need to get ready with some seriously hard training for Worlds, dammit! Ryan and Seph say tonight will be the first killer practice to get ready and we will have 3 killer practices each week until Worlds, and by god I need it!

More wrastlin'!

Today was my second wrestling practice. This time there was only one other girl there and she is MY SIZE! Woohoo!

I am sure my legs are getting stronger by the minute from constantly being in a wrestling stance. No more need for Danny Ives' special "Super Legs" class, lol! (Miss you Danny!)

Today we spent a lot of time on hand fighting. I am making a lot of mistakes still but at least I'm starting to recognize them...baby steps. =)

I really enjoy the coach's style. He believes that women's wrestling is 20 years behind men's wrestling because women are treated like women instead of like wrestlers in the wrestling room. Therefore, he treats us like wrestlers. We are learning to take away any female timidity and DEMAND a grip or a position. That wrist is MINE...and you are not going to get it back. Lol!

He is a perfectionist. And it's exactly what I enjoy. Almost every single grip/shot/throw needs to be adjusted for one reason or another and he demands that we perform as proficiently as any man he instructs...and I love it!

I will go back on Sunday afternoon and I can't wait already! I love BJJ but I can't remember the last time I had so much fun. There is definitely something to be said for training with someone your size.

Oooo people my size reminds me that we drove down to Richmond yesterday and I got to train with Lo and Liz! Hopefully, my new job won't start until after next Wednesday so I can go back again next week and train!

Women's Open Mat Article on Ouano International Website

The women’s locker room at the Sport and Health© in Ballston Common Mall (Arlington, VA) this Sunday afternoon was as crowded as after work on a Monday evening. But instead of pulling running shoes out of their gym bags, these women pulled out Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gis!

Fifty/50 BJJ (Ryan Hall and Jen Flannery) were honored to host this go round of the East Coast BJJ Women’s Open Mat Series, and we are extremely grateful to our friends at Ouano International and Cat Fight Gear for donating female specific BJJ apparel to raffle off to the 22 ladies in attendance! These women represented schools from around the DC area, New Jersey, Richmond, Virginia Beach, and as far away as Canada: Bartman Jiu-Jitsu, BJJ Revolution, Fifty/50 BJJ, Fightworks, Gustavo Machado, the Krav Maga DC Training Center, Mecca MMA, New Jersey Martial Arts (Team Balance), and ladies from multiple Yamasaki Academy locations.

Women from white belt to brown belt, 110-150lbs, all shapes, all sizes, and all levels enjoyed this opportunity to train together in an open, non-competitive environment…a first for some of them!

This series began in the summer of 2007 as collaboration between then Lloyd Irvin student (now Fifty/50 BJJ Assistant Instructor), Jen Flannery, and Crazy 88 BJJ’s Julius Park…and the idea took off. Since that first exciting open mat, BJJ Revolution, Fightworks, and New Jersey Martial Arts have each hosted a session, usually bringing together 20-30 women in search of a chance to train with other ladies of myriad sizes and skill levels that so few are afforded at their home academies.

These ladies rolled, drilled, talked, tied and re-tied ponytails, tried on each other’s gis, went out for dinner, and followed it up (of course) with some quick shopping. For the first time it was the LADIES intimidating the men who were walking in the door for the co-ed open mat following the women’s training session, lol!

Best smelling group of sweaty glistening BJJ individuals I’ve ever come across! ☺

p.s. Stay tuned for information on the next East Coast BJJ Women’s Open Mat to be held at BJJ Revolution in Richmond, VA sometime this summer!



Jen Flannery
Women’s Instructor
Fifty/50 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
www.Fifty50BJJ.com

Original Article posted at Ouano International - News

Wrastlin' with girls!

We have a couple guys who wrestled in college who have been helping us recently but I realized that I can only get so much out of it if I'm always wrestling with guys who are bigger and stronger than I am. So on a whim a few weeks ago, I started searching the internet for female wrestlers to train stand-up with. I thought I had struck out and had almost given up, until on a last ditch effort I found a local college wrestling coach who also taught private lessons and ran clinics for high school and middle school children.

My last shot in the dark, I sent him an email asking if he knew any female wrestlers (college or high school) who would be willing to train with me in the off season. I volunteered to go wherever they were; he responded quickly with a note saying he knew a few but was out of town and he'd get back to me. Well I didn't hear back for a long time, so this week I sent him another email asking if he'd found anyone interested. And the best news came back to me! "Can you be here on Thursday at 4:30?" You bet I could!

Ryan drove me out to his gym, neither of us having any idea what to expect. Is it a big class? Is it just a open mat? Is it a big deal that I don't have wrestling shoes? Who knows...

There was one high school female wrestler just a little bigger than me (maybe 10 or 15lbs) and one teenage guy, it was basically a small group lesson. We learned and drilled for an hour and a half! I learned setups, shots, and throws and so many small details I'd never seen before AND could execute everything without straining under too much weight! Even more amazing, I had a female partner who responded with the appropriate movements...AND he invited me back!

We haven't talked price yet but the instruction was freaking fantastic. He was like the Ryan Hall of wrestling...in the way he focused on proper body mechanics and the rules of movement and control. And of course the fact that he likes to talk a lot about the "why's". I like this approach, it allows me to take a concept and apply it to other positions or instances in training/fighting. To top that off, he actually made a concerted effort to apply what I was learning to BJJ as well.

Instant Euphoria!

And today my quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves are more sore than they've been in AGES!

Still Euphoric!

Weekend in NYC/Competing at the IBJJF Open

My first time officially staying in NYC was certainly a blast! I've only been in the city once before and it was to just to train at Ronin Athletics (Ryan's first BJJ school) and Alliance (to train with Marcelo Garcia) but that was a year and a half ago. And basically we drove in, trained at one school during the day, had dinner, trained at the other school, then left the city. So I wouldn't say that I got to see much (other than inside the BJJ schools, lol).

Anyway, so Ry and I drove up Friday afternoon after class (it took forever because traffic was awful through DC and Maryland). We arrived at the Embassy Suites off Exit 16 of the Jersey Turnpike and promptly headed to the hot tub while we waited for Seph and Karen to arrive. The absolute best part about the Embassy Suites (besides the hot tub) is that they have the most amazing continental breakfast in existence (disclaimer: when cutting weight, it is not pleasant to go to breakfast with individual's who aren't). 

Saturday morning we headed over to the venue at what we thought was nice and early to catch Seph's fights... unfortunately, we missed his first match (btw since when does the IBJJF run exactly on time?) but thankfully we were there in plenty of time for his second one against Ronis Gracie.  

Ryan and I warmed up separately since we were supposed to compete at the same time. But luckily I ended up going first by a long shot so Ryan was able to coach me through both matches for the gold. Despite receiving the medal around my neck, I felt kind of slow during the matches, like I was working much harder than usual and not playing my game the way I'd been practicing, so I need to go through the video and try to figure out why. 

Other than what may be found on the video, I have two theories.  One of which I can change and one that was circumstances, but in all likelihood, it was a combination of both. First, that the stress from the job situation last week caught up with me and/or second, that I need to make sure I have a more BJJ targeted warm-up next time like I did for Pan Ams (where I felt much sharper than I did yesterday). 

Thanks to Eugene from GQ for holding my video camera for me during my matches! Huge congrats to Ryan and Seph who both did very well and to all our other friends who competed as well (especially Erik).

After the tournament we went (with the Ronin crew) out to an Italian style restaurant where the spaghetti and meatballs platter was enough to feed 8 people! Okay...well actually, we also shared a family size salad and a huge platter of Veal Parmigiana and one of Chicken Parmigiana as well. Needless to say, we were stuffed! But never ones to be defeated...we didn't allow the pressure on our pants' buttons to deter us from stopping in the candy store two shops down. ;)

After the candy store, we packed into Ryan's car and drove to a bar to catch up with the rest of Ronin Athletics and watch the UFC fights. After sharing Anderson Silva's frustration with opponents who are unwilling to engage in a fight, we were put up in a sweet two-bedroom apartment for the night (thanks Christian!) that we shared with Seph and Karen. Then this morning I gained the lovely experience of driving on NYC's highways after dropping Ryan at JFK this morning for him to fly out to video tape his next dvd series. And boy I can't WAIT to see the finished product!

Whew. What a weekend. :)

Lots of BJJ this week

Well, I lost my job on Monday and I still can't decide if I'm upset or not because I've hated it there for about the last year. Personality clashes and a differing values system caused constant battles with my new boss. Some people simply weren't meant to be leaders. It's truly unfortunate that despite this fact, they are often put into positions of leadership due to superior butt-kissing skills instead of due to their desire to produce a quality product and work towards a positive end goal. Instead, they worry about the perception of whether or not they are succeeding because in their mind all that matters is what will propel them toward future advancement, and not what is inherently right. I am trying not to stress too much yet as I have other options popping up from individuals who worked closely with me for the last 4 years and knew that I was in fact working my ass off and producing quality products.

The most positive take-away is the vacation that I haven't taken in 4 years has arrived free of charge this week! And it's even better since I don't have to stress about what work isn't getting done (due to a refusal to provide repeatedly requested/adequate resources) for the first time in as long. After working 50-60 hours a week (underpaid for 40 of them not paid for the other 10-20) for the last two months straight (and extremely frequently prior to that for 4 yrs), I can finally breathe. AND I can do as much Jiu-Jitsu as I can squeeze in for the short-term!!!! Woohoo!!!!!

Today we had visitors from Richmond and elsewhere in the gym (2 black belts, 3 brown belts, 1 purple belt, and 4 blue belts on the mat!) and I got to roll with a blue belt guy exactly my size!! (And I didn't even know guys my size EXISTED! Lol!) And that was just for fun. 

Tonight I attended the regular night class and got to train with newly promoted blue belt, Anthony Cincotta! Congrats again, Anthony! (He went through a serious gauntlet last night) Anthony is super fun to roll with even though he's much bigger (about 50lbs bigger), because he trains really hard, puts pressure down and really rolls through positions with me (and subbing me) without me ever having to worry about him spazzing out or injuring me (other than accidental knees to the head or crotch or something normal like that during transitions).

Tomorrow we head down to Richmond to train with Andrew Smith and the crew again! Woohoo!!! I love this life! It's going to be hard to go back to the real world  :)