Carmen jenke seminar, irish shenangins and catfight gear gi

Well, i certainly can't complain of boredom these last few weeks! Last weekend I went up to London to attend the first woman's only bjj seminar in the Uk. My fear of Sunday trains was eased a bit as I sped from surbiton to London Victoria, then on the underground to st pancreas (hugest train station ever!!!) then to mill hill Broadway. Despite my best attempts to get there on time,,, I was as usual running a bit late so decided to nip into the toilet on the train and change into my gi which did cause a few people to do a double take as I emerged from the loo wearing my blue koral gi tucked into my uggs hehe. This turned out to be a good move, as I was getting off the train I felt someone tap on my shoulder and ask weather I was going to a Brazilian jiu jiutsu seminar! what are the odds haha this resulted in getting a lift to RGA mill hill meaning I wasn't too late. The seminar its self was very interesting it started with lots of drills, a few of which I hadn't seen before and found quite hard to get the hang of! We then paired up and drilled a few things

1) collar choke from guard- this involved breaking our partners posture and waiting for them to pull up allowing the choke to be put on really easily before the person realised what was going on I liked this move as it was quite simple and effective and i found that a bit of extra hip movement using your opponents movement to swing round made it come on even quicker



2) A couple of guard passes - start by holding partners hips or their gi lapel and pushing into their sternum, then contrary to what I usually do which is placing my knee into my opponents tailbone Carmen recommended that to keep your base it was better to keep your knee more to the side which i think worked just as well, to pass we either under hooked the leg or stepped over with our knee, which i usually prefer. After we passed we drilled a kimora from side control which I usually find hard to get but Carmen showed us that it was easier to wait for you opponent to make the move and set up the grip in preparation for when they eventually try to push you off of them, I like to use my face sometimes to help pin the arm down lol

3) A sweep from half guard which worked by reaching round and holding your opponents foot and knee and another one I had learnt a few weeks ago with Ze which I will need to research more as I'm not sure on how best to describe it

4) an open guard sweep that I learned ages ago in New york which starts by holding the collar and the sleeve with your foot on their hip then switching grip to the sleeve and the ankle to sweep them you then pull the ankle and push their hip with your foot


we then rolled for about 30 mins, I was pleased at how I rolled, what I lack in strength and size in comparison with a couple of the girls I managed to keep my cool and pull of a couple of submissions including the gi choke we had learned that day, later this reminded me of Ray in Thailand yelling move of the day!!! whenever anyone managed to pull of the technique we had been working on. All in all the day was really good it was great to see so many girls on the mat at once! I left feeling extra motivated which paid off in training on Monday as I felt my game was just that more redefined.

training that week involved...
BJJ on Monday: I went over the moves we had learned in the seminar with Sophie and the new girl then we rolled most of the class
mma on Tuesday: brought my friend Anna down to train as shes a black belt in taikwondo and i wanted to work on some stand up and no gi stuff despite I kick to the ribs that made me think I was going to be sick sparing involved me taking Anna down and avoiding being punched to much.
Wednesday: went boxing with the girls at uni while not the most hard core class it is a good work out and only 2 quid a class. after boxing went to bjj but really wasn't in the mood for it haha Richard made me n soph roll no gi because we might be doing the European competition in grapple and strike, I was feeling pretty crappy after but it was still a fun day of training.

Then another weekend rolled around, as my mum was over from the Uk visiting she decided me her and my brother would spend the weekend in ireland seeing some friends which was a really nice break even though there was no training involved! we did however watch some motor cross, have some nice dinners and watch our friend wilsons band down at the pub which made for a really good break. Note to self that cinimon glod flecked goldshlager stuff is dam tasty but = god awful hangover see picture below for the extent of my hungover trek back home







Got a couple more essays to be getting on with unfortunatley and am also broke as a joke as i ordered a new gi from catfightgear.com Ah well a kul new gi is worth eating soup the rest of the month and after all the fried breakfasts and chocolate of late im sure my tummy will be thanking me. Ebayed loads of old crap so should be all good.