Awesomeness

What up internet, so I haven't blogged in a while,, boo me! Its been pretty hectic with training and work.

I have been really lucky and been able to train with 2 of the UK's most talented and well known WMMA fighters Rosi Sexton and Danielle West.
If you're reading this and don't know who these women are then shame on you!
These girls have been on the scene for nearly ten years now and are really are true pioneers of the sport!
Its crazy because I think of WMMA now and how much support we get and even then its still a difficult and challenging sport to be involved in.
Rosi and Danielle both share a true love and passion for MMA that has stood the test of time and is really inspiring to me.
I think because they are both so humble it is easy to forget how much they have both accomplished! If it was me I would be boring you with tales of my epicness left right and center.

Now that I am working full time part of my new training plan is to make the most of my weekends and get good training in on both Saturdays and Sundays.
I had a great day of sparring with Laura, Rosi and Kim at Semtex gym in Kent.
It was great to spar with someone who had come to MMA from a grappling background,as I still had to work just as hard once the fight got to the ground!
On Sunday I headed over to Carlson Gracie to train with Kerrie and Katherine and the grappling theme continued as I got a few good rolls in with some of the guys there and Katherine who is a really amazing judoka.

The following weekend Kerry and Katherine came down to do fighters sparring which is the hardest day of training at first gen and pushes us all right out of our comfort zones. I've always felt this is the most essential part of any fight camp as getting comfortable mentally with being pushed hard and not giving up are both important aspects of training that sometimes get overlooked.

On Sunday I went up to London again and trained at new wave gym. It was a really good session and we drilled escaping back control and head and arm control from standing and the ground. I sparred a couple rounds with Laura and Danielle and felt quite strong with my defence and take downs.

Sorry this blog post isn't too thrilling but training outside of my comfort zone and with different clubs and individuals has given me some good ideas for articles so watch this space. I am off on Holiday to LA on Monday so I will have lots of free time to write which I am really looking forward to!

Inspiration

My friend and student Bex Packham has been kicking ass and taking names lately so I thought I would devote a whole post to her awesomeness! She is 16 years old and has been training really hard for the last year. You can check out the whole article at

MMA Prospects

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I meet Bex Packham after Junior MMA class to have a chat and do some competition sparring for the upcoming British Open Brazilian Jiujistu competition that we are both training for. Bex smiles when I ask her what made her want to come and try a sport that generally attracts more of a male audience. "My brother was really into wrestling and had been getting into fights with our step brother. I think my dad thought the class would help him to channel his temper. He asked me to come along to a class and I thought ok I'll go to one just until he makes some friends but it was so much fun I just kept coming back!"
I can relate to her on this one, the first class that I went to was to spend more time with my then boyfriend who was ditching me more and more to spend time at the dojo training. I thought I would go and see what all the fuss was about but similar to Bex I was quickly hooked to the sport! I think it can be difficult for some girls to take that initial step and try a class and it can be nice to have a friend with you when you start your journey.

Bex quickly took to the sport balancing a busy schedule of school and social commitments yet still making it to the gym 5 times a week! It wasn't long before she decided to start competing. With a lack of girls her age involved in the sport she gutsily stepping up to fight the boys at competitions and has sent a fair few home clutching a runners up meddle and not knowing what hit them.
R: Am I right in thinking the last two competitions you have done have seen you beat the guys to take home the gold? B: Yeah I still can't believe it myself It's great to be able to see that everything you learn in training is really effective in competition. Its brilliant to suprise the spectators, they always approach me afterwards with wide eyes, sorta in disbelief haha R: I watched your fight on youtube, it's got so many views, what do your friends and family think about it all? B: They were all really impressed; I think it helped them to understand the sport a bit better. My family are really supportive especially my mum. R: Do you find it tough being the only girl in class B: No I really enjoy training and am friends with all the guys, no one has an attitude and Pauls class is really fun. R: what do you enjoy most about the sport? B: It's just made me more confident in myself; it makes you feel like you can achieve anything. R: Do you follow MMA on TV? B: Yeah I sometimes watch it but I actually prefer watching amateur MMA, it just feels more real I think the production and entertainment side of the stuff you see on TV detracts from the sport its self. R: Do you have a favourite fighter? B: I like Gina Carano, I think she helped people to see that just because you do a combat sport it doesn’t mean that you aren’t feminine, I guess females in any male dominated sports have to put up with that though. R: What are your goals for the future? B: Now that I am 16 I am hoping to get my blue belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu and compete against women in the adult divisions. I would love to do some more amateur MMA but it's just the challenge of finding opponents.
I can tell that the future of WMMA is going to be even more exciting with talented younger fighters like Bex representing the sport. Bex is training hard for the BJJ British Open and looking forward to testing herself in MMA.Its Great to see how much passion Bex has for the sport and it takes me back to when I first started and how exciting it was to find something that I really loved doing. Here are some videos of Bex showing the guys how its done at the last couple of grappling comps we have been to!

Promises

I woke up today feeling pretty shitty without rhyme or reason, it just seems to be one of those days.
I don't really know who to talk to when I feel stressed about training and life in general, it can be hard to explain why I spend so many hours training. Sometimes I even wonder why myself.

So here it is.

I knew in the first few moments, that was all it took. A silent promise made to myself that I wouldn't stop until I had mastered everything. The promise was solidified with each minute that passed during my first class in grappling. Every sweep, choke and joint lock was a thing on wonder and mystery, it was knowledge I wanted to own.

Those few seconds sparked a chain reaction that took my life off the path it was going and down a more challenging and complicated yet interesting route. Four years later I have a better understanding of the nature of that promise. To master everything in BJJ means never stopping.

It is a sport that is constantly evolving, to throw some metaphors around it is like a busy city that never sleeps. You can't let yourself get too comfortable, as even when you think you know the city like the back of your hand things can change. Just as the very essence of the city can be affected by the people in it, jujitsu too is changed and moulded by the athletes that push the boundaries and make it their own.

Maybe I make things more complex than they need to be, I could probably be happy enough working up through the ranks of a 9-5 and going out getting drunk and doing what ever everyone else is doing but I would always be living with a broken promise. There is something in my nature that seems to rebel against normality and being settled, it used to bother me but I guess its better to embrace that and work even harder on days where I feel like this. Like I said in my last post things are never dull and in many ways I'm thankful for that.

There will be days like today where I feel a bit lost but there will be many more moments where I feel like I have pushed myself and become a stronger and better person because of it.

Melancholy aside I spent my day planning, plotting and organising and feel like I will wake up tomorrow a bit more at ease with the world.My cure for most things is to book a holiday and I got my flights for California. I have always dreamt of doing the IBJJF worlds and I cant wait to train at all the amazing gyms over there. As such I have decided to cut to a lower weight class which means an annoyingly strict diet but I have abs now check it out!

Any one with suggestions as to where to go and what to do in California leave a comment or send me a tweet @kimurakoi!

Well as always in the life of Rachael things are never boring. Since my last update I competed in the Euro's and came third in my category, got a new job in events management and also had my first K1 fight, not bad huh?
I'll start with the Europeans. It was my second try at this competition except this year I would be fighting as a purple belt. It was a very different trip to the year before, mainly because I had come by myself without a coach or team mates but I felt it was something I needed to do to improve my game and help to focus on BJJ. I had sort of sidelined jits while I was busy training for my MMA fights, and it felt great getting back into it! I arrived on Tuesday so I would have a day to chill and do some sight seeing before the competition kicked off. Lisbon is a really beautiful city, I will do a separate post on my guide to Lisbon for the Euro's for anyone thinking of going next year.

I was pretty happy with my performance, although my mental game is still a really big issue in jits, I just don't seem to switch on as well as I do in MMA. I did feet strong and technical but I need to work more on passing guard for sure! I think the important thing I learnt is that 7 minutes is a long time so its ok to be patient and wait for the best opportunity to pull guard or go for the take down.

Just before I flew out to Europe I had an interview for a job at a communications company, and the night before I was set to fly off they told me they wanted to give me the job! I told them I could start Thursday, so I had time to recover from all the partying that had gone on in Lisbon. I think I had forgotten how time consuming a new job can be as it left me with little time to train as I wanted to make a good impression. We had a really big event in London the night before my fight which left me feeling pretty uneasy about how it was going to go.

Pretty much everyone from the gym was fighting so I felt relaxed as we all got to have some food together and then had our own separate area to warm up. I didn't really feel as nervous as I do before Jits or MMA, it was an odd quiet before the storm type of feeling. The fight its self was probably not the most technical that I have ever been in but I stuck to my game plan and followed Paul and Tolly's coaching to get the win.


Even though it was one of my least impressive performances I was still glad I went through with it, as I learnt a lot and it motivated me to work more on my stand up! I might try and get a few more stand up fights on smaller shows while I am waiting to find out when my next MMA fight will be. I think the next Jits comp I compete in will be the British open in May.

The importance of Variation

Another weekend and another adventure, this time I headed to Icon BJJ in Milton Keynes. Unfortunately I had to drag myself out of bed and get on the 6.24 train to London again as I was aiming to get to MK by 9.30 to start training at 10.

The session was busy as the guys who train at Icon Holland had come over for a visit. After a very quick warm up we immediately got into a long session of sparring 8 minute rounds. Being so early I felt it took a while to wake up and get going but after about an hour I was well into a jiujitsu groove and rolling more fluidly. The following day we went over a half guard sweep and escaping from back control and had a slightly more relaxed sparring session (only 5 minute rounds).

The last few weekends made me think a little bit more about the importance of variation in training. It is my experience that when you have been training with the same people for a long time you start to relax too much. As you know the way they play rolling strategically can minimise energy expenditure. In other words, it is easy to get stuck in a rut.

The great thing about doing some training at a different club is that you have to work harder as you do not have a good idea of peoples skill levels or what type of game they play. It is perfect training if you have a competition coming up and want to push your self, with the Europeans looming it was exactly what I needed. So if you have the chance make time for some BJJ adventures of your own and visit a friends club to get some variation in your training. I enjoy learning new drills and different teaching points for the same techniques. You also get to take back some new techniques to try out on your unsuspecting team mates!

Pre European Competition Sparring

This post is part 2 of my exciting weekend of training. Following a busy day at S.K.J I headed over to Derby to do some competition sparring for the Europeans. At the time I wasn't really sure if I was even going to go, as I mentioned in the past I felt a bit unsure about my purple belt and where I was at with my BJJ. As I was coming all the way from Brighton Rebecca, one of the girls that trains at GBD, kindly let me stay the night at hers so I felt much more rested up and ready for some training than Saturday.

We arrived at Gracie Barra Derby at 12.30, the club has a traditional dojo feel and has a matted area as well as a caged off section for MMA. As people started arriving I recognized lots of familiar faces and it was great to meet some of the blue and white belts that were new to the sport since I had been over seas. Christine took charge and made sure we all felt welcome, suggesting that we begin with some specific positional sparring and finish with some rolling at the end. This worked really well and gave me a good idea of the area's I needed to work on, girls move a lot differently than men and I think what most of us don't get much practice of is maintaining an on top position and working on attacking.

I rolled with Leoni, who I used to train with at BJJ school, she said I felt much stronger than before which made me feel a lot more confident as she trains and competes at a high level and is someone I have always looked up to in the sport. All in all the training session left me feeling confident in my abilities and I decided to man up and enter the Europeans. I have only done the nogi British open and competed in MMA since getting my purple belt, so I think I need to start challenging myself more to progress and improve my BJJ.

Hopefully there will be more sessions like this in the near future. Sometimes its just nice to meet up with other girls that understand the madness of training in BJJ. Back in Eastbourne I have begun pestering everyone to train some Gi with me, Tolly already had me sparring from standup with Joe and Lee, and I think I have a pretty solid game plan to work.

Some further reading for you Femme fighters article on the Grace Barra Derby girls

Sticks Kicks and Jits

This weekend I ventured up to the Midlands to S.K.J martial arts in Leicester. Organised by coaches Caz tweedy, Abigail Steady and Jo Hicks, the event offered a taster of 3 different martial arts, grappling, kick boxing and stick fighting. Caz, Abigail and Jo are all established athletes in their chosen discipline's and regularly strive to cross train in different martial arts. They have launched S.K.J to offer a friendly and safe environment for women to learn and practice martial arts, and are one of the few clubs to offer such high quality female coaching.

I arrived slightly late, sleep deprived and overdosed on espresso after catching a very early train from Eastbourne. When I arrived there were already about 20 women present for the first unofficial part of the event, which was a 2 hour nogi grappling seminar taken by Caz. As there was a range of skill levels present Caz started off with some hip mobility drills to warm up and emphasise the importance of hip movement in grappling. She then went on to drill the correct base and technical stand up for fighting with an open guard. The main techniques that we covered were escaping side control and passing guard both of which Caz explained very well, emphasising the importance of arm and hand positioning and where to frame to be able to move the hips. Caz is an excellent teacher who's passion for grappling is apparent and infectious. She is able to break down moves into clear teaching points that even women with no grappling experience at all were able to pick up quickly.

Taster session

The main emphasis of the event was to give a basic introduction to the three main disciplines taught at S.K.J martial arts. At midday we were joined by another 30 women, some of which had a wealth of experience and achievements under their belts and others who had never so much set foot in a dojo until that day. Jo Hicks gave us our introduction to kick boxing starting with an energetically lead warm up followed by a good stretch, after which we worked on the basic jab cross combo followed by some side kicks on the pads. Next Caz ran through some grappling basics, being such a complex sport it is hard to get a feeling for grappling in such a short space of time but Caz ran through some fundamentals and explained the positional progression of the sport well. Abigail had the task of choreographing 50 women and sticks into shape. We learnt 4 stikes and 4 defence moves finishing with a disarm, which brought the session to an end.

I hung around catching up with some friends and watched the stick fighters do some sparring which was beautifully brutal and interesting to look at at. I spoke to Caz and Abigail after the event and both were happy with the turn out and looking forward to the future of S.K.J. Well done ladies it was a well run event with excellent coaching and left everyone feeling happy and confident with some new found skills. Please check out the photo's from the event taken by Joy Foulds