Gringa BJJ

I Got A Ride!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:11:00 +0000

Yesterday, at 6:00 PM, I found out that my driving buddy to Boston was bailing out on me. At around 7:30 PM, I sent the call for help out across the interwebs. Facebook, email, blog, and twitter.... by 3:00 AM I had a new driving buddy!

In the old world, plans would have not been so easily made.

Then again, in the old world plans would have not been so easily broken either.

In a new culture of flaky attitudes and tenuous plans I find so much comfort in the consistency and reliability of my jitsu classes. No matter if I'm up, down, or sideways, I know I can just go to jiu jitsu and it will all be alright. Even on the days that I get injured, or during the weeks of "plateau" that can be so frustrating, I can never get enough, and usually just feel compelled to train more.

I'm knocking on wood right now.

I'm also deeply contemplating my side mount escapes.

Lost my Ride!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:49:00 +0000

Just lost my ride to Boston next weekend. Anyone wanna share, Philly to Boston, Friday morn to Sunday?

A Wide Variety of Shrimp

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:40:00 +0000

Last time I mentioned that one of the things I'm struggling with right now is escaping from side control. This was the position I got stuck in both in the finals of the No-Gi Pan Ams and also in my first gi match at Grapplers Quest.

At Grapplers Quest, Nyjah kindly whispered a few hints to me while I was getting tooled by one of her teammates, Jen Flannery (actually we're all on Team Lloyd Irvin so it's all good). She said that to escape I needed to get my hips out and away. I kept thinking, "well, duh..." actually doing that is the hard part.....

I'm a thinking-type person, so as is the case whenever I run into a tough situation, I've been thinking about it. I've been thinking about this long and hard for the last month or so. I've dreamed about side-control escapes. I've woken myself up out of half-sleep with the involuntary twitching that comes from thinking about movement too much.

Last time I also mentioned that Mike Moses showed me some very helpful and simple movements that could make all the difference in escaping -- these were small details that I had already known but had completely forgotten somewheres in the mess of jiu jitsu knowledge I'm accumulating but have not yet organized and fully welded into my game.

While I was processing these small details over the weekend, I realized that there are many many varieties of this thing called "shrimping," which you might know it as the "hip escape." I like categorizing and analyzing, so I thought I'd come up with a list of all the shrimps I know in order to better wrap my mind around this task of escaping side-control.

So it took you a month to learn how to do a regular hip escape correctly? Did you even know there were multiple ways of shrimping?

Well get this:
(Note: I put the person I originally learned each move from in parentheses. In some cases they are in fact the originator of the move. Give credit where credit is due!)

Normal Shrimp - The normal hip escape done by lying on the ground with your head facing in the direction you want to move, knees bent, turn to one side and launch off, straightening your legs so that you move backwards as much as possible. Hands extend out in front to block your opponent from moving forward. (Everyone)
Melon Baller Shrimp - Done in the same way as the normal shrimp except your focus is on your elbows. Pretend like you have melon ballers on the tips of your elbows and use them to scoop out your "melon" (belly). The purpose of this shrimp is to focus on wiggling out of tight spaces by using your core to move instead of your legs. Helps develop the ability to shrimp even when your legs are trapped or immobilized. (Andrew Perkins)
Bimp - Explosive shrimp done by combining a mini-bridge with a shrimp. Explosive movement used to create enough space so that you can get a brace inside to help workout of mount. Not intended to simply throw your opponent off. Always use in combination with constant pressure and the melon baller shrimp. (Dave Ginsberg)
Forward Shrimp (sitting up) - Sit up on one hip, reach forward with your bottom leg and your top arm (bottom arm pushes off the ground), launching forward. Your top arm acts like it's pulling on a lapel. Simulates the movement into an aggressive half guard. (Mike Pellegrino)
Forward Shrimp (lying down) - I first learned this one in Switzerland. Basically it's the exact opposite of the normal shrimp. Lie flat on your back, roll onto one side, reaching forward to touch near your toes. Use your bottom foot to grip on the mat, lift your hips slightly, balancing on your shoulder and lower leg. Bend your leg, pulling your butt and your body forward, straightening out your mid-section. Roll to your other side and repeat. (Anderson Pereira)
Sideways Shrimp from Wayside School - This is the HARDEST one, and the one that is key for escaping side control. Lie flat on your back with one side facing the direction you want to travel (away from your opponent). Step out to the side towards the direction you want to travel, knee bent towards the ceiling. Pull your entire body in that direction, butt first, then reset. You should be able to travel all the way down the mat this way. Trust me, it's HARD. I haven't trained doing the sideways shrimp in over a year, and that is probably why my side control escapes are so terrible right now. (Alex Costa, Mike Moses)

p.s. Excellent theory in side control escape by John Will: here.

In other news, I got a request from an anonymous reader to post a description of the jiu jitsu fundamentals class at BJJ United. I have not actually ever attended the fundamentals class, but I would be happy to find someone to write something up :). Look for that in the next week or so! Also, thanks very much for the compliment!

More Gis for Women -- Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:38:00 +0000

I have updated my post on jiu jitsu gi (kimono) buying for women with the contributions of Georgette, a fellow female BJJ fighter and blogger. Click here to go to that post.

My business trip was extended another night and I did not get to visit Kelly or Dan out at Fightworks which was sad. Still, I'm really excited for the BJJ United in-house tournament on Saturday.

As usual, I had blast this week at Evolve Academy. Mike Moses gave me a few key details that I was missing out on to help majorly with my side mount escape.... but that remains to be seen. I think I will be spending alot of time squished to the mat over the next few months!

There and Back Again

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Last night I could not sleep for some time. I lay awake with my mind racing - withdraw. My accounting class, which is required as part of my sweet finance job which is sweetly financing my grappling persuits, went about fourty minutes over the normal 6:00 PM ending time. After class I had to stay to work on a presentation. I put up with this torture because I know that after the long days I get to go right to jiu jitsu and not worry about how I will pay rent, pay for class, pay for food...

Last night since the class went over, and since I had to stay late, I ended up being too tired to train. I was also royally pissed at the accounting class being so awful. So, although I was too tired to train I could not sleep. And around and around my thoughts went.

While I was lying there I remembered that I never finished what I wanted to say about my white water rafting trip. I never told you about how on the drive home I wandered through the endless fog, up and down the West Virginia mountains, emerging on occasion to catch a glimpse of blinding light shocking trees on the the side of cliffs before being dunked back in to the quasi-darkness. I forgot to write about the resistance of the wind which made driving down the hill side almost as difficult for my poor shaking car as driving upwards. My car shakes violently when I break 40 mph.

Recently Caleb at the fightworkspodcast.com asked his listeners to describe how BJJ helps them off the mat. I guess what I was trying to say all along, and what I felt subconsciously but could not describe, is that the entire white water rafting trip presented a perfect parallel, metaphore if you will, for my journey in BJJ. Setting off on this trip in the sunset, no idea of what is ahead; as I get closer and begin to see what's at stake darkness looms; then brilliant happiness in my ignorance; then a crazy, wild trip, thrilling and fun, dangerous and fulfilling; finally back in the fog, and that's where I am now: I know what the road should look like, occasionally I break out and "see the light," but as suddenly as I have those breakthroughs I plateau and get dunked back into the chilling thick.

------

A few days ago I got to my jiu jitsu class and started putting on my blue Koral gi. Something was different. The fabric was smooth, soft, and floppy. The pants string pulled through really easily, and the collar was no longer rough around my neck. My blue belt was looking particularly floppy, although it's been worn and floppy the entire time I've had it since that belt was the one my teacher Dave Ginsberg wore when he wont the blue belt Mundials some years ago. After I got everything on and tied up I sat there for a second rubbing my knees. I couldn't believe that my gi had gotten so soft. When had this happened? Had I really had that gi that long?

That night I did better than usual in all my sparring rounds. I took more risks, got more creative with my take downs, and pushed extra hard with all my techniques. I left class that night feeling proud and pretty good about my current level of jiu jitsu. Afterall, I had been training long enough that my gi felt soft despite never putting it in the dryer!

The next day I went to put in a load of laundry and found that there was a small pool of fabric softener left in the washing machine. It was clogged so the softener my mom had added stayed in there softening all of the fabrics for a whole week. I cleaned out the dispenser and after washing and (air) drying my gi it was once again stiff and rough.

Though not as rough as I remembered it.

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:17:00 +0000

I would proudly like to announce the grand opening of a new website:

MatChessJiuJitsu.com

This website represents a major step in the life of a very close friend of mine, Andrew Perkins. Andrew was my first jiu jitsu instructor ever. He ran and taught the Boston University Submission Grappling Club for several years, and now is running and teaching HIS OWN SCHOOL!

Well, I think I did a better job of talking about Andrew on the actual site itself, so why don't you go check it out. Oh, and by the way, if you live in the Seattle, WA area, check out his new jiu jitsu school, because that's what this is all about!!!

If you personally know Andrew (I'm lookin' at YOU Boston), then drop him an email of congratulations! It's extremely difficult to round up enough capital and time (and bravery) to start a jiu jitsu school, but Andrew's done it, proving one again his awesomeness. Hells, even if you DON'T know Andrew, send him an email anyway! I'm sure he'll appreciate it. (andrew@matchessjiujitsu.com).

Get Out or Pass Out

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:45:00 +0000

When I first starting grappling almost four years ago (will be 4 in February), I was told that the name of the game was "tap out or pass out." That sounded intriguing, fun, bad-ass...

Today we played a little game called "get out or pass out," in which your partner begins the 1-minute round with a full-blown choke whether x-choke, triangle, or rear-naked. Your only goal is to get out. "Don't worry if you go to sleep, we'll wake you."

I didn't pass out at all, though I almost did on the first round of triangle chokes. I think my last conscious movement must have been to fall forward, hitting my partner on the shoulder with my hand, and constituting a tap, because I was basically on the brink of darkness when the pressure let up.

After a grueling 16 or so rounds of "get out or pass out" we had our normal sparring sessions. I must say that the game effected my mental state during the normal rolling because now when I got caught in a real triangle I was only thinking, "I'm going to get out of this, damn it, or else I will pass out." And don't you know, I got out! This happened on four occasions. I tapped on two of them: one where my partner switched to a twisting body lock and the other where I somehow ended up with my knee crushed up against my noes. The other two, I escaped.

All in all today's class presented me with a good facebook status update:
"Elyse is Ouch."

Futher Procrastination!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:38:00 +0000

Guess what, I found more pictures... so I'm delaying writing another day !
MMWWAAHAAH!

Oh so flattering a picture. Thanks, Grapplers Quest. I'm going to hire you when I need to do a hot photo shoot. NOT! (this suit is black not.)

Me getting pwnd....

Me getting pwnd again...

This one (along with a few other things such as the amount of crème brûlé I ate today) is making me giggly. It shows subscribers to gringabjj.com. LOLZ!

I have a whole slew of things to write...

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:48:00 +0000

I have a TON of stuff scribbled on to a little sticky note on the inside of my wallet. These are things I would like to post about...

For now this will have to suffice:

Me looking ridiculous with my 1st place belt from Grapplers Quest this past Saturday. The sun was in my eyes!

That's better!

This is my BJJ United family. They are AWESOME.

This is from the Team Lloyd Irvin women-only team training. Picture taken after saying "Try Women's Jiu Jitsu at (insert school name here)" about 30 times... one time for each Lloyd Irvin affiliate. Other than that one little annoying thing the rest of the team training was really great.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:18:00 +0000

This gigantic shout out goes to all my bestest buddies at BJJ United who were promoted this week!

I'm really sorry for forgetting some... there were alot of you and I KNOW I'm missing some (slash probably made a mistake in there). Don't take offense! I'll fix things as soon as I can double-check.

All of these promotions were extremely well deserved!!! :

Blue Belt:

BIRDMAN (Casey)
EDDIE

Purple Belt:

LOBST-OR (Bobby)
FEELEY (aka t-bag)

Brown Belt:

POP POP

Something to Tide You Over

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:58:00 +0000

I love looking at pictures in other people's blogs. Sometimes more than I like reading what they write ;)

Here's some pics from the No-Gi Pan Ams to tide you over until I have the opportunity to write again!

Thank you to Jessica and Brian for providing the pics!

Left to right: me, Jessica Aguilar, and one of Jessica's teammates (coach?).

Us girls on the podium. Left to right: me, Jessica Aguilar, Lauren Feldman, Lisa Magnani.

Kinda blury picture of Jared on the podium... IN FIRST PLACE! Contrary to some misinformation on the internet, Jared WON his division. Go Jared!

Hyaewhan? Hey-Juan? Heiwan? Anyway, total bad-ass trauma surgeon Hey Juan gets a tattoo.

The other kids' Flat Stanleys were photographed in... the zoo, the park, the dinner table. Diehard's Flat Stanley was photographed outside the tattoo shop.

This Post Goes Out to BLISTER

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:45:00 +0000

Dear Blister --

I would have just emailed you or responded with a comment on your blog, but I haven't been invited to read it so I can't ;).

By "leaving points on the table," I DID NOT MEAN attempting to score points even when working a submission. But then again, maybe I should have meant that. All the best schools I've trained at follow the methodology of "position before submission." The theory is that achieving a submission should only occur after you've secured or stabilized an excellent position and that submissions are really just extra secure positions. So, yes, if you have a head-and-arm choke in but you're stuck in half guard then you should make the extra effort to do the choke properly and get to side mount.

By "leaving points on the table," I actually DID MEAN that I should have been able to easily pass the half guard to side control. I did once or twice, if I remember correctly, but I should have been able to a) maintain that side control, b) further improve my position by going to mount, and c) finish the match with a submission. By the end of the match I should have either won by submission or finished much farther ahead in points.

Yours truly,
-- Elyse

p.s. Invite me to read your blog!

Something Else to Mull About

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:41:00 +0000

BTW, I'm most DEFINITELY a nerd.

Are jiu jitsu fighters thugs who pretend to be hippies, or hippies who pretend to be thugs?

More importantly, are jiu jitsu fighters normal people who transform into superheros when they hit the mat, or are they superheros forced to awkwardly disguise themselves as normal people in the face of the outside world?

This is me being a hippie.

This is me being a nerd...

And this is me being a super hero. Super hero pwnage!!
.... no... wait... this is me being a nerd again!!!

(Btw, that's at the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. God damn I'm so nerdy.)

EDIT: THIS JUST IN -- Me in my elusive thug form:

Note the customary point that all jiu jitsu fighters do. In this case, we're giving the respectful point to Heiwan who is getting a tattoo!

Don't worry, Dad, I didn't get one!

Food for Thought

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:19:00 +0000

Are jiu jitsu fighters meat heads that disguise themselves as nerds during the day, or are they nerds that disguise themselves as meat heads at night?

Operation No-Gi Pan Ams

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:41:00 +0000

Mission Success!

This past Saturday, I attended the Pan American No-Gi Jiu Jitsu Championships, the first IBJJF sanctioned tournament ever held on the east coast (New York City). The entire experience was absolutely wonderful, and a whole heck of a lot cheaper than having to fly out to California. The only gripes I have with the way the tourny was run are that a) there were not enough blue rash guards to go around, so most of the women ended up with white ones regardless of ranking, and b) they capped the number of competitors which left many of the more advanced folks (black belts especially) with little to no competitors while blue belts had /tons/. If you didn't register early enough you didn't get in at all!

Weigh Ins

A few days before I was a little nervous about making weight. After all, this was the first time I ever dared to cut for a tournament. I had been working on it by eating extremely healthy -- no refined carbs, and whole grain only in limited portions, no cheese, no chocolate, all the vegetables I could shove in my mouth... it actually wasn't that bad. In the end, I weighted in at 121.2 lbs! I had over-cut by 3ish lbs /and/ did not feel the least bit weak. 124 is thus my ideal fighting weight, even packing on a few more pounds in muscle.

Round 1

I fought my first round against an awesome grappler from Waikru MMA in Boston, Lisa Magnani. She put up a tough fight. I have a couple of years experience on her so I was able to execute about 40% of my game plan and win on points. She was really good at defending her half guard so I had a difficult time passing. I've known Lisa for about as long as she's been training and I think she has improved incredibly fast over the last year or so!! Great job, Lisa!

Round 2

My second fight was in the finals against Jessica Aguilar, a pro MMA fighter from American Top Team in Coconut Creek, FL. She basically dominated me from start to finish with a good snap to a guilotein, ankle pick take-down, and crushing side control. I almost escaped with a single leg once, but ended up in her guard and triangle choked before I could do anything about it. Jessica is brutally strong for her size and very very talented.

I also want to mention Lauren Feldman -- she put up an amazing performance going the full seven minutes on her feet with Jessica. Not a point nor an advantage was scored between those two, and in the end, but the referee decided to give the fight to Jessica.

Michael Phelps

After my two fights, I came away with a silver medal! In fact, every BJJ United student who competed medaled that day. Zu won a bronze medal, and Pop pop (sp?) defeated both his opponents with ease and took home gold. JT Torres took home gold in the men's light weight brown belt division. Finally, our coach Jared Weiner beat two super agressive black belts with an ezeikel in his first match and an advantage point from take down in his second -- another gold medal!

It was a "freakin-sweet" day for BJJ United, as always! I'm really excited to be part of this team.

I spent the remaining time after my match and before dinner returning the many phone calls and texts I got throughout the day. THANK YOU EVERYONE for all the kind wishes! You all are AWESOME! No jiu jitsu fighter can perform anywhere near their best without the support of friends. I appreciate you all more than you could ever know.

I also made some new friends during that time, meeting a few of the other women from the NHBgear forum. Kudos to Addie, Cynthia, Hillary, Katie and everyone else who competed!

After the tourny was finally over and everyone had gotten their medals and pictures, a bunch of us went out to dinner. I had promised to eat like Michael Phelps, and like Michael Phelps I did eat! Three enchiladas, nachos and cheese, margarita as big as my head, and a large ice cream later, I was practically paralyzed but oh so delightfully happy. I know many of you are wondering so I will preempt your questions -- no, sadly I did not gain super-human aquatic abilities, nor did my heart increase in power to pump 80,000 times more blood than the average human. I was left a normal, tired, stuffed, slightly nauseous, pretty euphoric Elyse. Photos and video of the tattooing event to come later.

(No, I have not gotten a tattoo.)

Plan Forward

My greatest success of the past week has been to finally get my mind wrapped around this thing called a game plan. In the past I've recorded my feelings about various game plan methods, but I never really had one of my own. Here I want to look at my training plan from the beginning of the summer and see to what extent I've addressed all of my goals. Obviously no goal can ever truly be crossed off the A-Game Campers' list, but I have three new goals to focus on, so time to clear out.

1. Stabilizing, controlling, and crushing from top -- CHECK! I feel like my top control has pretty much come back up to snuff. It was just hiding for a little.

2. Choosing one take down every class and trying trying trying -- CHECK! My techniques are doing pretty good, esp. wrestling.

3. Controlling from butterfly, sweep -- Getting better.

4. Core strength -- CHECK! Kettle bells are the shizznit. I lurvs them.

5. Cardio -- CHECK! Kettle bells also helping here.

There are several points from even earlier posts that I'm still working on, but in order to FOCUS I am changing the list to be as follows:

1. Take down with confidence -- My technique is coming along, but I don't "touch and go" with the confidence needed. I will strive to be more aggressive on my feet.

2. Execute the game plan -- I know what I need to do, now I just need to do it. I should not leave any "points on the table." Going along with this, I should probably be more aggressive and confident with my techniques on the ground.

3. Escape from being on bottom in side control -- Once again with the explosiveness.... I spend so much of my time trying to avoid being on bottom in side control (doesn't everyone?) that when Jessica Aguilar successfully pinned me there, I couldn't move at all. This is bad. I've drilled getting out of mount and having my back taken so much that those positions are basically more comfortable for me than side control which is technically less dangerous, and worth less points for your opponent. Must work my side mount escapes ASAP.

GQ

So, the moral of the story? I'm going to compete in Grapplers' Quest in two weeks!! That'll be a heck of a fun time because I think many more BJJ United people will go.

Spartan Abs

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Wanting to do justice to the significant and amazing moments in my life will always be my downfall. I can't do anything half-way, and the result is I've spent three weeks writing about my white water rafting trip, and still haven't finished (and I'm still not satisfied).

Last weekend was awesome for me because I got to hang out with all the BJJ United folks in a social setting. I've been dying for something like this to come around so that I could get to know people better. Also, when you live at home in the suburbs your social life can suffer! We all gathered at Boxer Joe and Birdman's house to watch Wilson fight in ShoXC (the other part of EliteXC) for the bantam weight title belt. Wilson tooled the other guy! He was awesome. My only complaint is that the announcers were awful.

This week I've been training all no-gi in preparation for the no-gi Pan Ams. I've made wate, and today I even decided to throw in some extra cardio on my lunch break. I had meant to do a three-minute warmup on jump rope followed by a seven-minute round sprints on my bike and then a seven-minute round of running sprints. Three minutes is the longest I've ever been able to jump rope for, but as I started I decided to up that to five minutes and sprint two, making for a third seven-minute sprint round. I set my phone alarm and got to jumping. After a while I started to wonder when in the world the first five minutes would be up. I paused, checked my phone, and found that I had been jumping at a moderate pace for TEN WHOLE MINUTES! Sweet.

I completed the biking and running as planned. Dropping down to 124.5 has caused me to gain a whole lot of extra muscle definition, which is cool and weird at the same time. I don't quite have "Spartan Abs," but with more kettle bells... well you never know!

...

Just kidding. Like Peggy Thomas says, us female athletes need to maintain some sort of feminine image. It makes you wonder, what does that even mean? Cuteoverload.com makes me fall on the floor in fits of giggles. Is that enough?

Next, a concession: at the all-womens Team Lloyd Irvin training a few weeks ago, one of the girls was wearing that all-pink Atama kimono I ranted about a few months ago. It was awesome. I've changed my mind about Kyra and here pepto-pink. It's cool. Maybe it's just that you have to see a brown belt wearing one to appreciate it.

Upper Gauley River

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:22:00 +0000

I thought about writing this portion of my epic story for a while. It's been two weeks now. As I mentioned before, I had to leave a few cliff hangers because all my time has been occupied by training for No-Gi Pan Ams.

(Click here for "I Travel West," or part 1)
(Click here for "Wakeup Call," or part 2)

So here we go -- My Epic Weekend part three.

There are so many things to say about white water rafting, but the most telling are as follows:

1. "This isn't Disneyland"
2. "It's like petting a wild tiger"

This was second time white water rafting. The first time we barely broke into class-1 rapids. It was hot, muggy, and boooorring. This time, however, we had five class-5 rapids and a whole slew of other class-2 through class-4 rapids. For reference, class-5 is the biggest that exist! (Class-6 is considered "unraftable").

The only "down-time" we had on the river was while waiting for the other rafts to go through the rapids. Traffic, you can't escape it. Even that was fun, however, because you could watch the other less skilled (or more reckless) raft guides eat major surf, flipping over, getting sandwiched, and experiencing all-around yard-sales. I think we saw three in all. This sure 'aint Disneyland.

I'll have to get Dan to identify the rapid in the above photos. Every single one is completely different than the others. Every trip down the river, additionally is different from every other trip - varied weight distributions in the raft, paddling abilities, water levels, weather, the variability of the rocks and rapids themselves...

Dan describes trips down the river as petting a wild tiger. Even the best get bit sometimes. I see the same in skiing or back country camping. The number of variables involved makes the whole situation that much more exciting and unpredictable, and ultimately your fate lies in the hands of the elements, or in this case, the elements and our raft guide.

To me, that surrender is also liberating. In jiu jitsu we spend all of our time attempting to control our opponents, hold them down, push them this way or that, especially at the lower levels. To feel overpowered, pinned, and controlled can be frustrating and disorienting. In rafting, or skiing the most you can hope for is to be able to read the terrain, choose a line, and take what comes, reacting to whatever the river or mountain throws at you. Get big air. Keep your body entact.

On this day, our trip was flawless. Dan chose amazing lines every time. I only fell out once, and that was because I had sat up too far expecting to see the guy in front of me fall out. It wasn't scary... That's a lie... it was a little scary, but I knew I'd be alright. Dan was able to hoist me back into the raft sputtering and laughing just as quickly as I had fallen in.

Lunch was held just before the last class-5 rapid, one that swept right and left right into a huge rock where if you got too close all the people in your raft would have to lean in to the rock so that the raft does not tip. We ate burgers and grilled chicken while watching raft after raft go over the drop and into the zigzagged whole, popping up and swinging left just in front of this huge rock (might be called "Postage Due"). Not a few rafts were not able to recover after hitting the rock, turning some rafters into swimmers and others into climbers and they scrambled up the rock face. A mass of lunchers actually gathered on top of the rock to watch and help pull up marooned people.

I slept on the bus ride back to camp and Kelly and I dozed some more in the afternoon sun.

The short story here - white water rafting is freaking awesome, and anyone who wants to should come with me when I go again next year!

The long story continues as soon as I find a little more time... I promise there's a sweet concluding chapter :). In the mean time, please please go check out West Virginia Wild Water's website! Gauley season is still going on so I encourage EVERYONE to make the drive out there and get a little catharsis in your life!

Quick Update

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:06:00 +0000

If you didn't notice before, I added two pictures to my previous post. One of them is quite funny, I think.

Part three of my epic story is coming this weekend, I promise.

For now, I've been training hard for Pan Ams which are coming up next Saturday. I had a few setbacks including a pretty severe cold which kept me out of training for all of last week, a cough which resulted in me getting a chest x-ray yesterday afternoon (no worries, the results came back "normal"), and a knee that got twisted and pushed in just the wrong way on Tuesday.

You know, when it's not your knees, it's your back; and when it's not your back, it's your elbow; and when it's not your elbows its that pinched nerve in your neck; and when it's not any of the previous things you wonder if breaking your toes a few more times would actually result in them becoming straighter instead of more crooked.

Actually, I feel pretty good after tonight's training, even despite my knee being strange. I picked up a sweet knee brace from Sports Authority (I'll get a picture up here) on my lunch break and showed it off at work before trying it on the mat. It worked well too! Huzzah!

My only concern now is whether my cardio will be in good enough shape for the tournament. I had made it up to three sets of seven minutes sprinting intervals (15 sec on 15 sec off) two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I only accomplished that once before I got sick.

Here's to hoping!

Wakeup Call

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:35:00 +0000

(This is part two of my awesome weekend story. Click here for part one.)

(Friday Afternoon)
"Do you have a pillow?"
"No... too bulky, and besides, who uses a pillow when they're camping?"
Dan cracked up laughing.
"Last time I went camping, I brought a pillow, and my friend couldn't stop laughing at me. This time, I don't bring a pillow thinking that I'm hard-core, and you can't stop laughing at me! Whatever, dude."

No pillows allowed at the top of Bald Face Mountain, NH.

Me eating refined carbs in my former days without a pillow at the top of Bald Face Mountain, NH.

(Saturday Morning)
"Dan and Chris!"

I rolled over in my sleeping bag and re-squished my pillow.

"Get up! You have a 6:15 call." The female voice sounded amused but urgent.

I propped myself up and blink my eyes to readjust in the blue haze inside our tent. I looked over to find Kelly still out cold and could hear some foot steps on the gravel outside. I heard the rustle of Dan's tarp and could sense his head poking out of the back of his car. I felt around inside the tent for my phone and squinted at the LCD display: 6:30 AM.

Throwing myself back down, I had to wiggle around to untangle myself from the sleeping bag. Now Dan and his brother Chris were up and talking to the female voice. "Ya better hurry up!" and "6:15 call, 7:30 trip" were about all I could make out. The night before, Dan had told us our bus would leave for the drop-in point at 8:00 AM, so my alarm was set for 7:30. A few minutes later, I heard more foot steps as Dan and Chris hurried past our tent.

Silence.

Kelly flipped over, kicking, also tangled in her sleeping bag.

"Kelly... um... did they say 7:30 trip?"

"What? I don't know... no... Dan said 8:30 trip... alarm 7:30..."

"Oh ok." I'm a baseball cap? I straighted out my sleeping bag one more time, plumped up my pillow, and fell fast asleep.

--------------------------

Crunch, crunch, crunch... "Are the friends of Dan Wallen here?"

I lifted my head from my now slightly-dewy pillow. "Uh... yes ma'am."

"You were supposed to be on the 7:30 trip."

"Oh."

"Your bus left already."

I scrambled for the tent door. How predictable. I almost face planted as I tripped out through the zipper blue door way into the bright sun. Huh? We had approximately less than five minutes to dress and be up at the deck for driving directions. We could meet the trip down at the drop-in point. Now! Go!

It seemed basically hopeless. Kelly disappeared, stumbling, up to the bathrooms in a daze and I changed in the tent. Bathing suit, shorts, ski socks, fleece jacket, wind breaker, Harry Potter baseball cap, sneakers... I slathered on sun block at minute 3.5, not bothering to rub it in at all, and rushed up to the deck looking like a mad woman, pillow lines still etched into my face.

By some miracle that I still do not understand, I found myself, about five minutes later, driving away with a printed sheet of directions that said something like, "Go left, turn left after you see a sign for the dam, I think it's rt 129, take first left. Don't get pulled over." Simple, yet not reassuringly confident. We were only five minutes behind the original five minute schedule, and only about 15 minutes behind the bus. I had done these calculations in my head while running to the car, trying to determine how fast we'd have to go to catch up.

A few minutes into the drive Kelly looked over at me. "What's going on?" I explained to her the deal with the mistaken times (again :P). You're a baseball cap?

We arrived at the drop in point in record time (our plan was to cry if we got pulled over). Collecting our various clothing in armfuls from the car, we rushed out, ran a few yards and then stopped short.

"Ooops! Hold on!" Dangling from my hand amid my jackets, wet suit, etc was my jiu jitsu belt. I rushed back, juggled my keys out and threw the belt back in the car.

"That's not going to help you on the river!" Kelly gasped through her laughter.

I Travel West

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:20:00 +0000

I've been sitting here, staring at this blank text box for a while now. My head is swimming from the events of this past weekend. I have so much to think about and so much to say that I could certainly write a whole book about the past three days. You, though, probably wont read a novel-length post (and I want this post up as soon as possible) so I'm going to have to try my best to condense while still doing justice to all that I experienced and learned and without bloviating too much. ;)

My "business trip" started out as an extremely high-maintenance one. I had to bring three bags: one for work clothes, one for casual clothes and jiu jitsu clothes, and my frame backpack for camping clothes. I also had to bring my scale (since I'm cutting weight), my laptop and peripheral equipment, and my study materials. Finally (since I'm cutting weight), I decided to buy all of my food from Whole Foods, earning me some strange looks from the hotel staff as I struggled through the door with all my produce. I'm sure I also gained some curious investigation from the cleaning staff since I had to rig up my own refrigeration system with bags of ice, grocery sacks, my gi, and some towels.

I trained at Evolve Academy again, this time attending the women's class! I even got to roll with Amy Moses (Mike Moses's wife). She is super. Once again, the folks at Evolve were exceedingly welcoming and kind. Training on Wednesday and Thursday plus bicycle and running sprints made me one very tired Elyse.

With two bags (work and training) out of the way, and a "quarantine" bag filled with nasty sweaty gross clothes sealed in plastic and deposited in my trunk, I departed the hotel in Maryland for the home of Dan Wallen in Virginia. For those who are following my saga, Dan interviewed me with Caleb on thefightworkspodcast.com episode #133. When I first met Dan several weeks ago, I had mentioned my plan to have fun adventures every weekend. He responded in royal fashion by inviting me on a white water rafting trip. Camping in the mountains... white water... good people... really, how could I say no?!

I hung out with Dan all day on Friday, intermittently working on my homework while he did his work, playing with his new puppy, and watching videos of the Class 5 rapids we would be playing with the next day. I got a lesson in White Water 101, some relationship advice, and a few jiu jitsu tips (of course!) as well as tons of other great conversation while we waited for Kelly, my driving buddy, to get out of work. One of my favorite past times, next to jiu jitsu, hanging out with other jiu jitsu fighters (especially those more experienced and learned than I). This may sound really... Japanese... traditional... of me, but I strongly believe that a large part of developing as a jiu jitsu fighter and indeed as a person, is to spend time with your instructors and training partners just talking. Next time your at jitsu, don't just leave after you're done and changed. Hang out! Ask questions! Listen to the totally awesome stories I'm sure you'll hear!

(I've taken a pause in my writing to go to work and recover slightly from this cold I seem to have caught. I've just taken some Nyquil so we'll see if my story telling stays relatively normal or goes a little crazy...)

At around 4:45 PM, Dan headed out to West Virginia to get the camp site set up, and I hung around with Jen and Athena, finishing my homework and cleaning up my car. Kelly got there around 5:00 and after a few fumbles with a mailbox, incorrect bread types, and horrid yet predictable D.C. area traffic, we were finally out on the road. I have to admit I was a little worried, at first, about spending five+ hours in the car with a stranger. Almost immediately, however, I found a great friend in Kelly! We had tons to talk about since she is about the same age, studying international affairs, in love with jiu jitsu, well traveled... good choice, Dan!

Cop-ridden Virginia gave way to 75-mph-cruise controlled West Virginia as clouds cleared and the waxing moon lit up a rich navy sky. We stopped in a Walmart to pick up marshmallows, chocolate, and gram crackers. With an hour and a half left to go, we killed the music and opened the windows wide to catch all that glorious mountain air. Something in the humidity levels at that altitude and the sweet decay of a forest floor reminds me that I belong in the mountains. The feeling was rejuvenating as if I were returning to a true home-land. I always get that feeling when I go skiing.

I knew we were reaching the home stretch when we descended deep into the gully at a 7% down grade for several miles, ears popping the whole time, and then just when I could sense that the air had reached a normal thickness, though richer and darker, we began the prompt ascent, as steep and as long. My car refused to go into cruise control and also refused to chose a gear, popping back and forth, revving the whole way. I worried the jolts would wake Kelly up. When we made it to the top again I said, "phew, that was rough." Kelly rolled over and responded with something about baseball caps.

Three more land marks to go: 1. The town of Beckley, 2. the bridgiest of all bridges, and 3. home free at the Wild Water camp site. The bridgiest of all bridges is the second longest, single highest, single arch bridge in the US (in the word?). I must say it was slightly underwhelming on the way there, party because I wanted to get to wild water so bad, and partly because it was pitch black. The trip home at sunrise provided a completely different experience which I'll describe later.

Route 19 in West Virginia is a strange place. It's a four-lane high way (two each direction) with capacity for high speeds, but interrupted by small and unassuming cross roads, as well as the occasional traffic light. So, when Kelly spotted the Wild Water billboard off in the distance (I had waken her up to be underwhelmed by the bridgiest of bridges), I panicked. I didn't want to stop dead in the middle of such a massive highway; that would get you shot in Boston. We didn't know whether to turn left or right. What to do! I sped towards the sign at 40 mph, the slowest I was willing to go on rt. 19, and at the last possible second Kelly made the executive decision: turn RIGHT! The billboard was on the left, but I went right anyway since there was less highway to cross.

My wish for an end to the highway was immediately answered. Just as soon as I slowed to 10 mph and turned, we were on a rural, winding, private drive. Some tiny road with no where to go except right onto the property of whoever lived there. "Um..." I started in a small voice, "I think it was left. I'm going to turn around."

"Don't turn around!" Kelly was nervous. Tired. "I mean, turn around, but do it fast."

"What? Why?"

"They'll shoot us."

"With a shot gun?"

"Yes, West Virginia, remember? Don't stop here..."

"Seriously?! Oh no!" I was trying to joke about it, but she was dead serious. Kelly's nervousness got the better of my exhaustion until I became convinced that we would, indeed, be shot if we were caught turning around in someone's driveway.

Later, Kelly said that that was the fastest k-turn she's ever experienced.

A few moments later we were back across rt. 19 and enjoying some beers with Dan and his older brother Chris at our camp site. So much for getting to bed early. With alarms set for our big day tomorrow, we conked out at around 1:00 AM.

( part deux coming laterz )

It's coming, I promise

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:55:00 +0000

I'm preparing this totally epic post about this past weekend, and it's taking a while.
I promise it will be great, but bare with me as I write and edit and re-edit.

In the mean time, I leave you with this preview:

So, if you never guessed or suspected, I'm not religious. My friends call me "Jew-ish" implying my blood inheritance but complete lack of synagog affiliation or regular ritual. I'm open minded, love exploring new cultures, and while I don't really fit in anywhere, I can tend to be comfortable in almost any situation. My chamillion self never felt more yankee, however, than while enjoying this refrain from a blue grass band up at the Wild Water facilities in West Virginia:

Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes,
Long as I have my plastic Jesus,
Riding on the dashboard of my car,
Through all trials and tribulations,
We will travel every nation,
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far.

Well sung, blue grass friend, well sung.
Click here for a link to the full lyrics.

Top 3 Things You Didn't Know You Could Use Your Gi For

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:56:00 +0000

In the past few days I have, yes indeed, experienced all three.
Maybe you have too!

Check it out:

3. Pillow - Ok, so this one isn't entirely original, but here's a tip: fold your gi inside out for a softer surface!! It's nice and firm too.

2. Fall blazer - You can be oh-so-stylin' in your sweet gi fall jacket! Who says that you need a pea coat when you're shippin' up to Boston? No way dude. Strut your stuff in a jiu jitsu gi.

and the greatest,

#1. Hummus refrigeration system! - Fill a plastic bag with ice, place at the bottom of one of those reusable grocery sacs, place the hummus on top of it (in its container of course) and then wrap your gi around the whole thing. Hummus stays chilled for 2+ days!

Got any other sweet uses for your jiu jitsu gi besides being the best sports uniform in the world? Email them to me, or post as a comment!

Internet Radio, The Quest, Why?, and Dave Ginsberg

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:37:00 +0000

Welcome!

... to all the new readers who heard about gringabjj.com most recently!

Last week I made a list of topics for this post, #3: why I'm keeping this blog. Yeah, yeah, I'm going out of order. So shoot me. The other day I was musing over my Google Analytics and wondered, "Why did I start this thing anyway? And why does anyone care what I say?" Truth is, when my readership reached ten hits a day, I was a little upset because I thought, "Shoot, now I have to write well." So, here we go, back in time to February 2008, here is an edited version of my reasons from post #1, "Default blogger title":

Don't be offended by my blatant use of the default blogger settings.

~~I'll be using this blog to take notes on my BJJ lessons in some sort of legible way.~~ . I've used notebooks in the past, but when I go back to read them I feel like the moves I've learned are more akin to a modern jazz ballet performed by disabled chickens.

I can't read anything I've written.

(edit: I found that it's sooooo terribly boring to read *put your right hand here, your opposite foot there blah blah* unless you have photos or video to go along with it. So I'll spare you! Be grateful. I still take notes on my classes and type them up since they still look like chicken scratch, but I don't publish those posts except on occasion)

I'll also post various musings on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (a subject I'm ~~currently~~ studying for many more hours than my actual college course work (edit: I graduated and have a job! w00t!)) and in particular, the life of a female in BJJ. I will try to ~~keep the lesson notes to a minimum and~~ mix in some things more interesting.

There are ~~a few~~ (edit: there are tons!) other great blogs on this topic, as I've listed on the right, but I'm no longer satisfied with merely commenting on others blogs. I want my own.

A note on the title of this blog:

Gringa is the feminine version of "gringo," generally felt as an insulting derogatory term used for caucasian Americans. As I found out in Switzerland, Brazilians don't use this term to insult, but rather to describe or even to compliment. "Aw, the silly white girl is trying to do jiu jitsu!" "AHH! I'm getting submitted by the crazy white girl!" "Geez, that nerdy white girl can hold her own! Give her a cookie!"

That final quotation was imagined -- the Swiss do not know about chocolate chip cookies. And you have to purchase baking soda in the pharmacy. wtf?

My First "Radio" Interview:

THANK YOU! to Caleb and Dan for interviewing me on thefightworkspodcast.com. You can listen to that show tomorrow, Sunday, Sept. 7th! I hope I sound alright and not too obnoxious. I have this perpetual fear that things I think I say actually sound completely different and completely awful. My high school news paper's editors some how always managed to make their interviewees come off as jerks or idiots. It didn't matter whether we were discussing debate team, the new hall-pass policy, or the school musical, they managed to take everything out of context, twist it around, and have you sound like a fool. They prepared their students excellently for careers in the real media ;). Then again it's highly likely that we were fools, idiots, and jerks. Ah, youth.

Back on topic -- This Sunday's show is about what it's like to have trained at many different schools. I've trained at nine jiu jitsu schools for two months to three years each, and many others for short visits. I've also trained under 15 black belts at those nine schools. In the interview, Caleb, Dan, and I dicuss many topics including the cultural differences among schools schools, how outsiders may be treated, rivalries, and of course (because I female), the jiu jitsu dating scene.

The Quest

Last Wednesday I registered for the Pan American Championships, which are being held in New York City! On top of the normal extra-intense training to prepare for a competition, this time I've begun the quest to make it down to the pena or feather weight division.

On Monday I went to my grandparent's house for a Labor Day BBQ. The menu: extra fatty country ribs, coleslaw, pasta salad, chocolate chip cookies, potato puffs, nachos, pigs-in-blankets, and BBQ chicken. Coleslaw is not a vegetable. I survived by thinking about the bright purple belt photo I have on my computer desktop at work, sneaking carrots out of the fridge, picking skin off of a few chicken pieces, and chugging water. When I got home that night I had an entire post written about how trying to cut weight is stupid and pointless and no one should do it ever. EVER.

After I got a few egg whites in my belly I decided not to post it.

One of my coaches and friends, Sharon Bonewicz, is guiding and supporting me on this quest to stick to protein and veggies. One week later, I'm much more comfortable with the foods I'm eating, though snacking on a bell pepper is not nearly as satisfying as a bit of parmigiano reggiano cheese. I love eggs and cauliflower, so that helps. With any luck, in four weeks time I'll be lean and mean and Pan Am champion. Totally cool.

P.s. I found out through a late-night text message that two of my good friends from Boston are also competing in my same division! That should be fun! Everyone wish the best of luck to all of us ladies :).

Finally, Presenting David Ginsberg --

My coach up in Boston, the man who promoted me to blue belt, is well on his way to opening a mixed martial arts and jiu jitsu academy in the Boston/Brookline area! David has taught thousands of practitioners for over ten years, and has been saught out by fighters from across the country and around the world, even training fighters for the UFC and Pride.

I would describe his training style as extremely thorough, focusing position before submission, and taking a holistic approach to calisthentic and conditioning training. This style has certainly paid off, as David has podiumed in every Pan Americacn Championship belt level , winning a silver medal as a black belt and even winning back-to-back Pan Am. gold medals in the purple and brown belt divisions. David judges MMA events on a regular basis, but his passion remains in teaching, even sacrificing his valuable Tuesday evenings to teach our MMA club at Boston University. (GO BUMMA!)

We've all been waiting a long time for Dave to open a school, and I think we're finally seeing all his hard work pay off.

If you have any questions for Dave, please email him at jiujitsudave@mac.com.

Ouch.

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:05:00 +0000

"Get in here! Close the door! Don't go back outside!!"

My mother hailed from the living room sofa as I entered from the garage.

"Nice to see you, too, mom." I reply, having returned from my weekend trip up to Boston.

As I came in, dropped by luggage, and started making some food, she explained, "We've been stuck inside, watching movies all day." Tragedy. "They are spraying for West Nile Virus."

WHA?! West Nile Virus in Pennsylvania? Is that like, and airborn vaccine? I learned later that week that you can't "spray for West Nile," but you can spray for mosquitoes; so, in the least, I might get less bites this year.

That estimate was completely wrong.

A bit ago, Caleb over at The Fightworks Podcast posted this article about rolling with sunburn. Now, I have had my fair share of sunburn, being the gringa that I am... I have two options, florescent white, and florescent magenta. Furthermore, I too have suffered through a premature return to jitsu following a skin-bake.

Today I'd like to add to the list of annoying and painful things that happen to us when we like the outdoors but also like jiu jitsu:

MOSQUITO BITES!

Apparently, as Joe my coworker informed me, the "spray for West Nile," that they do is actually just a cover, a farce! It is impossible to notify the entire population of the poisonous chemicals they are about to spew everywhere, so instead they just dilute the spray such that you wont die if you inhale it, and equally so, mosquitoes won't be likely to die unless they are directly in front of the sprayer. I have no scientific or journalistic evidence of this, but I believe it wholeheartedly because this weekend, at my grandparents Labor Day BBQ, I got approximately 20 mosquito bites ALL OVER! ALLL OVER! :( Normally they do not bother me too much, but with the brush of my gi on my legs, and the stickiness of a sweaty rash guard, sports bra, and stretchy shorts I couldn't get rid of the constant twang pang itch bitch.

Take that Dr. Seuss.

p.s. coming soon:

My interview on The Fightworks Podcast: Sept. 7th!

The "quest": woes and successes... what could it possibly be?

My "whys": a recap of what I'm trying to do with this silly thing called blog for newbie readers

David Ginsberg's new jiu jitsu school opening (!!)

Gone!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:07:00 +0000

I knew it!
I knew I should have posted excessive detail about my trip to The Fightworks at 2:00 AM immediately after getting back instead of going to sleep. It's been a few days (and a few sleepless nights) later and now I can only recall about 50% of the moves Dan showed me. From now on I will take notes immediately after class, no exceptions. That said, I did successfully execute some of those moves at Waikru yesterday! And that said, I got pwn'd anyway. Dave showed me a few tiny details that I hope will help out in the long-term. Unfortunately I didn't get the lesson in "staying tight" the sort of "lose strength" that I was hoping for. I'll have to ask Jared about some of those things when I get back.

Couple of lessons to draw from this weekend --

1. Moves that work really well for you at your home-school might get completely shut down by another school's style

2. Moves that you'd never expect to work at your home-school might perform exremely well at another school

3. Respect every style of jitsu and you can only gain from all of the above

4. I like food :)