Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Pan Ams 2013 and Tattoos


Fabio competed again this year and brought home another medal!  Congrats Fabio!  Always proud to be one of his students.



I watched online, and serious props to Budo Videos.  Their multimat technology kicked ass.  I saw every single matched I wanted to see.  Absolutely worth it this year... my only request would be they have the scores on the screen for all the matches, not just the adult male finals... which by the way, were amazing.  Caio Terra is probably my favorite grappler, so I always enjoy watching him grapple... Third gold at the Pans in a row! Woohoo!


I would watch the Pan Ams online next year, but I'm going instead. Woohoo! I've wanted to go the past two years, but I am tried of just wanting to go.  I'm going.  I've already got it worked out.  So, 2014 Pan Ams.. I will see you there! =D

I am also doing the Miami Open in six months.  So, it works it self out perfectly.  Miami is in 6 months, and the Pan Ams are six months after that.  I'll have plenty of time before each to give my body rest, then kick my own ass training.

And speaking of rest.. .that is what I am doing now.  I am in the middle of a one month break.  My knee is being lame and I would like it to fully recover before I start competition training.  The break perfectly coincided with tattoo time as well.  So my arm and knee can heal at the same time.  Multi tasking for the win.




Sean Williams, my tattoo artist is all sorts of awesome as you can tell.
www.CollectiveTattoo.com

This tattoo is finished, but in all likelihood this will become a half sleeve.



Friday, March 1, 2013

Thank you for being trustworthy.

My team has an unusual number of women on it.  We have at least a dozen women who train regularly.

But that still leaves us out numbered over 20 to 1 when it comes to our male teammates.

Training BJJ was actually a little difficult for me in the beginning.  If I was not instantly obsessed, I don't think I would have kept training.  I have trust issues as well as personal space issues (Well, HAD personal space issues.  BJJ fixed that.) but to train BJJ I had to blindly trust that these essential strangers, who were climbing all over my body, were doing so with good intentions.



Three years in and they have all proven their intentions to be pure... at least in the way that they are only trying to do me bodily harm.  =)

Sadly, with the Lloyd Irving horror story unraveling, I realize more and and more that, that is not always the case. 

So, thank you Team Fabio Novaes for being decent, upstanding human beings.  Thank you for not letting my trust be misplaced.  I feel blessed to be part of this team and thankful to have my teammates, male and female in my life.

Trust is not something I give lightly, or easily so it means more than I can express that I have a place where I can let my guard down, and still feel safe.