Red is still my favorite color..

Monday night Fabio gave me my purple belt.

I feel very undeserving and nervous about it, but I've come to realize how I feel about the color of my belt matters zero.  All I need to do is grapple like I think I deserve it.  I think it was

Royce Gracie who said, 'The belt only covers two inches of your ass, and the rest is up to you.'  (Or something like that.)  Turns out that's highly accurate.

When I started BJJ I was an out of shape, awkward, bookworm with absolutely no aptitude for BJJ.  I am still an awkward bookworm but thanks for Fabio and the rest of my team the other two things no longer apply.

Obviously Fabio has played a major role in my getting to this point.  His instruction and encouragement have been invaluable, but my teammates have been just as important.  They are the ones who sacrifice their time, emotion, energy and their bodies for me to practice the sport I love.  Without them, I couldn't train at all.  Outside of all the wonderful things BJJ brings into my life, it can be mindbogglingly frustrating and physically painful.  Sometimes, I think we forget that the rest of our teammates have similar struggles, but still train, help and encourage others. ... and they count just as much as Fabio.

While every person, and every grapple has helped me get to where I am, a few people have helped more than others, and some of them for nothing in return.

Erica is literally my perfect training partner.  She is my weight, my height and my same skill level... And motivated like no other.  She pushes herself always and in turn pushes me.  She is humble, and always has words of encouragement.  Every grapple with her is challenging yet still fun, and being that we are the same size, she is my ideal partner for getting ready to compete.  I love her on and off the mat, she is a good friend and great training partner.  I am so thankful for her!

Jimmy has probably endured more questions from me than anyone else.  If I get stuck on anything, which is often, he is the person I ask.  I am fairly retarded, so sometimes it's not so easy to help me over my hurdles, but he always find a way to make me understand.  And he is really good at helping me translate things to my own body type.  Obviously my gangly girl body is going to go about things slightly differently than the way he would go about doing them, and he helps me to see what will work for me...something I still struggle with.  We have all body types in our women's class and I wish I could as easily tweak techniques to make them more applicable to the individual girls doing them.  His brain understands BJJ about 90 billion times better than mine does.

 And these guys, are always willing to help me out in whatever way I've asked.  Whether I needed a special guest in my class, or I needed to pepper them with questions, after class... or sometimes during or before class, they have always done so happily.  

Anthony! Congratulations on your brown belt!  It looks so nice with your brown face!  ha! 

Brian, and his annoying armbars makes me strive to suck less at escapes.

And Doug I consider to be man version of me.  We have kinda similar body types, so I like watching him grapple.  A lot of what he does will work for me as well.. You know, if I could stop sucking at turtle guard.  Plus, he is my fellow BJJ Jew... and lets face it.  That matters.  lol  

And of course, all of the women's team.  Teaching BJJ has probably helped me just as much as it helps the girls I teach... if not more.  Having to think over every last detail, and walk them through every step helps to burn them into my own memory.  And their new honeymoon type love for BJJ gives me so much joy.  Some of them have already hit that inevitable wall, but endured the frustration and tears, and broke through the other side.  It inspires me, and makes me want to be better for them.  I want to be the best teacher I can be.  They deserve a teacher as dedicated and committed as they are, and I hope I can be that for them.

I love my team!


And here are a bunch of pictures of my post new belt bullying.

The pros and cons of training in the heat.

I live in Florida.  

My gym is not fancy.  Not even a little.

It is basically an office, a singular bathroom, and mats.

Inside a warehouse, in an industrial park.

A far cry from the well know, absolutely gorgeous, state of the art, all white, glass front gym of the Art of Jiu-Jitsu Academy of the Mendes Brothers. ... that I am sure is kept about 15 degrees cooler than the gym I (very happily) call home.

As you can imagine, in Florida in the summer at midday, it can get a little warm.  And by a little warm, I mean 91 degrees.  It is air conditioned, but again... warehouse, midday, Florida... sweating bodies.  It stays about 90 degrees.

In the summer time I am dripping sweat by the end of warm ups.  You could literately just sit in the gym and warm up.

By the end of the second grapple my fingers are pruney, and they stay that way all class.  This really isn't a problem except for the fact that when my skin is all soggy, it is much more easily ripped or rubbed off.  And of course, gripping and pulling on lapels and sleeves for an hour does exactly that.  For about a month now my finger tips have been raw... and the horrifying calluses I have developed on all my knuckles over the past three years have been slowly rubbed off from grappling in a constant state of wet handedness.

My elbows and knees are also getting rubbed raw from the same thing... damp skin, wet rough gi = rubbed off skin.  And of course, its sweat, not just water so it stings.

Insert more bitching and complaining about grappling soggy here.

The mats are also constantly wet and slippery.  It can quite literally be like grappling on a slip and slide sometimes.

And all of that on top of, grappling in heat makes it hard to breathe, its hard to catch your breath, and staying hydrated while not drinking too much water is a fine line to walk.

It sucks.... but I love it.  It is weirdly satisfying.
(I also love BJJ, my team, and my instructor, so that makes all the suffering much more bearable.)
The singular pro is that I will train like this all summer, and when it comes time to compete in the lovely air conditioned gyms it will a cake walk.

Well, I guess, a second pro could be that the excessive exfoliation is making me softer than I've ever been in my life.  That counts for something I am sure.

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.

Mission Accomplished!

This weekend Fabio Novaes BJJ took the NAGA Pan Ams by storm.

No seriously.  By storm.

This was far and away the biggest turn out we have had for a competition.

(We are missing four girls in this picture.)

We had more female competitors at this tournament then we had total for the Miami Open, most of them were competing for their first time, and every single one of our girls placed!  I am beyond proud of them, and not just because they all did well, but because they had the courage to get out there and do it.

This tournament was awesome.  Everyone who competed has been busting their asses for the past couple of months getting ready for it, and everyone had their hard work rewarded on the mat, not to mention the fact that because everyone pushed themselves so hard in their training, it benefited the team as a whole.  We are all better grapplers now then we would be if we didn't have this tournament to drive everyone forward.

Nicely done, Team Fabio Novaes!

   

And not to neglect the ever so slightly less pretty side of the team:

Thank you for all that you do Fabio and Roberta!!