Gringa BJJ

For Black Java

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:51:00 +0000

A few days ago, a fellow jiu jitsu player and blogster from Portugal, Bruno Tomaz, asked me to do an interview for his blog, The Black Java. His questions were short and provocative, so I was more than happy to oblige. I'm looking forward to meeting these guys at the Europeans next year!

Without further adieu:

Bruno - How did you feel when you tied the purple belt around your waist for the first time?

Elyse - I have to admit that after my instructor, Jared Weiner, tied that belt around my waist for the first time, I did not take it off for several hours. Eventually I had to change out of my dirty jiu jitsu kimono, but after my shower I wore the belt around my shoulders the rest of the day. The first time I tied the belt around my waist for jiu jitsu class the next morning, I felt giddy. I could not stop smiling for at least a week. I felt proud and confident that I could accomplish anything.

B - You have a great competitive record, but is there any defeat that really left a mark on you? and why?

E - For me, the most significant defeat was my one and only match in the 2007 IBJJF Mundials. That was my first time competing at the international level. The loss was difficult to stomach since I had spent so much mentally and financially to get there; however, the experience itself taught me many invaluable lessons on competing and jiu jitsu. After the Mundials, all other competitions seem like fun and games, and now three years later, I'm ready to try it again!

B - What advice would you give to a white belt?

E - In training - The best jiu jitsu has three elemental characteristics - creative, academic, and athletic. I try to make sure all share equal parts in training. Like an aspiring artist who is still learning how to draw, or an aspiring musician who is still learning how to play their instrument, as a white belt you may find that your practice is heavily weighted towards the academic (drilling moves) or the athletic ("muscling" moves). That is ok! But, keep all three in mind and do not get frustrated! In general, I found that jiu jitsu players become limited when they neglect one of the elements. For example, one player may be able to perfectly execute the techniques exactly as his instructor showed him, but when it comes to sparring, he can no longer perform because he does not yet know how to make the technique work for him, or because he has not opened his mind to effectively react to his opponents moves. Sparring demands this creativity.

In competing - Feel the fear... and do it anyway!

B - What advice would you give to a woman in her BJJ first class?

E - Relax and have fun - if you feel uncomfortable, speak up!

Thank yous

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:41:00 +0000

Every once in a while people go above and beyond anything expected and really make you feel good.
Thank you Lisa, Mel, Nak, and Rudy for helping me out these last few days!!!

Updates, goals, and pictures coming soon!!

It is time....

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Gis.GringaBJJ.com
^_^ ^_^
Do it, do it, do it now!

New Website! Gis Gis Gis!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:13:00 +0000

Ok, so, after recovering (partially) from my GMAT exams this morning, I sat down and created a new website for all of the jiu jitsu gi advice. It's still a work in progress (i.e. alot of the links broke when I moved the information over), but I'm 90 times closer to getting it up and running!

This new site has two major improvements over the original blog post:

Sections by body type - I took the liberty of organizing all the comments from gringabjj.com onto separate pages by body type - very helpful!
Open contribution - You all, you ladies I love so much, you can now become a contributor and post your own full reviews!! If you want to become a contributor, leave a comment ASAP.

Jiu Jitsu Gi (kimono) buying for WOMEN - UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:29:00 +0000

Due to the massive increase in traffic to my page on women's jiu jitsu gis, that page will be moving to a new location on it's own independent site. If you have an Open ID account (i.e. Google, Blogger, Wordpress etc.) you will be able to post your own reviews.

Word of warning - I will be reviewing for grammar, spelling (although I can hardly be considered a good speller), and over-all quality. I will NOT be filtering out specific brands, so have no fear on that front.

Look for this new site in about a week.

Update Oct. 25 - AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! I have GMATs tomorrow.... small delay...

Read this

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:03:00 +0000

Read this:
http://www.smallaxebjj.com/2009/04/04/mental-revelations-of-the-progressing-grappler/
Thanks to Georgette for the referal. Thanks to Tim Sledd for being an awesome writer.

Thanksgivings

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:44:00 +0000

A casa de Lisa e Elyse is now a considerably warmer and happier place. The walls are still radiating energy and love from this weekend. Lisa's capoeira school, Studio Ondas, hosted a Batizado this weekend, bringing in a whole gaggle (?) of capoeiristas from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and other places. We hosted four in our apartment, something I've been looking forward to since Lisa first moved in. I planned a massive brunch for Sunday morning for our four guests plus me, Lisa, and Kevin. The morning-of, I took that plan and doubled it when we decided to invite three more people... and then.... well, in the end we successfully fed fourteen people... and what a glorious Sunday it was!!

The menu:

Spiced pancakes with caramelized apple topping
Elyse's special scrambled eggs en masse with three choices of cheese and tomatoes
Yogurt parfait with strawberries, bananas, pecans and honey
Lisa's special emergency egg white french toast (for when we ran out of pancakes)
Bacon
Pecans
Strawberries
OJ and coffee

The whole event from batizado to party to brunch was a phenomenal success. From what I heard, Studio Ondas sure knows how to throw-down. Big huge awesome thanks to Lisa who jumped in to make extra batter, who helped me shuffle the various frying pans since we had all four burners going at once, and who kept the coffee coming all morning! Also, thanks to Kevin who beat those egg white to peaks, and Compasso who likes washing dishes (?!).

Pictures coming soon.

Special congratulations to my friends Danny and Rudy who competed in the NAGA D.C. tournament on Saturday!!! First, second, and third place for the win! I'd say they're both about to take their games to the next level, if you know what I mean ;). In the gi white belt division, Rudy finished three matches in under a minute each with arm bars (first one flying).

This coming weekend, I'll be competing in a judo tournament, so I'm extremely curious to see how that goes.

Finally, thank you to Anonymous #1 and Anonymous #2 for commenting on my last post. However, I think you may have misspoken.... Instead of "pretty," you probably meant to say, "nerdy."

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:14:00 +0000

The best fastest way to learn

I’m sitting on the floor of my room in the same spot where I decided, two weeks ago, that I couldn’t go to work because I could not move my head more than five degrees in any direction. My intentions of training hard at the Lloyd Irvin Mother ship were laughed off by my protesting muscles, bones, and nerves. My brain did not feel so much like laughing. Fortunately I had a small money reserve saved up for the No-Gi Mundials, which I’ll no longer be needing, so I casually and guilelessly put that towards massage rehabilitation.

One week of paralyzed boredom was shunted quickly aside for a week of relaxation and care-giving, two of my favorite things. Aside from a small incident involving my sister, my brother, and a day of hooky on South Street, and the occasional interlude of “OMFG why did I just check my work email?!”, the week afforded me a terrific opportunity to really focus on my family (man was I getting home-sick!) and collect myself before the Pan Ams.

Here is my division finals match against Rachel Casias (Team Lloyd Irvin, Tennessee). Watching it again, I feel it looks sloppy.... it's a gi-game translated for no-gi, and you can tell:

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUrZjTW-U_Q

Competition is the ~~best~~ fastest way to learn from your mistakes. I always feel like I learn more in the seven short minutes of a purple belt match than I do in seven hours, or even seven weeks of regular class. Every mistake will be capitalized on, forcing all of your short comings into sharp focus.

At the Pan Ams, I learned a couple of extremely valuable lessons. When I reflect on them, they are less the "AH HA!" moments that I was so fond of in my more self-righteous teenage years; instead, they are very clearly "NO DUH!" moments (but no less important).

Duh # 1 - Jiu jitsu is over 90% mental. - For my weight class, my attention was sharply focused. I was acutely aware of my opponents (defending attacks) and myself (executing my game plan without deviation). After winning the weight class, I became overly relaxed, indifferent, and more excited about the PB&J sandwich waiting my bag than any further competition. I was not tired or even mentally fatigued, but I became distracted. Complacent, I refused to adapt to what would surely be a new and different game in the absolute division. My first opponent, on the other hand, had learned from our match, set up a new game plan to defeat mine, and focused for the subsequent four hours on doing just that. During the match, I was talking to the ref, picking stuff off the mat, and making stupid mistakes. I allowed her to pull guard, and I was guillotined.

Duh #2 - No-gi is dangerous. Learn from your own mistakes. Don't make excuses. - Going back through some of my earliest blog posts, I found this one, posted two days before my birthday in 2008. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HERE'S A BACK INJURY! No-gi grappling, in many ways, is much more dangerous than gi jiu jitsu. Your opponents are grabbing you directly instead of controlling with a sleeve or collar, so you end up more bruised. In addition, besides the stray elbows etc. that seem to occur more frequently in no-gi, and perhaps because of the freedom and looseness, people tend to hold their guards much tighter (as was the case in May of 2008 and in my final match at Pan Ams). I could mope about how unclassy this individual was, or I could recognize that my complacency and lack of focus lead to not following my own advice - I let the closed guard happen.

Duh # 3 - Never leave it up to the referee. - You never know when you'll be bracketed against someone from the same team as your ref, so you have to make sure you have your points before you move on. Know the rules and take calculated risks so that you can push the envelope without being disqualified. Don't be afraid of the scramble. All of that is always easier said than done, and sometimes no matter how clearly you've won, if it's not a submission you might still lose. Check out part two of this match in which Jaracre has his arm broken in a submission attempt, yet proceeds with confidence and wins the match. I would consider that a successful submission by Roger Gracie, but Roger didn't win.

124!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:28:00 +0000

This morning I weighed in at 124 lbs.
Now, granted, my scale only weighs on the half-lb, and I don't know whether it rounds up or down (or is smart enough to do both). And granted, also, that I was unfed and under-hydrated....

Still, I have reached the safe zone at last! What a relief!!

Egg Whites and Asparagus

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:39:00 +0000

This past week has been ... well ...

I'm on the DL for the last few days before competition. ...

Not because I'm trying to keep any secrets from anyone. ...

But because I haven't had the time or energy to write anything. ...

Today after my grappling class at Studio Ondas, one of the students remarked, "That class was really fun!"

YES! Yes. That is what I live for!

Rag Doll

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Last night I bit the bullet and braved the D.C. rush-hour to get to Camp Springs. Yes, last night I trained at the Team Lloyd Irvin mothership school. In the two-hour sparring class, I only trained with four different people, but they were all women, and they were all incredible. I was tossed around like a rag doll and made to feel silly in my regulation-purple rash guard. I haven't been kimura'd, triangled, and ankle locked so many times since... well, it's been a while.

Surprisingly, I don't feel that awful today! All my joints seem to be in working order, and even my wrist is holding up well. I'm going back every day this week except Wednesday and Saturday. Those are the days that I teach, and it would be good to be semi-conscious for my classes!

With out a doubt, the lovely ladies of Team Lloyd Irvin are the toughest bunch around. It's an honor to be welcomed among them!!

In other welcoming news, Studio Ondas is promoting a free No-Gi Jiu Jitsu Seminar on Saturday, with yours truely as the instructor! Check out their beautiful website here, and the event page here. This seminar is open to everyone.

Coffee Rings on my Desk

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:35:00 +0000

June 31st, a few weeks following the 2009 Mundials - everyone is still pumped (or peeved) from the results, vowing to continue the streak (or achieve redemption) at the next major competition.

"You going to No-gi Pan Ams?"
"YOU BET!"
"You going to No-gi Mundials?"
"HELLS YES!"
"You going to Abu Dhabi Trials? What about the European Championships?"
"WOULDN'T MISS IT!!!"

Two months later the reality of budget crisis sinks in, people are wavering, hesitating to buy that plane ticket. Mundials? "In THIS economy?!?! You crazy?"

I still have No-gi Mundials in my plans for this year, and if anyone else out there in the team ether is still going, please let me know ASAP!

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

Weight cutting is still chugging along, though at a considerably slower pace now that most of the water weight is gone. My previous pledge to give up caffeine for the duration of my cut proved to be silly. I like coffee and I like tea. So there. Last night I was able to borrow a kettle bell to do a set of 200 two-handed swings, post jiu jitsu class.

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

Edit @ 10:45 AM - Oh yes, I forgot to mention that starting on Saturday, Sept. 19th, I will be teaching another jiu jitsu class! This one will be at Studio Ondas, a capoeira and boxing school in Alexandria, VA. Since my roommate/best friend, Lisa, now trains at Studio Ondas, I am fast becoming great friends with many of the people there. The class will be at 1:00 PM, and I highly encourage anyone in the Alexandria area (men and women) to come and check it out!!!!

131.5

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

I'm at 131.5 (from around 136) after just four days. That means I'm still loosing water weight, despite chugging water all day. The human body is absolutely incredible, and if I had half a mind to spend 10 more years in school I might go back and become a doctor. For now, I'll enjoy just being confused, and amazed into silence.

My first class last night was a brilliant success! I had seven women including one blue belt and three fairly experienced white belts. Of the other three, one was injured but there to learn and support the group (love you Mel!!) and the last two had trained several years ago for a brief amount of time each.

BETA is getting set up to be a venerable mecca for women in martial arts (damnit spell check fails me again). Watch out, World!

Corporate Arnold Palmer

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:10:00 +0000

An Arnold Palmer consists of 1/2 class lemonade and 1/2 glass sweet tea, over ice.

I caught myself making a Corporate Arnold Palmer this morning:
1/2 paper cup of immitation hot chocolate and 1/2 paper cup of immitation coffee;
Drank a few sips before I realized what I was doing...
Straight to the trash.

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

Tonight's the big night! I'm extremely excited, and hopefully well-prepared. The past couple of days, I've been going over my pitch. Perhaps out of doubt or realism, a negative side of me feels the need to expressly convince students that they should come to the women's class at all. It's not a lack of selfconfidence - I know that I can run a great class that will offer many unique opportunities for insight, attention, fun, and comraderie that the normal mixed classes do not provide for us chicks. I also know that different women train jiu jitsu for many different reasons, so there should be no disappointment in the event that someone choses to take a mixed class instead of the women's class (though I'd prefer it to be in addition to).

Yesterday, I claimed that I don't usually gripe. Today, I claim that I don't usually plagerize. Well - I'm not profiting off of this except to expose you to an inspiring article from ESPN Magazine: "The Everton Way". It's almost straight out of a Disney movie, the way Coach Tony Farrell takes a bunch of doubtful teens and turns them into kool aid enthusiastic future-stars. I want to be like that.

Black coffee or a heafty yerba mate might be required this evening.
Less calories than a Corporate Arnold Palmer, and no sugar.

Mostly Don'ts

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:53:00 +0000

A friend of mine down in Austin, Georgette Oden, recently posted her top "don'ts" for whitebelts. Many of her points ring true for me, and often times I feel like a broken record repeating them over and over.

Especially recently I have had some particularly bad experiences with lower belts assuring me that they would "go easy" and then proceeding to throw me across the room. Not cool.

I try my best to keep griping out of this blog, so I'll let Georgette do the talking:

White Belt Don'ts

Any Belt Don'ts

The Worst Kind of Work

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:20:00 +0000

The best kind of work is exciting work that is low-stress.
The worst kind of work is boring work that is high-stress.

My day-job right now is turning into the worst kind of work.
Fortunately my night job is about to turn into the best kind of work.

Two days until women's BJJ at BETA Academy begins!

Of Tiredness and Poor Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:28:00 +0000

What happens when you slap down a blog post after a full day of work, two bike rides, and two hours of training?

Three out of five paragraphs begin with clauses repetitively dictating that these events happened today.

If I had to name one stylistic choice that I favor most in writing, it's variety of structure, vocabulary, and thought. Redundancy is useless.

Put another way, I have the most fun grappling when the roll flows and blooms with creativity - the kind of roll where both people end up sufficiently confused and excited at the same time. But, when it comes to competition season, it's time to go back to the tride-and-true techniques, the game plan, the form contract of the grappling world.

Mine's filed away in a drawer somewhere.

The other day at work, I was looking for a filed document and I accidentally opened the bottom drawer of the file cabinent. It was overflowing with disorganized stacks of paper. As one of my managers walked by, he said in a most cheerful caffein-intoxicated voice, "Well, THAT looks like an opportunity!!"

Lemon Yogurt

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:00:00 +0000

I made my own lemon-flavored yogurt today -
I sliced a lemon really thin and put it in yogurt, with wild flower honey on top. Brilliant!

I trained at BETA Academy today, and suffice it to say, Nak's advertising strategy has been an extreme success. There were 30 people in his jiu jitsu class today, and probably about 40 in the muay thai class. It's a good thing his new school will have several classes every day and about four times as much space as the current school!

Today I start the one-week count down to my first class (Sept. 2nd @ 6:30 PM). Next Thursday marks the one-month count down until the No-Gi Pan Ams. I've been focusing a little on my diet, but not stressing out about it. On Monday I will start the really strict competition training meal plan that I had used back before the No-Gi Pan Ams last year. I'm not really looking forward to that part of the journey, but the discipline always feels great in the end and helps to keep you motivated along the way.

The lesson plans are coming along slower than I expected them to, probably because I'm over thinking them. I have three solid ones in place, and I'm sure the rest will flow freely once I see who actually shows up for my class.

I've been so abruptly clumsy with endings lately...
So until next time...
When life gives you lemons, make lemon flavored yogurt.

Theory Theory on the Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:19:00 +0000

Here are three methodologies for teaching jiu jitsu and the theories behind them. You will notice that two of the methodologies involve invoking physical exhaustion in order to provoke mental and technical stimulation. The first methodology is probably the most frequently used.

Tire out students with hard-core warm ups and conditioning, then follow with technique, and lastly sparring.
- If all the students are sufficiently exhausted after the conditioning and technique portions of the class, then they will be forced to use "good technique" during the sparring sessions since they wont have any strength left to use power instead.

Use light warm ups and lengthy technique sections with sparring last.

If the students are "fresh" for the sparring section, they will be less likely to get hurt and can focus on good technique or executing their entire game plan.

This might be better for pre-competition practices since a competitor would not want to learn new techniques at the last second and would probably be served bested by drilling what they already know and then practicing their game plan during sparring sessions.

Have students warm up on their own and then spar first to exhaust students, then teach a technique

Some instructors believe that this forces students to develop their mental focus even when tired. Brain power is key in jiu jitsu and this could mean the difference between a win and a loss in competition

This is probably not the best method of training for beginners.

Two other types of classes I've experienced are the "open mat" class where everyone trains or drills on their own, and the "games" class where we play various jiu jitsu games (will post on these later). I wonder what other methodologies people use (*poking John Will who I'm sure will have something to say on the matter*).

Class UPDATE! WOBJJ 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:22:00 +0000

The All-Women BJJ class at BETA Academy is now scheduled for a new time:

Starting Sept. 2nd
Wednesdays
6:30 - 8:00 PM

Even better than before!

Crazy Connie and the Mid-August Blues

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:07:00 +0000

Misnomer, I don't have the Mid-August Blues. I'm surprising stable and excited right now despite all of the crazy events that have crashed on my world without any regard for plan, calendar, or clock. I'm trying to savor the ad hoc nature of the goings-on here without getting overwhelmed. When it rains in VA, it tends to pour, and then up just as humid as when it started.

My main objectives this week are to take as much work as I can off of my manager, to complete my lesson plans for the first eight weeks of the women's BJJ class, complete a full week of P90X without any complaints from my downstairs neighbor or my landlord (timing is key), and to get my apartment in some sort of habitable and respectable state for the arrival of my roommate and best friend, Lisa. (Look out, D.C.!)

Fortunately many of my posts over the last year and a half (?!) contain some quasi lesson plans that I can use. Drawing on my notes from Boston, in the first few classes I'm going to place a strong emphasis on the escolinha drills. Since my class is 1.5 hrs long, I'll have plenty of time to teach a hefty dose of escolinha drills as well as technique and positional sparring each Wednesday.

I feel like this post ended abruptly...
Alas, laundry beckons!

Planning my classes

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:39:00 +0000

This says it all:

Coming Soon to Washington D.C. - Women's Jiu Jitsu Classes and Team!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Clicking
Reload
Nothing... Silence.

Is a blank page coupled with silence more quiet than silence itself?

Then, cacophony!! Here is the ultimate silence-shattering post --

(edit: as many have noticed, I don't tend to spell-check my posts...)

Starting on September 2nd, I will be teaching a WOMEN-ONLY BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU CLASS!

Classes will be held Wednesday nights, from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM at BETA.

The new school is just a couple blocks from the Columbia Heights metro station (green line), and will be opening on August 31st.

Having the opportunity to teach BJJ has been, what feels like, a life-long dream of mine. I've come close on several occasions (mostly at BU), filling in for Dave or Andrew. This will by my chance to truly take ownership of a curriculum, a style, the progress of my students, and the success of the group as a whole.

Now the challenge will be balancing my increasing commitment to my jiu jitsu life, and the increasing demands of my day job. The day job plays this obnoxious game of providing the hardest-working, most-successful individuals with more and more work.

... Work hard, and pay the price now and reap the reward while I'm still young enough to do so? ...

Confession: I don't really want to go back to school for an MBA.

UMAS GRINGAS!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Hillary Williams is one serious bad-ass. She makes me look like a pansy.

Check out her short article on training in Brazil --

http://mtxmma.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-gringa-from-copacabana

HEY JEALOUSY!!!

Also, one word of warning to Los Angeles: You're getting a new gringa. Her name is Shoshanah and she just won a bunch of gold medals at the Copa Nova tournament in Virginia.

Win!

noreply@blogger.com (Elyse) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:05:00 +0000

I'm writing to you, this evening, from a hotel room in Bethesda, MD. I'm here for a three-day finance leadership conference, which is basically three solid days of eating and networking. We have another one of these on Thursday this week, and yet another next Tuesday. These work events are seriously cutting in to my training time, which is an unfortunate consequence of having such a demanding sponsor.

Few points worth mentioning from last week -

First off, I received an awesome compliment from one of my new favorite training buddies, Scott, a Leo Dalla purple belt. While we were sparring, I stood up to do my standing passes, and he remarked, "Woah, you roll just like Jared!" That, in its self, was an exciting and encouraging thing to hear, but it got even better when he later described my style as spunky and fun. [Insert parable here about how jiu jitsu has "phases" parallel to a person's life, including the awkward teenage phase where you stumble around clumsily experimenting with different cliques of techniques, trying to "be yourself" and not really knowing what that actually means.]

Second, I skipped out on Addie's birthday party last week (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) and instead went to watch UFC 100 at Dalla's house. I strategically chose certain yummy snacks from Trader Joe's that won me some new friends pretty quickly. Hint if you ever find yourself short of friends, try TJ's chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzel bites. I had a blast, this is certainly a top-rate BJJ family I've joined.