INTERVIEW with Robert Drydale Jiu Jitsu Brown Belt: Kristian Woodmansee

Like small guy Jiu Jitsu? I sure do. One of my favourite guys to watch compete is Kristian Woodmansee.

I met and trained with Kristian in Miami a few years ago. Get to know him a little better in this interview he did for SHEBEASTBJJ:

Hi Kristian, introduce yourself; BJJ Rank and Team:

Kristian Woodmansee. Brown Belt from Team Zenith

How long have you been training Jiu Jitsu for?

I just hit my 6 year mark in march

What would you say is your biggest success to date?

Winning the World Championship last year. Working on a No Gi Grand Slam currently (Pan Am, World, European, Brazilian National no gi titles in 1 year)

I met you in Miami a few years back, when you were training under Mestre Roberto Cyborg Abreu. Now you train and teach at Robert Drysdale's Academy in Las Vegas. You've had the privilege of training under different world champions. Do academies share similarities in teaching practice, or do all schools do things differently?

Each academy has a different style to it, like a personality. Each instructor brings different characteristics to the mat and it's awesome to experience and a privilege to partake in that under so many great practitioners. Each school trains hard though, it’s a kill or be killed world on the mat when you are with a bunch of world-class guys.

Both Cyborg and Drysdale have produced world champions too. What influence does a coach have on helping a student become a world champion?

The impact a coach has on his students is extraordinary to me, that relationship that exists between student and teacher is very important when it comes to progression. In my opinion to be a great jiu jitsu practitioner one must be open minded, I must have the will to possibly fail over and over again to succeed, both Cyborg and Drysdale have taught me that.

I'm a massive fan of "little person Jiu Jitsu". As you compete at rooster weight, what are your favourite positions/techniques that work best for you, against larger opponents?

I am naturally a rooster, that’s where I have all my titles at, Problem is not a lot of roosters exist out there, at least at the lower ranks. I rarely train with anyone my size. On a good day my lightest training partner will be about 20lbs heavier than me. I try to develop my game to work at any level, gi or no gi, and against any gender or size. I stick to focusing on the weak parts of the body when it comes to the guards I play and the submissions I attack, this equalizes the size difference for me.

What advice would you give to a smaller guy who gets disheartened rolling with monsters all the time?

It definitely can be difficult on the mind and ego if not looked at properly. No one is awarded medals for how they train on the mat, as discouraging as it may be winning and losing there doesn’t really matter to me. There is a reason why we compete in weight classes, so fighting someone out of my weight class during training isn’t as impacting to me since it really isn’t realistic to my personal goals when it comes to competition.

www.ibjjf.org

You've recently had a brief stint in the UK. How did you get on? And how does the BJJ scene in the UK differ to that of the US.

It was nice to travel to compete and see the competition that exists outside of my normal range, and the people are awesome. I was lucky enough to compete and then travel to teach 2 seminars afterwards, by far the best experience of my life thus far. It feels like the jiu jitsu in Europe is a tad bit behind when it comes to what techniques are being executed and the intensity of the competitors. I would imagine the internet has helped spread jiu jitsu all over the world more easily but there aren’t as many top level guys teaching in Europe like there is here in the states, I think that may a reason why it’s a bit different.

You've tried your hand at MMA a couple of times. Does your Jiu Jitsu change in comparison to competing in BJJ competitions? If so, how?

My jiu jitsu is more of a no gi style, I personally hate the gi but I love jiu jitsu so I do both. My no gi game translates very well to mma so I feel comfortable relying on my ground game for mma. I would like to keep it that way since mma will be my main focus soon.

Credit- Kristians Facebook fan page

Your nickname is 'Dream Killer'- How did that come about?

When competing everyone is there to win, the reality of that is that only 1 person can be crowned a champion and everyone else has to deal with the consequences of that. It’s a bit intense but at the end of the day most people dream about winning a world championship, all I want to do is to people those people. One day someone just called me it and it stuck.

You're easily recognizable from tattoos, how many have you got? And are any of them BJJ related?

I don’t know of the exact number but I have a few in my eyes, I am actually typing this while getting tattooed so its ironic timing. I have no bjj related tattoos and the only one I plan on having will be after I receive my black belt, as for what it is a secret for now.

What are your plans/goals for the future?

I would like to continue training hard and constantly progress on and off the mat. My goal for the season is to win No Gi Brazilian Nationals and complete my no gi grand slam as a brown belt. After that I will only be focusing on my no gi game in preparation for the 2015 ADCC’s, where I will be busting my ass to be invited to. I have a lot of work to do to be ready for it but I am lucky forward to it tremendously.

Thanks Kristian. Do you have any shout outs/thank-yous you'd like to make?

Just thank you for reaching out, always a pleasure to be connected to people who are equally as passionate. 3Fu3l for sponsoring me, my team for the support and help, Patchez and Andi and all my supporters and family.

www.ibjjf.org

Check out this unusual submission demonstrated by Kristian:

You could also SUBSCRIBE to his YouTube channel

Photo credit: All Kristian's personal photos unless otherwise stated.

 Shout out to Mike Calimbas who has very kindly given me the go ahead to use some of his photos of Jiu Jitsu athletes in future interviews. He's one of the best in the business so check out his work at www.mikecalimbas.com 

Post op- Day 6

Day 6

Another day of improvements. My ROM has increased yet again and I've managed to carry out all my usual exercises painlessly. So in terms of rehabbing, another successful day. But, another boring day. This has literally been my view:

So... bored.. I'm not a big movie person, so I've been watching old Metamoris fights on YouTube. I like little people Jiu Jitsu like Jeff Glover and Kristian Woodmansee. Those guys movement is soooo good. I've also been searching through Mackenzie Dern's Facebook and instagram, trying to work out when she had her patella tendon ACL replacement in an attempt to predict how soon I could be back on the matt. Stalker much? 

In additional all that excitement, I've been writing a diet plan. Here's an example of the sort of thing I have to look forward to if I'm to maintain/lose weight whilst I'm largely immobile:

Om nom nom

I get my diet/supplement advice from Crossfit Man (aka Chris Longley) from Crossfit Westcountry. Dude knows his stuff and I appreciate all the advice he gives to me, so I'll be following his advice on how I can maintain muscle mass and lose fat once I'm more mobile.

Exercises

3 x 15 knee flexion drills

3 x 5min knee hangs

3 x 10 straight leg raises

3 x 10 quad tensening drills

My phsyio sheet says to stop doing the straight leg raises when they become easy to do again, so I may do them tomorrow for the last time. Knee flexion was awesome again. I upped the 10 to 15 reps today, as they weren't causing me any issues. Knee hangs are feeling good, I need to remember to relax my glutes and my whole leg in order to really let me knee sink.

I attempted (ppfft, using that term real loosely) another exercise today. Lying on my front, and attempting to bend my leg back (ultimately so my feet can reach my butt). It was a foul experience. Super tight on my stitches. I'll have to ease slowly into that one, but I'm sure as hell not looking forward to it..

I've got my first Physio appointment and my GP checking my dressing booked for this Tuesday (6th May). Will be good to get some advice/recommendations regarding rehab exercises and what I need to do next.

Icing (30-40mins)

10am

12pm

3pm

7pm

Yeah, icing like crazy today. I think the reduction in swelling is what has made my knee flexion exercises easier, so I'm going to continue icing at least 4 times a day.

In terms on my walking progression; I'm still wobbly as hell. I'm a little gutted really, as I'd envisaged myself off crutches by day 7. Then again my nerve block didn't wear off until day 2. My walking technique is good (I'm not doing anything funky with my hip or relying on the crutches) but I still need them both. Weight bearing isn't painful, as I can stand still with no crutches with what feels like a 60:40 weight distribution just fine. But no such luck when it comes to walking. *Shrugs*. Might be a mental thing. I'll keep trying. Getting there slowly!

End.

Post op- Day 2

Day 2-

Another good night of sleep. Lying around and playing Mortal Kombat must be exhausting me..

I took of my tubey grip and had a nosey at the state of my knee today. Mainly because I'm a rebel, but also because, as mentioned yesterday, I couldn't feel the cold of the ice getting through to my knee. 

Side note: My iodine stained leg looks freeeeakin' nasty still. Despite having a shower this morning, I swear. Oh yeah, the shower was interesting. I decided I'd stand (because only old ladies sit down in the shower), which made for a terrifying ordeal. I reckon I'm about 70:30 in terms of weight distribution. But I thought I might trip and die. But I didn't. Hooray for me.

Post tubey grip wrinkle-age

Today has largely been a day of rehab exercises and icing like crazy.

Exercises:

2 x 10 knee flexion (aka holycrapthisistortureflexion)

5 x 10 minute holds of passive knee stretch

3 x 10 straight leg raises 

I've focused more on hyperextending my knee today. I've read so much literature before the surgery, and the fastest recoveries followed the regime of; get the swelling down with heaps of ice (check) and reduce swelling ASAP in order to be able to regain full ROM faster.

Despite what mummybeast says, I don't think the swelling is as bad as I had envisaged;

Thin (ish) vs. Fatty

However, the front of my knee has felt very tight today. I've managed to get a 90 degree bend again, but it was more challenging than yesterday. I feel like I'm about to blow out all the stitches when I try to get a 90 degree bend. Not an enjoyable experience. So I did them, but not as many as I did yesterday.

Despite hands on my hips, my face is more like "AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOHHGODDDDDD"

So yeah, hyper-extensions and leg raises today. I should probably mention that when I'm not doing the exercises, I look like this;

Looking down on leg, but I swear it's raised to chest level with more height under the ankle

Icing regime (each for 20mins):

11am

2pm

6pm- Introduced cryocuff (see below)

9pm

At about 5:30 I sent some minions over to collect a cryocuff from my coach Darren. It is the most incredible, beautiful, thoughtful creation in existence. Ram some ice in the top, a little cold water, pump it up and let the coolness flow round. It's lusssshhhhhh.

I approve

In addition to the exercises, I've also been practicing my walking- whilst wearing the sexy brace. Post ACL surgery you're encouraged to fully weight bare as soon as possible. As I can stand up unassisted, I figured I'd be walking pretty soon. However, putting all my weight on the operated leg feels horrrrrrrible. Not painful or anything, just, weird. I'll be taking it super steady, but I'll be practicing 4 or 5 times a day.

I'm trying to avoid developing any bad habits in reference to using the crutches too. I'm walking super slow, and making sure I bend my knee, and placing my foot down heel-toe.

My brother (she..bro?) had an MCL reconstruction in December last year, so has some experience in how to get back to walking properly. He's my walking guru.

He has more holes in his leg though.

Extra side note; Whilst we have had different ligaments reconstructed, his involved a hamstring graft, and mine is a patella graft. It will be interesting to compare when we are both fully healed, as I've heard conflicting opinions on each graft. 

Ah, I've also remembered I've bought some supplements to help fix me. Along with my usual whey protein (that I usually drink post workout, but am currently drinking pre bed time) I've bought this stuff:

Ta-dahhhh!

So ligaments are made of collagen, collagen is in this lemon bon bon flavoured thing, so I've had a serving today and may start having a couple of servings a day.

Pain has been on and off today. Yesterday I alternated ibuprofen with co-codamol and felt fine. I've tried to ease off today and I've only had one serving of each. I am feeling it though. Again, not so much in my knee, but the stitches and actual wound hurts (probably from the compression of the tubey grip and the painful-bending-death exercises).

Pain-o-meter- probably a 4 or 5. Most painful thing today has been accidentally dropping a bag of frozen peas on my knee, and having a trapped nerve in my bum when standing up earlier on.

All in all, an improvement on yesterday, even if only a little.

End.

Post op- Day 1

 DAY 1-

I slept good. No waking in night crying out in pain or anything. I needed to pee at 5:30, but that was it. Getting on and off the loo is a challenge though. I'm very grateful I had been practicing single leg squats before the surgery!

Check out my morning ROM;

Pretty good, huh? 

The yellow stuff is iodine. I'm not a filthy animal.

Rehab movements today:

4 x 15 knee flexion 

4 x 5min holds of passive knee stretch (knee hang)

3 x 10 Static quad tensing
3 x 5 Straight leg raises

Knee flexion. Skanky legs still covered in iodine.. 

My icing regime is as follows;

Icing for 20mins at 

• 8am
• 11am
• 3pm
• 6pm
• 9pm

As I mentioned in my previous post, the bandages around my leg are thick as hell right now. There's cotton wool and all sorts under there. So I'm not sure how much the ice is really helping with the swelling (or indeed, how much swelling there is, as I can't decipher swelling for bandage!).

I reckon I'm almost achieving a 90 degrees bend in my knee now (8pm).

Still trying to weight bear, but really struggling. I can stand up fine, but its 90:10 ratio of weight distribution right now. Very painful if I try to put any more weight down.

That's the only thing that causes discomfort. I'm on 400mg tablets of ibuprofen, and 500mg of Co-codamol and taking them throughout the day when it starts to ache a little. But that's all experienced so far, a dull ache. When doing my exercises later on, it got a little worse. But nothing like I'd imagined. On my (just this second made-up) pain-o-meter, I'd probably say I'm cruising along at a 3/4 today.

Swelling

At about 5pm I took off the bandages. I was icing my knee, and whilst the top of the bandages felt cold, when I put my fingers underneath it (passed all the layers and cotton wool), my knee felt really hot. I know how imperative icing is to the rehab process, so figured I'd take off the bandages, but keep it compressed with a super tight tuby grip. I could feel the coolness of the ice afterwards. I reckon I've made a good decision.

Played around with bearing a little more weight later on and managed to walk much better. I'll take photos and a little video of that tomorrow though.

That's all for day 1. Day 2 to follow tomorrow..

End.

ACL reconstruction- Day of Surgery

Surgery day- yaaay! Time for a new ACL.

After deciding I didn't like my birth one, I detached it in August last year after failing to sprawl properly on a double leg takedown (sidenote; wrestling hates me).

So I'm up and at the hospital for stupid o'clock. I was first on the list for surgery (wahoo!) which meant they chucked a gown at me, took a pee sample, and also gave me some of their own underwear to wear. Imagine, if you will, a shower cap with 2 holes in. And I'd worn my cookie monster pants especially. Dammit.

Some chick comes in and asks what leg I'm having done and draws "ACL and an arrow" on my left shin.

Pretty sure my ACL is a little higher up than that..

They ask all the usual questions, confirmed I was who they thought I was (about 8 times) and then I was off down to be cut open.

This was my first time receiving anaesaestehthia. I don't remember going to sleep. The nurses were all super friendly and were chatting away when I was told they were going to put me under.


I vaguely remember coming round and having the foggiest conversation with the surgeon. I asking him if I had any microfractures (something he said was unlikely, but the rehab to it involved being hooked up to some knee bending machine for 2 hours, 3 times a day for 6 WEEKS). I don't remember him answering me, but when I finally came round properly, the nurse who was there during this foggy conversation that no I didn't have any micro-fractures which was apparently followed by me fist punching the air and saying "yeaaaaahhhh" (awkward).

Kinda, not really come round yet

I then got wheeled to a recovery room where I was fed bourbons and custard cremes, how very British. Within half an hour or so I was wheeled off for an X- ray and then brought back again.

The Physio came round a while later and gave me some crutches and a knee brace that I have to wear for 6 weeks when moving around. She gave me an extensive list of exercises to do as well as information on how often I should be doing them.

*Note* the sexy compression sock and my loafers. Total trend setter.

I got a couple of packs of pills thrown at me and Mummy Shebeast was called to come and collect me. Putting my clothes back on was, interesting.

Once home I elevated and iced my knee. The dressing and wraps are pretty thick (they can come off after 48hours) so I'm not entirely sure much of the coldness is getting through. Regardless, I've set alarms on my phone to remind myself to ice it for 20mins every 2/3 hours, religiously.

Think that pretty much sums up my surgery day. Played a bit of Mortal Kombat when I got home. Dozed a bit. Ate some dinner as my appetite increased later in the day.

Day 1 to follow..

End.

I'm doing this from my phone..

Alriiiight.. I'm intrigued as to how this turns out.

I'm also going to keep this as the briefest blog ever, as my auto correct is already driving me mad..

Updates:

I am getting back into photography. Well, attempting to. More specifically, fighting photography. The last set of serious pictures I took were at ADCC in Nottingham a couple of years ago (see blog entitled ADCC). But now, I'm trying to do it on a more regular basis. Here are some shots I've taken recently at training at Fightworx Academy: ok, I've attached pictures but have no idea where they will appear. Whatever. There are also some pictures of some Forca Luta t shirts. It's a new and upcoming MMA brand owned by one of guys I train with. So check them ooouuut.

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Second update. After some (polite) nagging about the lack of women's bjj stuff in UK mag Jiu Jitsu Style, I currently find myself in the process if writing an article about women's jiu jitsu in the UK and world scene. It will be in the next issue of Jiu Jitsu Style, so keep your eyes peeled! />


And finally, both my sponsors have some amaaazing stuff due out really soon. Scramble are in the final stages of releasing their much anticipated Vale Tudo shorts which look siiiiiiiick. They have also found a good quality bjj belt manufacturer and so they aim to start producing scramble belts very soon (they've been talking about this for a while,and have received a few samples from other companies, but the quality wasn't up to scramble standards- so you know these will be the sheeeeet- see sample pic I've attached, somewhere).

And, Pony Club Grappling Gear are looking to release 3 different t shirt designs along with their funky yellow and black spats, all at the same time (see pic). The t shirt designs include statements like "No bullshido, hespect", as well as glittery gold "I heart jiu jitsu". Ny favourite, which I'm VERY excited about is the Genki Sudo T shirt. Face it. Who wouldn't want one of those?

Oh, and superfinally- I'm on instagram. Find me. I'm "shebeastbjj".

Right, that's it. I have mobile-phone-texting-hand-cramp.

End.

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