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 5

Day 5

So my tubey-grip tried to attack me last night. I woke up at 3am with my knee area hurting like hell, only to feel that my tubey grip had all rolled up and was digging in super right right above my knee. You know when you wear a pair of socks that are too tight around your ankle, and it digs in, and you get a good itch from it where it's gone all red? Well, it was like. Only, replace the satisfying itch with excruciating pain. I might start sleeping with it doubled over rather than tripled over. I fell back asleep again, s'all good.

I've taken some swelling pictures. I'm pretty impressed. There's not a lot of difference, from my biased perspective.

Swelling

I know, I know. You want a close up of these bad boys. Well here you go.

Still a bit squidgy

I am, however, legitimately concerned that I may have been beaten up by the surgeon and his team. My leg looks like a prop from The Walking Dead..

Corpse leg vs normal leg

EURGH. From this angle, my bad leg is definitely more swollen. Mainly in the calf and ankle though. It doesn't seem to bad looking down on it. On second thoughts, I have done such an unreliable photo. The picture of my bag leg was taken considerably closer to my leg than my right one. And I'm a freakin' scientist. How embarrassing. Anyway, I digress.. 

I've officially hit boredom today. The weather is too inconsistent to lie out in (I'm lying out in the sun for like, 7min intervals. It's hardly worth lowering myself into the sun lounger), my brother has just gone back to uni so I have nobody to bully, and I suck at PS3.

I'm about to write a diet plan so I a) avoid turning into a super fatty and b) can return to Jiu Jitsu just sucky, not fat and sucky. I eat pretty good on the whole (too many treats recently) but I know what works well for my body and how to lose the weight properly (I've lost about 40lbs since starting Jiu Jitsu). I'll have to keep doing bits and pieces like that to keep myself busy. I'm really hoping I'll be able too do a small upper body workout maybe tomorrow or the next day. I've bee feeling good today, so we'll see.

Exercises

3 x 10 Knee Flexion

3 x 5 mins knee hangs

3 x 10 straight leg raises

3 x 10 quad tensening thingies

My exercise regime has yet to change, as I'm following my rehab notes given to me when I was discharged from hospital. It says to do this stuff from day 1 to day 14. I'm booking a Physio appointment tomorrow sometime, so I guess I'll be doing the same thing until then. 

It's good because I can tell I'm getting better at them. I don't have to shout "Up! UP!" at my leg when doing straight leg raises anymore, and I only swear a little bit when I do the knee flexion drills (again, they felt really good today, maybe even reached a 110 bend)

I've been slacking on strengthening my quads. Which is stupid because one of the things I was worried about was having one hench leg and one chicken leg, yet I'm doing nothing about it. The exercise is to literally tense your quad. When I do that, I feel it over my entire knee cap. I just did it then, as I typed this. I'd rather stick pins in my eyes. It's foul. No thanks.

I'm waiting until I can weight bare better, then I've read that they start getting you to do baby squats. Maybe I should just man up and do the tensening drills though..

Knee hangs are fine again. Feeling like I can relax more, and really sink into them. Weeeee.

Here's a video of my knee flexion drills. I reckon I'm close to 110 degrees on them:

Icing (20-30mins)

10am

1pm

3pm

6pm

9pm

My best friend (the cryocuff) is serving me well still. Oh, that reminds me. I lied yesterday. I said I took no pain killers. It got to about 7pm and I felt really achey so I was persuaded to take them. Today I took some ibuprofen late morning, it's 4:30 as I type, so I may take some more at dinner. I guess they're antiinflammatory too. Bonus.

Technically today has been another success, I'm just feeling a little deflated. It's one thing being off work, but if I can't train/go to the gym/paddleboard/DOANYTHINGILIKE then what's the point? Man, I can't even carry anything anywhere. I roll my bottle of juice down the hallway as I make my way to the lounge. Winner.

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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