IBJJF comes to the UK

Hello again.

So, this weekend was a freakin' busy one in the world of BJJ with the IBJJF London Open, Miami Open, and European Nogi all taking part over the same weekend. This was the first ever European Nogi, and only the second ever London Open to be held in the UK, so I was keen to get involved with any event with the prestige of the IBJJF. 

I competed at the European Nogi (my second ever Nogi comp after I competed at Grapplers Quest in Coral Springs last year).

My buddy Seymour designed an UH-mazing "SHE-BEAST" logo, which Scramble plastered over one of their new ranked rashguards and handed over to me to wear. Look how freakin' badass it is..

BOOM

So I got to wear that bad boy to the European Nogi. I'm so grateful to Scramble and Meerkatsu for teaming up to produce this. It just shows the support for womens BJJ in the UK, when a top UK brand makes a custom designed rash guard for a girl (and a measly blue belt at that!). Very thankful indeed. Cheers guys :)

Enough of that. Back to the competition. 

No videos, sorry. You'll to read through my blabbling instead.

In my division there were only 3 of us. One girl didn't make weight, which left me with one fight to get gold. Now, I'd done my research. By research, I mean some casual facebook stalking/ googling (oh shut up, you totally do it too). The girl I was left with was a 4 tab blue, and she'd medalled at the European Gi last year. Eeeexcellent. You've gotta fight tough girls to get better..

I lost by 2 advantages. It was a disappointing fight, as I got caught in her guard, gave away 2 advantages when trying to do a standing guard break (but fell on my butt and jumped back up before she could get points for a sweep). I did that twice, thus, 2 advantages to her. We were brought back to our feet, and knowing I was 2 advantages down, I pulled guard (WHY?!). No, I take that back. I've been working my ass off when it comes to my guard, and I felt much more comfortable pulling guard at this competition. I managed to almost pull off a deep half sweep, and a flower sweep, but one sweep went out of the matted area, so no points. Sad times.

My biggest fear was getting caught in a closed guard. I'm used to gripping up and standing to pass in the gi. So, all in all, I was happy with the fight. I didn't get my posture broken, and I neutralised her trying to escape her hips or grip my arms. I didn't feel in any real danger. So, a loss, but a good one. If that makes sense. Every cloud, n'all that..

My face in this picture summarizes my feelings regarding this fight..

So I got a silver. A shiny, default, silver.

Sexiest default medal, ever.

Being the keen bean I am, I tottled over and registered for the absolute (I'd paid £60 to fight, and I was going to get my moneys worth!)

Now a little recap; I'd had a 6 hour coach journey from Paignton to London to get there. I left at 00:01 Sunday morning, got there at 6:20, and in that time I got about 2 hours sleep. I was running on adrenaline for the first fight, but come 2/3pm I was a dyyyyyying, and the absolute was due to start at 4:40. I really wasn't feeling up for it, but I figured I might as well give it a go (..such positivity).

There were 9 of us in the absolute (I think). I had 3 fights, (won 2, lost 1) which meant I had earned myself another silver.

A quick breakdown:

Fight first

The first 2 girls I fought had got gold and silver in their weight divisions (light and middle). First up was a middleweight girl. I've discovered that my wrestling is chronically bad. I knew it was, but standing in front of an angry looking Eastern European chick was the moment I really realised my wrestling chronically bad. After attempting a couple of pitiful single legs, she pulled guard. Luckily, I managed to get my knee up so her guard popped open as soon as she hit the ground. I got double unders, passed, knee on belly, and then mount.

I was working for an americana but she rolled to her side so I switched for an armbar (something I previously wouldn't do, for fear of not submitting, and ending up on my back). She was very quick to stack me up, so she ended up in my closed guard. My favoured hip bump sweep saved the day, and I got mount again. She got out of mount, and sat back for a footlock. Holy hell, a footlock. I mess about with them at training, but thought "nnnnnnnoooooooooooooooo!" and grabbed her head so she couldn't sit back. The joys of nogi meant I could wriggle my sweaty little foot out without too much trouble. I didn't rack up points for giggles- I wanted to win! I followed her up and  ended up in side control when the bell went. First fight won, 13-0.

Second fight

This time I was up against the girl who won gold in the lightweight. I'd seen her submit her first opponent in the absolute in literally seconds. Game on.

I tried to work my stand up more, going for some arm drags that I'd been working on at training. Unfortunately the girl had obviously been working the same technique. There were moments when we looked at each other in a "heyy, that's what I'm trying to do" kind of fashion. She got bored quicker than I did and pulled guard. I got my knee up again (WINNER!). Knee slice pass, and I was in side control. I swear to god, I have never been so frustrated trying to keep someone in side control. She wouldn't stop wriggling. For a lightweight, she was ridiculously strong, and she managed to get to her knees and grab my leg to try and drive me over a couple of times.

I managed to sprawl and get her back on her back. Well, I thought I had, but a quick glimpse at the score board and somehow I was down by one advantage (that she must have got for grabbing my leg? She was nowhere near putting me on my back though, so..?). I thought, there's no way I'm losing this fight when I've spent about 3/4 minutes moving from side to north mount, so I gave her some shoulder pressure of doom to try and keep her still long enough for me to get points for a pass. I got there in the end! She managed to regain, but luckily I pulled off my jumping guard break, and passed again. She didn't stay still long enough for me to attempt any subs, but a second win 6-0 (0-1 adv).

The final

I faced off against the girl who beat me in my division again for the final of the absolute. I had planned this scenario in my head. I was going to pull guard, in the hope of sweeping to get on top, and to avoid getting stuck in her guard again. Unfortunately, I'm freakin' slow, so she pulled guard super fast. Great. Stuck in closed guard. 

I didn't really know what was best. I conversed with myself in my head whilst posturing and stopping her from trying to isolate an arm. Being such a close fight last time around, I was hesitant to go for a jumping guard break in case she got an advantage again, and that was all she needed to beat me in the first fight. I figured I'd trying to get double unders instead. In my infinite wisdom, I put one arm under first. I'm an embarrassment  I know. The other hand was just a teeeny tiny bit slower than the first, but she grabbed my arm and went to wrench on an armbar. I managed to slip my elbow back past her hips, and put enough pressure on to quickly snatch my arm back. One advantage to her. Bollocks. That didn't work. The remainder of the fight I half heatedly attempted my jumping guard break, but never fully committed incase I got swept. In the dying seconds I got underhooks, but she made her hips heavy and I could get my hands to meet, to stack her up. I lost (0-1 adv). In a weird way, I felt like it was a good loss. I felt fairly safe (apart from the armbar moment..) sat in her guard. I left knowing what I need to work on, which is what it's all about..

This is not the best position to attempt to obtain double unders from. Fact.

Bluurrrrrrrrrrred

The level of jiu jitsu from the girls at this competition was insane. I hadn't seen anything like it before. Within the first 10/15mins of watching the girls fight, I'd seen chicks pulling off flying armbars and another girl choke a girl out cold with a deep darce. I know it wasn't cheap to enter, but it was a totally different pool of girls to fight (I was one of a handful of British girls in the blue belt division) and it because of the title of "European Championships" it had attracted some tough girls who have medalled at bigger comps in their home countries. In previous years, I've fought the same girl 5 times in the same year at smaller UK competitions. Not that there is anything wrong with the smaller competitions (they're much cheaper, and run fantastically well) but if you're fed up of fighting the same girls/no girls/being shoved into an absolute because there are ZERO girls, then I reckon it's worth missing out on 1 or 2 smaller ones, and saving your pennies for something like an IBJJF one. I was skeptical at first, but after competing, I'll definitely be doing this and The London Open next year.

Another thing..

Living so far away from London, it's a massive deal trying to get a team up to an event. I went alone, and the day before my buddy Sam traveled alone to the London Open. He lost his first fight, but was positive about the experience and enjoyed it nevertheless. It's very strange not having your team there at an event.  I was lucky enough to have the awesome guys from Mill Hill and Matt from scramble cheer me on, as well as Seymour taking some pictures, but Sam was totally alone in a stacked blue belt division. Sam's a beast, and I know that he'll continue to smash at any other comps he does this year. So well done dude :)


I mentioned that the Miami Open was on this weekend too. Congrats to the Avengers and Avengers girls who I trained out in Miami with, especially Amie, Pereira, Ricardinho, Frans, Mestre Deninho and of course, Mestre Cyborg (and anybody else I forgot!) Oss, fightsports familia :)

Special thanks and well done to:

The guys from Mill Hill who competed and cheered me on- Chris, Dan, James, Windsock, Jack, all the Andys' and Nick Brooks (who I saw very briefly) Win or lose, you all put on an awesome performance guys!

Scramble Matt- for cheering me on and being awesome

Seymour- for favouring me in your picture taking duties, and being awesome.

I can't be bothered to spell check this. The End.

Oh, hello there..

Yes, I'm back. Well, sort of back. Let's see how long this lasts. Since I last wrote a blog, I've been teaching science full time. I didn't get the memo that the teaching career saps away your time and your soul and so, I've barely had enough time to eat and shower, never-mind write a freakin' blog.

I'm going to attempt to summarise the past few months in a few paragraphs. Wish me luck.


1) I moved to London. That's right, the big smoke. Cool stuffs occurred whilst I was in London. I trained at Mill Hill (Roger Gracie Academy) and my coaches were frickin' badasses (Nick Brooks, Dan Strauss, Oli Geddes).

Since training in the city, I went to seminars held by:

Mauricio Gomes:

De La Riva:

That's right bitches. Not one, or two, or three, or four, or fi.. BUT ELEVEN black belts on the match-ee..

and Michelle Nicolini (held at the lovely London Fight Factory). 

Leoni, Michelle and Me

Sexy Picture by sexy Meerkatsu

It's been awesome, especially as we tend to get forgotten about back in the West-country. Sad times..


One of my highlights of my time in London was getting my first tab on my blue belt from Nick Brooks.

Ta-daaaah

He welcomed me into the club, and spent a lot of time and effort focussing on improving my guard, and I'm very grateful for that. He arranged for me to be taught in smaller groups with club ninja Chris Hearn, meaning that I essentially got spoilt. But, if anyone asks, none of that actually happened, because girls belong in the kitchen, and not on the mat.. 

.. Ahem.
So that was my time in London. I've met some badass people at Mill Hill. Having the pleasure of training with the one and only Meerkatsu has been a pleasure. He's a fountain of BJJ gear knowledge. A fountain I shamelessly exploited. Any advice on gi's, he's your man. He also has really frickin' boney shins.

PLUS, he makes honeybadger fightwear..

Evidence as to why girls prefer pictures BEFORE rolling..

What else you ask?

Well, I'm home now (Yaay). You might not care, but I do. Look how pretty home is..

Ahhh

And so I'm back training at my old club where my jiu jitsu journey began (Fightworx Academy under black belts Darren Yeoman and Raphael Dos Santos). 

I also plan on making routine drop ins at Gracie Barra Plymouth with black belt Tom Barlow and his guys (whom are lucky enough to be having their academy re fitted as we speak).

Here's Fightworx:

Sexiest gym in the UK, without a doubt. (Shamelessly stolen picture). Don't care.

2 more things:

I tie dyed a gi. Forget "The Ring". "The Ringworm" is where it's at..

Oh, and I got my belt embroidered :)

Ohh, yeaaah.

I'm training my butt off for the IBJJF Euro Nogi Championships next month. I'll keep you updated on anything interesting that might occur before then.


Aaaaaand finally, you should buy some scramble stuff. Sexy spats, hunky hoodies, and soon to be IBJJF ranked rash guards, and a frickin' lush gi.

Click on the pretty picture below to get to the website.

Do it do it do it.

Ok, so let me explain the importance of that pretty picture.

When (not if, when) you order some Scramble stuff, pretty pretty please do it through the links on my blog. 

It will take you directly to their website, but when you buy something the guys at Scramble know that I sent you. Yes. It's essentially, magic. 

So please, do it via my blog otherwise I won't get fed. 


..Thaaaanks.


P.S I've posted a heap of links around the blog. If it has scramble on it and you can click it, DO IT. 

Until next time..

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

ADCC in pictures

I haven't written anything in forever. I am ending my silence with some pictures of ADCC from September. It was UHmazing watching all the big names fighting. Was even better that the stadium wasn't full and I could wander around and find the best seat, depending on who I wanted to watch fight. Anyway, I digress.

First up, my previous coach Tom Barlow vs Jeff Glover.

Now, I'm a fairly laid back kinda girl. I like my funny. I'm all for people wanting their fights to be entertaining to watch for the public (it is afterall, what we are there for). I'd seen a few fights of Jeff's before and thought he's coooool. After seeing him fight Tom my opinion had swayed from cool to twat. Right from the start, Jeff tried to humilate Tom. Turning his back to him, doing some lame baiting his leg shit. It angered me on quite a deep level. If you want to be entertaining, smash the shit out of someone then tap them. Did Jeff do either? No. Prick. Here he is, failing to pass guard.

Sorry about that. It was like I was re-living it..


On a lighter note, the ladies fights were frickin' AWESOME. Michelle Nicolini in particular stood out for me. I want her butterfly guard, please. In general, I'm not gonna lie- USUALLY the mens fights are more entertaining than the ladies. I'm not going to lie. But I reckon they were pretty close at this event. Here's Kyra taking some bitches arm home..

Here's Nicolini with her butterfly guard trying to sweep the UK's own Yas Wilson. Was good to see a share of UK women representing at ADCC. Hopefully that'll continue.

The final between Michelle and Kyra was AWESOME. I was 2 rows from the front and took about 6 bazillion pictures of that fight. It was so back and forth. Nicolini so very nearly finished the fight with this armbar..

..Which got even tighter..

Kyra managed to escape and then they both found themselves scrambling for each others feet..

My knowledge of toe holds is fairly limited so I spent the whole time grimicing and them bending each others feet around..

The stoof up again.. Michelle took Kyra back down again...

Then Kyra sank in some some rear-naked-choke-but-not-from-the-back-and-I-had-her-arm-triangled-up-out-of-the-way kinda, thing, which forced Michelle to tap.

Kyra, stick choking Michelle..

Happy Hoger..

But yeah- AWESOME fight.

Other highlights of the competition included... Marcelo Garcia (duh.)

 Finishing Viera in the final with this slick triangle..

..and having us all panicking when Kron nearly finished him with a tight guillotine

Galvao wins, a lot..

Cyborg latching onto a knee..

 Happy Mendez and sulky Mendez

Cheery Gabi

..And Joao Assis squeezing some guys head

End.

Stranded in NYC

So this "hurricane" caused my mini holiday in NYC into just over a week in NYC. I was there with my friend Nebby, just to hang out and do touristy stuff for 3 days before I flew home. But he fucked off to see his family in the US so I was left, with my flight delayed for 4 days in the big apple.


Well, I'd done all the touristy stuff, so I figured I'd visit some top gyms whilst I was there. My friend Jemssix (who used to train at Fightsports before he moved to New York) invited me to come and train where he trains- at Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiros gym.

Jem, Shaolin and me

 Shaolins academy is situated right the the heart of times square. It's on the 6th (?) floor (maybe..) and has AMAZING panoramic views of the city. It was a super friendly club with super welcoming people. They had 4 or 5 tough girls there (one of whom offered me a place to stay if I had to stay here any longer afeter being introduced to me 5 minutes earlier). Most of the guys introduced themselves to me and made me feel very welcome indeed.


Anyway- to the class. Shaolin himself took the class. He had a great sense of humour and the club had a relaxed but focused atmosphere. There was plenty of talk about the Boston Open that had happened the weekend before, so people were driven to identify flaws and improve their game for the next competition. He showed us a good strong guard pass (avoiding  the omoplata sweep from opponent) and a few variations of a butterfly sweeps before the class ended with 7 or 8 rounds of hard sparring. I'd say there were 20 or so people at the club that night, but it had a real family feel to it. I'd definitely recommend a visit if anyone's ever in the Big Apple!

Jem and me- gangsta

On to day 2..


I managed to get my flight moved forwards 2 days, so I had one full day left to train. After lots of negociation (with myself- I'm stranded alone, remember..) I had to decide between training at Marcelo's, Royler's, or Alliance. Marcelo's wasn't far from where I was staying plus, he's AWESOME, so it wasn't a hard choice. I had training in my gi and washed it after training at Shaolins, so decided I'd go to a nogi session at Marcelos.


So, I make my way to his gym, which involves me walking right down Broadway and through Times Square. It was, without a doubt, THE most amazing walk to and from training I have ever done. Pictures don't do this place justice.. I took this on my walk there:

 So, I finally stumble across the gym (it wasn't as easy to find as I had anticipated). I manage to see somebody on the door (and thus avoid having to navigate another frickin' intercom system to open the door) and follow them up to the gym.
It was most peculiar, as soon as the lift door opened, you step out and onto the mat. And there you see those recognisable grey and black mats. It's a really loooong gym. It's literally 4 times as long as it is wide. I arrived midway through a beginners gi class and went and satat the end of the gym with some others who looked ready to train nogi. There was a beginners class first, followed by an advanced class. So there must have been about 20 of us at the beginners class. Beginners class was basically a few beginners and then a load of no so beginners. Marcelo didn't take the beginners class (and I was yet to meet the man) but one of his black belts, Paul, took an amazing class. Very knowledgable and helpful- he showed us a guillotine from opponent turtling, as well as lots of grip work from the same position. Time went really fast and before I knew it, it was time for the advanced class.






So, doing the casual BJJ warm up, running around the mat, couple of side steps here, some skipping stuff and that thing where you pull with your arms and skip (and I don't get that thing, someone explain it's purpose to me..?) and another girl walking across the mat catched me eye (I had noticed that I was the only girl there for the beginngers class). "Jesus Christ, she's big" I thought as I skipped around. She was plastered in Keiko gear, and looked 7ft tall. It dawned on me. It was Gabi Garcia. Holy fuck. What a giant woman. A little bit in awe I preceeded to skip and sidestep around the room. Running around the gym in this beginners class, I lost count of the number of times I tried to count the number of people on the mat. I lost count at 42. It was CRAZY. I later realise that Gabi was there with a heap of other guys from Alliance, who had come to Marcelos to train for ADCC.

Advanced NOGI at Marcelos

Marcelo taught some great grip fighting from open guard, followed by a number of butterfly sweeps. The emphasis was really on transitioning to different sweeps depending on the grip available. It was a really technical session which was really enjoyable. Onto some rolling..


Now, with 42 (odd) people in the room, we were grouped into 3's with 2 people sparring and their lives were wuite literally in the hands of the third guy, who was trying to prevent numerous fatal crashed from occuring. I get moved from sparring with some tiny little guys after Tatiana Garcia decided I was too strong for them, (?!) and get I put with a couple of solid looking purple belts. Both guys were super friendly, and humoured me with my attempts of passing/ sweeping either of them. Now, when it came to my turn to watch them 2 roll, it became very apparent that we were right in the centre of the gym, with Gabi sparring super hard behind me. The 2 purple beltswere fiesty little bastards, so preventing them from crashing into other people was fairly exhausting. It was quite stressful making sure they didn't crash into anyone, whilst fearing for my own life that Gabi was going to accidently crash into me and crush me whilst I had my back to her.


After that ordeal, I got a chance to spar with one of a few other girls that had turned up. She was called Dominyka. She asked me if I wanted to roll and followed up with asking what belt I was, whilst smiling. She looked young. I knew she was young. I had a horrible feeling I was about to have my ass handed to me. I was right. She was a purple belt. A 16yr old purple belt. Marcelo gave it to her as she turned 16. I know most young people tend to get their blue when they turn 16, but her Dad told me that this girl entered the adult womens blue belt division at the Mundials last year. She won, when she was a freakin' green belt. People get a lot of shit if they sandbag students, but this girl technically entered a division above belt, yet smashed her opponents. Can't argue with that. Fully deservant of her purple. Her legs were about 6ft long, and she smashed the shit out me with ease. Excellent stuff. Lovely girl, and lookm out for her name. Purple at 16. She's going to be one to look out for.. Man I wish I started when I was younger.


Anyway, the session had ended. I plucked up courage to ask Gabi for a picture. She looks terrifying in person. A very serious looking face. But I asked very nicely and smiled lots, and she replied "sure!" with a massive grin.

 She was super lovely. She gets a lot of shit, but she came across very introvert and shy. She doesn't deserve the comments she gets and she trains like an absolute beast. I told her I was going to be at ADCC and that I'd cheer her on. She smiled and nodded (not sure if she understood a word I said) and then I grabbed Marcelo for a picture too. Lovely guy, always smiling...

See?

I stumbled back to the hotel, on the best walk ever. I could do that walk everyday I reckon! 




To conclude, getting stranded in New York wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be.
a


 I need to write a blog to end my time at Fightsports really, but I need to upload the remaining pics from my camera. All in time..










Grapplers Quest videos

Being stuck in Newark Airport for 5 hours before hearing my flight would be rescheduled for this Friday has it's good points! Plenty of time to upload the videos, as promised.

Semi finals of the NOGI advanced absolute: 

Grapplers Quest Gi final 160lbs:

Grapplers Quest- South East Grapplers Championship

Allllright..

So yesterday myself and a whole heap of the Fightsports team traveled to Coral Springs to represent Fightsports and team The Avengers. In true me style, I was bricking it. God knows why I compete. I truly truly hate it. Well, the waiting around part. I question why I spend my money feeling SICK with nerves for a day. It's only once the fight hits the floor that I remember " Ooohhh yeah, I remember now. I enjoy doing this rolling around stuff. I remember why I'm here now!". But until then, I quite frankly would rather die than sit around waiting.

Half of the mats. 12 in total with a championship mated area in the middle for the mens advanced absolute

In stereotypical BJJ competition style, it was running a little late. Ladies were due to fight at 12, when it was about 3:30 before a lot of the girls got on the mats. 

Anyway, to the details. I registered for 2 nogi divisions (advanced 160lbs+ and absolute) and 1 gi division (160lbs+). Nogi was first, and the absolute division. I got a by in the first round, and fought a strong looking girl in the semi's. Now, this was my first nogi competition. I have a gameplan in the gi that I like to stick to, but for nogi I don't. I decided I didn't want this strong girl on top, so in a last minute decision I decided I would go for the takedown. She seemed super comfortable gripping up, and I had seen her go for trips other girls. Double leg it is then..

*Note to self * My takedowns require a LOT of work. I managed to score 2 points as I shot in for a terrible double leg, due to her pulling guard when I was still holding her leg. So I'm 2-0 up. Those were the only points I score the ENTIRE TOURNAMENT. Every other fight I had, went down to advantages. Grapplers Quest nogi rules state that if one person turtles as a result of the other person trying to pass guard, the person trying to pass scores 1 advantage. Fair enough I suppose, but I am turtle queen. I'm quite fond of hanging out there. Shit, I know, but it's something I'm working on and something I'm hoping I'll stop doing as my guard gets better. So I think I may have given away a couple of advantages at the competition, due to my love for turtling. 

Now, as shit as turtling up is as a strategy, and as shit as my guard is, I still give people a hard time passing. I'll find a leg, lock half guard on, and will NOT let go. I try to advance from half or deep half to a sweep and then work to pass again. Which is how they went. I spent a lot of time on my back, almost having my back taken, but preventing her from getting her second hook in, and holding onto that half guard until I had space to move. Jesus Christ she was strong. I ended up winning due to those first 2 points.

Working open guard

Looking to pass

Weeeeee..

So to the final I go..

The girl had just won her weight division, by annihilation. She was this tiny little girl, but a little ninja, apparently. Her guard was awesome, so I figured I'd pull guard so I didn't get armbarred or triangled in the first 20 seconds. Well, in theory it sounded good. But instead she managed to get me flattened out in half guard, and as she went to mount, I bridged... and she took my arm with her. 20 seconds, no. 52 seconds, yes. Haaaaa. Turns out, she was a purple belt who had previously won the worlds. I'm happy with my silver and both my arms thank-you very much.. 

"You only lose if you compete. Wanna win all the time? Stay home". The comforting quote from the referee who told me the girl was a prolific nogi competitor and was very experienced.

My fight in my weight division was to the same girl who I beat in the semis on the absolute. I had lost before I stepped on the mat. I knew I had. My mentality was that I did not want to fight her again. She was strong, and I was exhausted after fighting her last time. Wrong attitude to have. She won by taking my back and getting the 4 points in the last minute or so of the fight. Nobody to blame but myself. I was pissed because I had beaten her once and I knew could have done it again. 

Taking the back

Now.. the gi division I come across her AGAIN. The joys of being in a minority category. This was the closest match I've ever had. I decided I would pull guard. The 2 previous matches I had lost because I pulled guard. Why oh why did I pull guard..? I didn't want to stand with her, and decided I'd rather have her tire trying to pass, whilst giving me a chance to work my (still crappy) guard.

I knew I hadn't got points for passing, I knew she had no points either, so it was going to be down to advantages. She nearly took my back, I nearly took hers. It was a real back and forth kinda fight. I had no idea what was the score and to see I had lost 2-1 on advantages was devastating. I had Sofia and Felipe Amarante 

screaming and coaching for me throughout the fight. They gave me so much motivation, and I gave that fight my all. I felt so exhausted (a result of previous fights, mentality and my cardionogi, so every fight I had was against girls with quite a bit more experience than myself. Doesn't take away the gutting feeling of not winning, but Grapplers Quest was an awesome experience and I have a big list of things to work on before I compete next.

Silver in 160lbs+ in the gi

3 big thankyous before I finish up...


1- The Amarantes- for screaming at me to the point that I feared for the consequences if I didn't do what they were telling me..

The Amarantes- coolest BJJ family ever?

2. Fightsports and Avengers- we brought home loads of medals guys! My Jiu Jitsu family home from home. Love you guys! Oss!

Fightsports Familia! Osss!

3. Scramble- for their support for women in BJJ and for giving me the opportunity to represent the brand. I'll get gold next time! Promise..

"Win a silver medal? Melt it down, make a spoon, go eat cereal- only gold counts"

**VIDEOS TO FOLLOW**- Youtube hates me. I'm spending my day sat here uploading. And its real sunny outside. That's dedication that is..