Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Winter Competition Time

Have not updated this lately because as usual work is crazy and there has been nothing of interest BJJ related until the past few days.

I signed up for two competitions in December- Grapplers Quest on the 10th and the Renzo Open on the 17th. I feel like I've been working on enough things that I am ready to compete and test what I've been learning. I treat these tournaments almost the same way I do big IBJJF tournaments. I am not the kind of person who will do well if I take smaller tournaments more lightly than the big ones. I understand they are not as prestigious as IBJJF tournaments, but I know there will be some really good competition out there. I imagine that Grapplers Quest will be the most packed because it's more well known. I've managed to keep my weight under control enough so I don't need to worry about cutting too much and the weight classes for the Renzo Open are in my favor so I'm on the lower end of the weight range.

Of course gearing up for competition is more difficult in the winter, especially since Thanksgiving and my birthday were last week! And everyone seems to be eating chocolate and Christmas cookies! I had one piece of my birthday cake and put the rest in the freezer for after the 17th and am trying to eat as healthily as possible. Nice move by my parents who hid all the leftover dessert in the basement- I don't think about munching on that stuff when it's not in plain sight! :)

After the 17th I'll be easing up on training a little. I'll go a couple of times a week, but I have some nagging injuries I need to take care of. I'll probably try and do some strength and conditioning stuff, mainly bodyweight exercises and sprints, as I don't have access to a gym.

Next time I post it will most likely be competition results!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

How Should Guys Roll With Girls?

I could only go to BJJ once today (Thursday the 3rd- I'm writing this kinda late at night!), but it was the mixed levels/competition class so there was a lot of rolling. I was the only girl in class today- normally there's at least 1-2 more but I think people's schedules have just been crazy lately. I rolled with a 17 year old blue belt male and felt I was able to execute my techniques very well. I was able to mount some pretty good offense and was able to deal well against his sweeps. However, I noticed that he was significantly more aggressive when rolling with the guys in the class.

My philosophy for when men roll with women is that they should treat girls like men who are the same size as the girl is. For example, if you are 170lbs and you're rolling with a 130lb girl, the guy should roll as though he was going against a 130lb guy, assuming the two are the same belt level. He shouldn't muscle the girl around, but he should NOT go too easy and let her pull of techniques. I've gone against guys who think they're rolling at the black belt finals of the Mundials, guys who let me pass their guard (what?!), and guys who treat me no differently. I'd rather roll with the last category than be injured in the first one and not improve my game in the second one.

I was a little disgruntled about this and spoke to one of my friends at the gym and he said "Well yeah he wasn't going to go nuts against a girl". My response was that he should never "go nuts" against anyone but he should have used the appropriate resistance. If I ever rolled with Shaolin, I'm sure he could arm triangle me about 100 times in a five minute period, but he wouldn't. He roll against me but probably be able to neutralize all of my attacks and execute his own game appropriately while keeping a good flow. That's what a more experienced person should do against someone who isn't the same level.

This makes me wonder if all the guys at my gym and other gyms have this mentality. It's hard to tell, but I feel as though I might just tell the people I roll with the be a little more aggressive. You aren't doing girls any favors by going lighter than you would against a guy who was my size. If the guy is bigger, he should try and use his technique and hold back on his strength when rolling with a girl, or anyone who is smaller than him for that matter.

I'm not sure how many people actually read this, but I'd like to hear some feedback on this topic.