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Well I just got home from my first tournament! It was the bluegrass open in Louisville, KY – about a 3 hour drive from my house.

Coach wasn’t able to come (had to be in a wedding), and I didn’t know who was going to come. Had a fair amount of jitters! I spotted someone wearing my team shirt so I sat down with him – he was from an affiliate school in Cincinnati. When I saw 3 of our purple belts walk in I instantly relaxed!

They had the upper level belts go first (then kids, teens, women, guys). We took one gold, and one silver in the purple division! Yay!

I had a jitter moment again, so the guys walked me away from the crowd and reminded me that I do this every day in class. They reminded me of coach’s directions (pull guard, and play spider) and to relax and breathe. By the time my name was called, I skipped up to the table.

There were only 8 girls so they divided us up into 2 weight class groups of 4. I weighed in at 141 so I wound up in the group ranging from 135 to (brace yourself) 214. Good thing I’ve been practicing with the boys!

Anyhow, got to do the first match of our group. I pulled guard, and played my spider guard. I found my grip wasn’t up to it’s normal snuff and found myself not breathing. Managed to catch myself, breathe, and somewhat relax. I wasn’t able to get a sub, but she spent the whole time trying to pass my guard. We ended in a draw.

The guys all patted me on the back, rubbed my hands, and gave me water while I waited for my next match. My directions were to just breathe, stay loose, and not sit down.

My second match was against a 214 lb blue belt. I jumped guard to get her down and then opened up to play spider (couldn’t lock my guard around her midsection). I was breathing a lot better this time and was quite comfortable. It took her several minutes to pass my guard – then she kept me smashed. She couldn’t get a sub, but beat me with points. I did however get a pat on the back from the ref who commented “great guard!”

The guys were impressed – they expected her to walk all over me, but I held my own very well.

My final round instructions were to shoot for the omnplata. I told them I’ve never actually landed it live, but they told me to go for it and take the sweep if I miss.

I’d watched my last opponent in her previous fights, and she’s a guard puller. So I beat her to the punch and pulled spider again. We had to be moved back to the mat center and after that I snapped into a triangle but couldn’t get the angle. I reguarded and grabbed for my cross choke grips (In retrospect, I should have pulled out my #1 sweep instead). She went for the choke as well so I pulled my knees up into her chest and made space to reposition. Ended up running out of time and it was (another) draw.

Thought I was done, but I ended up having one more tie breaker match with the same girl. They gave us a few mins to rest (I got another hand massage!) Then we had at it.

Still managed to pull guard. This time I played spider, snapped the triangle, switched to omnoplata, then snapped back into a solid triangle and nailed it.

I ended up taking home 3rd place – was pretty happy with myself overall. The guys said I have a solid guard and they’re gonna work with me to get some sweeps down for NAGA next month.

One of the guys took video of my matches – he’s gonna get it to me sometime this next week.

This warrior needs some rack time!

This week we have been working in the guard. Posture and passing is the name of the game. This will come in handy on Saturday!

I’ve been going fairly easy so far this week. My ribs are feeling a bit less sore, and after kinesiotaping my knees, they’re about 90 percent better.

Got some rolfing work done yesterday – compliments of my old massage instructor. He said the lateral sides of my legs are much tighter than the medial, probably what is putting the extra strain on my knees. I’m blaming all the open guard I’ve been playing. So I’ll be doing a lot of lateral hamstring and shin stretches so keep that balanced out.

My abdominal obliques on my right side are really tightened up. He said it’s like my body is a tin can that has had a dent kicked into it. Lots more stretching – and another session after the tournament.

I felt so good after that session that I just couldn’t help myself. I decided to play a bit at the 7:15 pm class that evening. Didn’t do anything too intense – just moving around and feeling things out.

We had a guy visiting from out of town. He teaches Aikido in Georgia and has just started getting into BJJ – had fun rolling a bit with him – he really liked my spider guard.

I just finished with my 6:30 am class and weight sets. Coach had to run out so I’m guarding the castle right now – depending on what time he gets back I may just hang until 10 if I can scrounge up some food.

Pretty low key the last few days. Coach has been having me sit out of rolling because he wants my sore spots to heal up for this tournament on the 12th. Most of the classes lately have been full of large white and blue belts – the type that crush me.

I have gotten some good practice in between classes with some of the upper level belts. On wed (the 2nd) I played for a bit with one of the black belts at the 10 am class. I was his warm up. He encouraged me to really “snap” into a triangle from my open/spider guard. He said that move is “gold” for me.

On Thurs I drilled in the classes and watched the rolling as well. After the 5pm class, I snagged one of the brown belts to play with. We went non-stop for the next hour. The last time I rolled with him, he told me I need to start recognizing an opening and to go for it.

I learn a lot rolling with him! Afterward, he told me I was doing a lot better (got that triangle “snap” a few times). He said to stop hesitating and just go for it. Even if I miss – he said my re-guard is quick enough that I’ll get my position back no problem.

Only one other person showed up for the next class – so coach put us to work with drills; terry underwood pass, then the re-guard. The rest of class we drilled coach’s #1 sweep back and forth.

I’m gonna start bringing a snack with me. My blood sugar plummeted halfway through the last class – apparently I turned quite white and scared my partner.

At 6:30 on Friday, I got to train with one of the guys. He had me drill a couple chokes from the back (including one using my foot!), then did some positional rolling. He said coach has to stop teaching me things because I’m learning them too well.

He seems to think that if I win the tournament on the 12th that coach will give me my third stripe – dunno about that since I just got my second – but I’m gonna kick butt anyhow!

Taking the rest of Friday, and the weekend, off – per coach’s recommendation. Gonna hit it again Monday morning!

Training at 10 was fun! Did some rounds of no gi grappling with a team mate who is getting ready for an mma fight in June. Alternated rounds with one of the smaller guys so we could keep her moving.

At 11:30 we drilled a slick arm bar from the back – it’s useful against an opponent who is protecting their neck well. I rolled a bit after drilling, but then I got smashed in the rib too much and squeaked – so coach made me sit out.

Good news! Coach gave me my second stripe today! Halfway to my blue belt in under 4 months – Yay!

At 5 we drilled the same arm bar for about 10 mins then settled to rolling. I played some fun entanglements with my legs – switching between spider, inside de la riva, and an x guard. I just LOVE when people try to stand and pass my guard!

I got my beatings after that. Rolled two more rounds, then someone got tired and sat out so I took the time to be lazy as well. Coach threw me back in on the last round. Guy was goading me to use my spider guard on him so, of course, I went for the inside de la riva instead (got him all confused). Turns out he had a new spider guard defense he wanted to test on me. I had him show me after class – it would work on someone with less mobility, but I think my re-guard is too fast for it to work all that well on me.

I did some massage work on a couple guys between classes. 7:15 was more drilling that arm bar – I’m gonna be doing that one in my sleep tonight.

We had a purple belt visiting – and he’s hypermobile too! We spent the time before class comparing contortions. Coach had me sit out from rolling again – so I was watching how this guy moves.

Good day of training! Got smashed a little, did a little smashing. Now here’s hoping I have someone to work with tomorrow morning at 6:30!

This week we will be drilling back attacks. I predict much chokeage over the next five days.

At 6:30a we drilled a gi choke, and an alternate bow/arrow choke for if the manage to roll onto the other side to avoid the gi choke.

Got to roll with coach a bit as well. We started on the ground and both pulled guard at the same time. He told me I need to work harder to keep position when on top. I’m so used to working off my back, that I’ll let someone roll me easily when I am quite capable of maintaining position. Once I get top position, coach wants me to stay there. He said I did much better than last time I rolled with him – progress is good! I think he actually put out effort to pass my guard this time, took him a few tries.

No one my size (meaning midget) was there at 10, so I just watched the guys shark tank each other.

At 11:30 we drilled a takedown, and two deep half guard top moves. One being the bravo choke, the other was a “flatten them out and pass” option.

I think I’ll go up with the team to Louisville for this tournament on the 12th. Coach said it’d be a good one to get my feet wet with before NAGA in June. The tournament has an interesting setup. No weight classes, they just divide everyone up day of into groups of 5 – starting with the lightest. The each person in the group will fight the 4 others one at a time. So I’ll get some good practice!

This the people at this tournament complain that guys from my team are too rough. So, of course, that means coach wants to take an even bigger team up this year and “toughen those sissies up.”

Went in at 6:30 and, for once, I was glad no one else showed up. I started moving around a bit and decided that sore rib I got last night needs some rest.

I made an appointment to see the chiro at 10:30 – so we’ll see what’s going on. Basically it is feeling the same way that my (finally) healed rib felt right before I’d broken it. I ignored it last time – and I learned my lesson!

Results are that I had a ton of scar tissue wrapping up my lower spine. It’s probably from when I sprained that vertebral ligament two months ago. At any rate, it was a rather painful treatment, but he took care of it and I’m (almost) good as new.

What likely happened is that the scar tissue was keeping my lower ribs from moving the way they normally would – leading to injury. I’m still a bit sore in that new spot on my left side – but it should heal pretty quickly now. I’m gonna just baby it over the weekend and see how it feels on Monday.

Did more back escape drills today, then we got to roll for a bit. Us (two) girls got to stick together while the boys swapped out. After the first round, coach had us starting out in each other’s closed guards.

We’re a pretty even match, so we wore each other out! I managed to get a cross choke in place but she defended well and I wasted a lot of grip strength on that. Neither of us got a sub out of the 3 rounds we did – closest I got was that cross choke and setting up a ghost arm bar just as time was called. I think I’m getting better maintaining my guard though!

It definitely takes more energy to roll with someone your same size and skill level. I love it, and hate it at the same time!

Went back at 5 and got totally crushed by the guys. I was introduced to a toe hold as well – apparently my ankle is fairly flexible and that was good since I didn’t know I needed to tap to that! Thankfully the guy had enough common sense to stop and inform me that I needed to tap before he snapped my foot in half.

I ordered some ear guards that should be here by monday. They’re the kind that look like a headband with a chin strap – so pretty non-invasive. I don’t think I’ll wear them all the time – but if I’m sparring with guys who smash me, totally gonna!

One of coach’s brown belts, who teaches at another school, popped in for some roll time toward the end of 5. He was very disappointed that everyone seemed too tired to roll after. So I told him I had some fight left in me.

We rolled non-stop through the next class hour. Twas fun! He is actually the same size and weight as I am and wasn’t trying to smash me. He told me I’m doing very well with my hip movements but need to be more aware of openings for subs.

Coach bragged on me and told him I’m gonna be his next world champ once he gets the basics beaten into me. Yay!?

I still had energy left for the next class, although I had to sit out after the first drill. I think the smashing at 5 pulled a rib muscle and it was getting fairly painful to twist. That’s how it felt for the week before I broke a rib – I ignored it and then it broke. I’m gonna listen this time!

I was very happy this morning to find that there were two other people who showed up for the 6:30 class! They were big boys (bigger than me at any rate!), so they drilled together and I got to play with coach.

We were practicing escaping from a back take. 3 levels – without grips locked in, with one, and then with both. We drilled for a while and then drilled live. Coach was having fun strangling me – and he got free of me pretty quickly, although I was able to hold onto him for a few seconds once.

At 10:30 we had a whole training camp of new people. 10:30 is mainly no gi stuff right now since we have people getting ready for XFC fights in June (one of our guys is the headliner!). There is one other girl training for a fight as well, so coach had me rolling with her for about 30 mins. No gi is definitely more slippery once you get warmed up. Still had fun!

In the 11:30 class, I skipped group warm ups since sweat was still pouring down by back after rolling earlier. We worked the half guard bottom position today. Practiced a cool arm drag back take when they wizard, kimura, and a sweep. The guy I was drilling with showed me how the way I was getting his back set me up perfectly to pull off a twister to make Eddie Bravo proud – it felt very bendy and fun!

My ear is still fairly sore, although not as swollen. A team mate said he has some nice ear guards I can have for rolling when my ears are sore. He said they’re the soft headband type ones – not the crazy dominatrix ones with 12 straps and hunks of plastic sticking 3 inches out the sides of your head.

Some of the guys seem offended that I want to keep my ears “pretty”. I told them “I am still a girl and as such, I have to retain the ability to clean up and look cute if the situation calls for it.”

It’s a very light day at work, just have one massage to do at 7:45. I was gonna go in for sparring at 5, but decided to rest and take a nap instead. Tomorrow is an all day training day, so I’m just gonna let my body chill out.

Cool news! My gym is moving to a bigger/better location and coach told me this morning he is putting in a room for me to do my massages out of. So I’ll be spending even more time there! Yay!

So if it picks up really well working at the gym, I’ll probably drop my wed evening shift at the spa – then possibly my friday. I wouldn’t want to drop my spa job because I just enjoy working there, but I’d cut back if I needed to.

Had some fun this morning at 10. A couple of blue belts were visiting from out of town and, boy! Could they smack talk up a storm!

I took a turn rolling with each of them. I impressed them enough that they told coach about it and I think he popped a few buttons. Wore one guy out, and managed a back take on the other. I had a reverse x choke thing sunk in deep but I couldn’t get the angle to finish it. He told me after I should have switch to a B/A choke and I would have had it easy. Stupid tunnel vision!

At 11:30 we drilled back take escapes. What made it fun was that instead of doing it sitting up, we started in turtle and had someone jump on us from there – then we had to reguard after escaping.

In roll time, I went with another girl. We started standing but after 5 minutes we just sat down because neither of us could take down the other. I ended that match with an in guard cross choke. Been nailing that fairly frequently lately.

Then I got stuck with one of my least favorite blue belts. Every time I roll with him I end up hurt. This time it was a bloody lip and a smashed ear. The lip I can deal with but my ear got a bit swollen and angry. Not quite bad enough to drain but enough to make me want ear guards – getting some tomorrow! Frozen grapes are wonderful for ice and compression, and the steroid ointment I have helps as well.

I ended up just hanging out for class at 6. Then I rolled with one of our black belts for a bit before class at 7:15. He said that I and Luci have the best open guard he has ever seen in a couple of white belts. We didn’t have enough people show for 7:15 to have an actual class, so it turned into a “teach Nicholle new tricks” session. He showed me a pass that I was set up for several time and just didn’t see – and also chided me for not sweeping him when I had him in deep half guard. Also he said I think too much when I’m in open guard – “need to just go for it baby!”

All in all, good training day. Hope this ear settles down by tomorrow!

Pretty low key. Didn’t have a 6:30 training session because my coach got into town at 1 am and needed sleep. Thankfully he gave me the heads up – so I slept in too!

So at 10 I went in to play. Had fun just practicing maintaining my guard – I’m doing fairly well! Even when passed, I slid out of side control and regained fairly easily. Neither of us were going for any subs – just having fun moving.

Did get my fingers jammed backward hard enough to bring an involuntary tear to my eye. Scared me for a few minutes since I couldn’t move my hand, but it’s all good now – and made it through 4 hours of deep tissue massage this evening. So no worries!

At 11:30 there was a new girl in class, so I paired off with her. Made me realize just how much I’ve learned in the short time I have been training!

This week we appear to be working on half guard bottom position. We drilled a simple back take from underhook, and a sweep to counter the wizard on said underhook. Then a few sweeps from deep half guard.

Gotta say, I just LOVE deep half guard! I remember a team mate showing it to me my first week of training, and it became my go to move for a while. A while being: until people learned to not let me get my monkey grips locked into that position. At any rate, it’s still one of my favorite positions. What I like to do is fake a sweep, duck out the back, and then take their back.

So I’m slowly learning what moves I like most. I definitely like open guard and deep half. Coach likes to see me playing spider guard – honestly, I’m rather “meh” about it, but if I practice it more I’m sure I’ll warm up to it. He says with my “man grip” and hip mobility, it’ll be killer.

At any rate, I’m gonna be due for another private lesson here soon. I think I’ll ask to split the time between half guard and spider guard.

Oh, side note: I can now put both feet behind my head! Yay for superhuman powers! I can also pull a leg up over my shoulder and omoplata myself, and also internally rotate my hip until my foot is almost at the front of my pelvis. Makes the guys cringe when I stretch out after class!

I have been using my feet a lot more lately. Managed to get out of a few armbars by twisting and locking my feet to break someone’s grips on my hand. I’ve also been experimenting using my feet in chokes. Failing so far… But I’m sure there must be a way…

Well tomorrow is an “almost” full day of training. I managed to book myself time to get a massage at 4, so I’ll not be rolling at the 5 pm class. I’m not getting deep tissue work done though so I should be good for 6.

Tomorrow’s Schedule:
10a – competition team training
11:30a – advanced gi
4p – massage
6p – advanced gi
7:15 – advanced gi (w/extra roll time)

Looks pretty good to me! I’m gonna feel it out after my massage and play by ear for 6.