travel – Page 3 – Coach's Killer

Goodbye, and Hello

December 27, 2015December 27, 2015Leave a comment

Three weeks from tomorrow I will be getting on a plane heading toward Lisbon, Portugal for the European Championships!

I’ve been working really hard through the holiday season on trying to make the cut to feather weight – no easy task since it requires me to get down to about 126 lbs and I naturally walk around closer to 142 lbs. However I have made the weight twice before and, while I hate the process, I actually feel very good competing in the weight class. I’m right on track and should be good to go before I step on the plane!

Brazil

I really wanted to go to Brazil in 2016 as well but I wasn’t sure I would be able to afford the plane ticket. However, I caught a fare sale put on by my airline of choice and got a plane ticket to Rio for the week of Brasilieros for half the lowest advertised price I had seen previously! It is only a week in Brazil, but I hope to meet up with friends, make new friends, and set the stage for a longer visit later on!

Pans

I will most definitely be competing at Pans this next year as well. I haven’t put together any travel plans yet (I’ve been distracted by plane tickets to Europe and Brazil), but I did get myself registered!

Worlds

I’m going to win Worlds this year. I have no doubts.

Asia

It will happen!

The Plan

I have been working an (almost) full time evening job at a local grocery store gas station in order to pay for all my events this next year. I was up front when they hired me that my priority is my training and competition, but I also told them I would bust my butt working for them while I was on the clock in order to be indispensable. I have proven myself and my manager is being extremely flexible in giving me off the nights that I requested in order to get the best training in that I can. He told me that if I need off for events to just let him know and he will handle it. Here is my plan for the first 6 months of the year!

January 18 – Fly to Europe (9 hour layover in Paris, must bike the Seine to the Eiffel Tower)
January 19 – Arrive in Lisbon and check into Hotel
January 20-24 – Compete on whichever day they decide to put my division
January 27 – Fly home and back to the grind
March 15 or 16 – Fly to LA
March 16-20 Compete at Pans on designated day
March 21 – Fly home and back to the grind
April 25 – Take leave from work and Fly to Rio
April 26ish – Take bus or shuttle flight to Sao Paulo
April 27-May 1 – Compete at Brasilieros on my designated day and return to Rio immediately after
May 3 – Fly home (arrive 4th)
May 5 – Pick up Dante and fly to Washington D.C. for Worlds training camp at TLI HQ.
May 31 – Fly from D.C. to L.A. for Worlds
June 1-5 Win on my designated day of competition, then eat acai.
June 6 – Disneyland
June 7 – Fly Home

I’ll return from leave to work after getting home from Worlds and prepare myself to leave for two weeks in Asia. Most likely I will be gone September 8-22 and will be competing in the Pan Asian Championship on the 10th or 11th. A week was not long enough last visit!

That is my grand scheme for next year. The details will likely not all work out according to plan, but I will make it work at the end of the day!

Competition – Boston, Atlanta, and Tokyo Plans

September 3, 2015September 3, 2015Leave a comment

The past two weeks have been crazy! Awesome, but crazy! 001

I flew out to Boston on August 19th and visited with my family for a few days in Amherst, NH. We did a big family portrait with my parents, sister, and my brother’s clan.

It was great to see everyone – I need to get out there more often to visit!

On the 22nd my Dad drove me to Boston to compete in the IBJJF Boston Open. After the craziness that happened last time in Boston with my weight, I made absolute certain I was at least a couple pounds under my weight limit before leaving for the venue in the morning.

Weight Class
My first match in a competition is always a bit weird. I won with a pretty good point margin but wasn’t feeling driven to go for the finish like usual (bad Nicholle!). In my second match I won by submission.

My third (and finals match) was an awesome battle! I made the huge mistake of trying a brand new move and ended up getting my guard passed and I lost on points for the silver medal in my weight class.

The Open
For my first match in the open, I had the ultra-heavy weight silver medalist. I jumped full guard and did well the first half of the match until my guard was passed and I found I was unable to move beyond just enough to prevent a position advance for my opponent. In the end, my opponent was disqualified in the last 10 seconds for stalling. I’m glad I got to advance, but I didn’t exactly win either – so I have very mixed feelings about that.

My second match was the semi finals and I got another of the ultra-heavy weight ladies. I pulled guard straight into a sweep but was unable to stick the pass and got put into full guard. I became rather annoyed at attempts to cross choke me across my cheekbones and eyes. I got a stalling warning, stood up, passed, and had a really fun match without getting scored on and ending with a submission.

My team mate Roya won her semi finals match against yet another ultra-heavy weight, and I told our coach I wanted to give her the gold since she took gold in her division. (Plus she is awesome and I have yet to be able to score a single point on her in practice.) So I ended up with double silver in Boston!

Washington D.C.
Sunday night (the 23rd) I took an overnight bus from Boston down to Washington D.C. I can usually sleep well while traveling but had major difficulties this time so I arrived in D.C. looking a little worn with just about a 30 minute nap keeping me upright. I didn’t make it to the school in time for morning training so I watched the rest of class.
I went across the street to eat and just when my food arrived I got a call from Master Lloyd asking where I was – apparently one of my team mates was going back by the dorm house and was going to drop me off so I could sleep. Since I missed the ride, I took a nap on the mat in the back room.

Training was awesome as always and I feel like I’m improving a bit more each time I visit. One of my training partners commented that I felt more compact than I did my last visit.

Atlanta
I took a bus from D.C. to Atlanta on the 28th (Friday). It was a stinking looooooong ride of 14+ hours but I can’t really complain too much since the ticket cost me less than $30! (Megabus has revolutionized my travel budget!)

Made it to my hotel a little bit before midnight and crashed out until I had to check out and head to the venue at 9. My division was set to start at 10:40 but ended up being called 30 minutes early. My warm up consisted of slapping my face once at the side of the mat and running out there.

Weight Class
I had a training injury limiting my normal levels of mobility, so I opted to jump full guard. The match went for several minutes before I managed to get a submission.

My second match was won by submission but I can’t remember how it went and my video malfunctioned… so that will just have to be a mystery!

Third match was the finals against a friend of mine and it was shaping up to be a fun dynamic match until her hip dislocated while I was working a straight ankle lock. Apparently it happens frequently so she will be fine after a few days of soreness – but it sucked!

So yea, gold in my weight class.

Open Weight
My first match was pretty tough and went to a decision. I played guard the whole time but was dynamic enough that I won the decision to advance.

My second match was possibly one of my favorites of the day. My training injury was really starting to cause me problems so I resorted to rubber guard control and ended up winning by submission with a bent elbow arm bar (yes, it looked as weird as it sounds).

My third match was the finals and I went with the weirdest guard pull/sweep thing I think I’ve done in competition to date. I ended up on top of deep half guard with the under hook. I ended finishing with a wrist lock which surprised and confused my opponent since she had been told wrist locks were not legal moves.

Gold in the Open!

Home Again!
It was so good to get back home to Nashville! I miss my home crew and awesome coach, Shawn Hammonds, whenever I am gone for more than a few days. I have just a few more days to enjoy them all before I leave on September 8th for Japan.

One of my clients bartered a package deal in exchange for the plane ticket to Tokyo. He and his wife are pretty much set for their next year’s worth of massage appointments – and it’s totally worth it!

I will arrive in Tokyo on the 9th and have already reserved a portable wifi unit so I can stay connected with my instagram account while I am exploring. Okay, and so that I can look up google maps when I get lost (which WILL happen!)

I booked myself a stay in a well reviewed capsule hotel which includes a bicycle rental. It also has free (consistent) wifi, a ladies only floor with traditional Japanese bath, a rooftop terrace, easy access to metro and food places, as well as a free vending machine that dispenses coffee, tea, and miso soup! Oh yea, and only $20 a day!

On the 10th I have been granted a tour of the Imperial Palace after which I plan to visit the Kodokan Museum and watch a Judo class there. I won’t be able to participate since not only do I not have an official judo gi, I will be competing on the 12th and would rather not have any extra sore spots if necessary.

The 12th is the Pan Asian Championships in a northern area of Tokyo. I currently have a division of 4 and am crossing my fingers for some more last minute sign ups! Feather weights and under outnumber the light weights and up by almost a 2:1 ratio – so I get to be one of the big she-hulk beasts in the open!

On the 13th I will be climbing to the summit of Mt. Fuji. It’s a non-technical climb which means no ropes will be needed. The climb just requires lots of stamina and cardio endurance as it’s a long uphill hike through rapidly thinning air (12,388 ft or 2.34 miles above sea level). Incidentally there is also a ramen shop at the summit along with a post office. I am going to mail a few postcards from the top once I make it up there, after slurping some high altitude ramen!

On the 15th I have tickets to the Sumo National Championship Tournament.I actually booked this through a tour company so I will get to have the walk through and an explanation of all the ceremony involved.

I fly home on the afternoon of the 16th so I plan to eat one (or 5) last meals before heading for the airport.

If anyone has any suggestions of things to do while I am there, please share! I’ve got a check list of things to do (and things to eat!) and will most definitely be taking a TON of photos and videos. I probably will not be spending too much time writing blog posts while I am there, but I may do some photo and/or video blogs!

Sayonara!

Coming Soon! Boston, Atlanta, and… Tokyo!?

July 28, 2015Leave a comment

It has been a huge dream of mine to go compete in Tokyo, Japan at the Pan Asian Championships. Well it has been renamed the “Asian Championships” now, but that doesn’t bother me too much because I’m freaking going this year!

This all came about very suddenly. Before an appointment two days ago, my client was admiring my medals from the Fuji tournament and it made him ask if I have competed in Japan. I told him “sadly not yet” and explained that the event will be held in 6 weeks and I’m going to have to miss it again this year. He asked if it was just a money issue keeping me from going and then offered a trade. He used frequent flyer miles to book my ticket, and in exchange he and his wife are set for their next year worth of appointments!

I think all parties are happy with how this worked out! I’ll be working my end of the deal for a while, but it is definitely worth it to me!

I will arrive on September 9, compete on the 12th or 13th, and fly home on the 16th. I am very excited to get to test myself against a whole new group of competitors that I might never get to slap hands with otherwise!

Other Plans:

I have decided that the day after I compete I will hike to the top of Mt Fuji since the climbing season is closing on the 15th of September and I’ll have just enough time to get up and down before the trails close. I’ve climbed a mountain before and remember it as a tough, and hugely rewarding experience. This will be about an extra 2,000 ft higher of elevation so I will definitely plan to take my time on the way up! I remember that on the last mountain I climbed I was starting to notice the thinning of the air for the last 1,000 feet to the summit.

Since my plane lands in the early afternoon, through the power of caffeine I plan to keep myself awake starting at least 6 hrs away from landing. This way by the time I clear customs, pick up my rental mobile wifi unit, navigate my way on the metro to my hotel, check in, find a ramen shop for dinner, and then relax a bit in the traditional Japanese bath at my hotel… I should be ready to sleep by 8 so I can skip the jet lag as much as possible.

I’ll have two full days to do whatever I like before the competition begins. I’m thinking the first day should be a good explore day and for the second maybe a visit to the Tokyo Disneyland would be in order (if budget permits!)

If anyone has any suggestions for things to do, people to see, places to eat… I am all ears!

Make sure to follow my Instagram page for a steady stream of awesome photos!

My Hotel:

I’m never one for spending much on accommodations since the more I can save in that area, the more I have to spend on food – besides, I’ll be out exploring all day anyhow! When I’m traveling abroad I usually stay in hostel type accommodations.

The place I have chosen to stay for my trip to Japan, is a capsule hotel. Think of it as a train sleeper bed, or a navy bunk. I stow my luggage in a locker and climb into my capsule which in this case consists of a tatami floor, a rolled up futon mattress, and enough space to sit up, lie down, and turn around – so it’s like a properly sized dog crate!

The perks with this place are that I’m staying in a ladies only floor, and the hotel has traditional bath houses, saunas, free wifi, really good network with local businesses, easy metro access, and a free vending machine in the lobby that dispenses coffee, tea, and miso soup. I get all that, with a bike rental included for just 20 USD per night!

Busy Busy Busy!

I wrote out my travel/training/competition schedule for the next couple months, and it made me feel very busy. Here it is!

August 19: fly to Boston and see family
August 22: Compete at the Boston Open with the family cheering me on
August 23: Overnight bus to DC for training
August 28: Overnight bus to Atlanta
August 29, 30: Compete at the Atlanta Open Gi/No Gi Competition
August 31: Take bus back home to Nashville
September 8: Start flight to Tokyo
September 9: Arrive in Tokyo
September 12, 13: Compete at the Asian Championships
September 16: Fly back home to Nashville
September 24: Fly to Las Vegas
September 25, 26: Compete at Master World Championships:
September 28: Fly from Vegas to DC
October 2: Take bus from DC to New York City
October 3: Compete at No Gi Pans
October 6: Fly home to Nashville

By the time I get home in October, I likely won’t have a dime to my name.

Totally worth it!

Lisbon – Castles, Food, and Training

January 27, 2015January 27, 20152 Comments

Yesterday I spent my day up at the Castelo de S. Jorge. It was breathtaking, and not just because of the long climb up the hill and through the Alfama neighborhood (I took the roundabout route).

In the midst of my wanderings, I came across a gorgeous cathedral and just had to pop in. I sat down for a few minutes then lit a candle before continuing on with my uphill hike.

When I eventually made my way up to the top of the hill and entered the castle grounds, the view just made me have to stop and stare for quite a while.

I was planning to take the tour but I completely misread the sign. It said the English tour was at 13 which I somehow translated in my brain to 1:30 so I showed up 30 minutes too late. Yea I know, I’m a dunce.

I stopped for a snack at the café before crossing the bridge into the castle itself. This was great fun as I got to climb up and down these steep staircases, many without railings, which made the adrenaline junkie in me very content.

Food
One of my favorite things to do is eat! So you can bet I have been making the rounds! Here are a few highlights!
Pork at O Pote! I had been thinking about this particular meal since my previous trip to Lisbon two years ago! I was a very happy foodie!

The potatoes were a bit different than I remembered, but it was still amazing! Good simple comfort food!

Seafood Rice at Casa de India! I was able to identify shrimp, mussels, crab, octopus, barnacles, and even a couple of whole prawns! I realized after I ate this that maybe I should have tested myself for a shellfish allergy before this trip but I ended up being just fine!

Just so you know, if you are in a more traditional Portuguese dining facility, you will need to flag down your waiter for the bill. Just something to be aware of if you are used to being hovered over! The service is excellent, you are just left to enjoy your meal in peace until you have a request to make. I rather like it that way!

I stopped at a yummy looking gelato shop named Amorino and discovered that they will sculpt your gelato into the shape of a flower! You just choose your size and you can choose as many favors as you want. I saw that they had my favorite Dutch spice cookie as a flavor so I took a base of that, plus caramel, and finished it off with chocolate.

I may have to go back tomorrow…

Of course I went back to Manteigaria for more Pastéis de nata! I found that they will actually sell packages of them to go, so I may purchase some tomorrow evening and see if they last the trip home!

I also imbibed in numerous sandwiches and other bits of randomness, but I promised just the highlights!

Training

Today I took a bus ride out toward Belém in order to train at the Royce Gracie Academy. The instructor there is Hélio Perdigão and I highly recommend this school to any Jiu Jitsu practitioner visiting Lisbon! I got some fun rolls in and there are good variety of sizes and experience levels levels present.

In Conclusion
There are so many things to talk about in regards to this trip. The street performers, the architecture, the culture, the fashion, etc. While I am here and not wanting to stay holed up writing and editing, I am just giving general highlights. Once I get home I will start going into more details.

Tomorrow is my last full day here in Lisbon. I have a plan. It shall hopefully prove to be most excellent!

Lisbon – Sweets and Sunsets

January 25, 2015January 25, 20152 Comments

I meant to do an update on my adventure yesterday at the zoo, but I became distracted by sleep and crashed out before I could put two words together! So here is a two in one update!

The Zoo

It was a bit different than the Zoo where I grew up! One thing I noticed was how much more fun it is when people don’t assume that you are going to do something stupid like hop the guardrail and go try to climb on the buffalo.

I spent probably 3 hours at the zoo, finishing up by watching the dolphin and sea lion show. One thing you must do is ride on the lift that will give you the grand tour of the place from the air. You get to go directly over the animal pens (including the Lions!) and the view you get of the city is just awesome.

I had the meerkat group in a minor uproar as I discovered I can imitate their peeping communication noise well enough that they started trying to find me. Too cute!

I was tickled pink to find that they have a pair of White Tigers! I wasn’t able to get a good picture of them however as they were snoozing bellies to the sun behind a chain link fence. Chain link is not friendly to photographs!

One thing I will say is that I think half the zoo was shut down for the winter. I wish I could see it when it’s fully up and running!

Pastéis de Nata
Please note: if you are ever wandering aimlessly through Lisbon and you see a small shop with a line out down the sidewalk. Join it. Even if you can’t see what people are waiting for, it will most definitely be worth it!

This line happened to be for Manteigaria, a shop that apparently does nothing but create pastéis de nata. I ordered two and an espresso and slid over to the standing counter to enjoy.

I took a cue from one of the little Portuguese grannies and decided to try one with cinnamon on it. I think my life changed a little when I bit into it. I kinda gasped and inhaled a bit of the cinnamon and was coughing randomly for the next hour.

The sweet gooey/crispy awesomeness was perfect paired with the European style espresso. I may accidentally wander in that direction again tomorrow.

The Walk
My favorite thing to do when I’m visiting a city is to just pick a direction and just head that way exploring whatever catches my eye (or more often nose!) along the way. This time I made my way through the Chiado area stopping to take pictures with my big old pink cased iPad (anyone want to get me a big girl camera?) and just enjoying myself. Here is a collection of a few of my favorite photos from that walk!

Lisbon – The Underground

January 23, 20154 Comments

Brief summary of my experience at the Europeans:
I managed to lose my first round. I was up on the scoreboard and still do not understand how my opponent received pass and mount points when I had my xguard hook in deep enough to still lift her leg. Nothing I can do about it now though but move on to the next thing! The Atlanta Open is next Saturday!

Fooooood!!!:
After moping around in my hotel room, I decided to quit being a baby and get out into the city! I am staying in the Chiado area and wandered into a pastry shop for some goodies that were awesome enough to chase away the gloomies for a while!

After this, I took the subway to meet up with a fellow Raijin Army member, Will. He doesn’t like being in photos so I shall refrain from putting up a photo and will instead share a picture of the meal I had during our hang out time at O Pote! I’m a very simple person. All it takes to keep me happy is good food and good company! I’m kind of like a hobbit in that regards!

The Underground:
During my last trip two years ago, I took a cab from the airport to my hotel and missed out on the subway stations of the vermelha (red) line. I decided I shall have to pick a day to just ride the subway and stop at each station in order to take pictures. Each station is designed and decorated completely differently from the others! Here are some photos I took of the Olaias stop! The colors just are breathtaking!

What’s Next?
I think I shall go to the zoo tomorrow! It’s on a subway line I haven’t visited yet so I think I shall ride there, and then walk back afterwards. It’s only 5k and will allow me to enjoy the sights above ground some – and I will likely stop at some random food place as well!
Sunday I want to visit the Aquarium, and then do some training next week. I am here until the 29th and plan to enjoy every minute of it!

Circuits, Weight Classes, and… Mexico?

January 11, 2014January 11, 2014Leave a comment

Well I introduced the ladies in my Saturday morning class to circuit training today! We started off with just a three minute circuit with three minutes to recover in between – we will eventually work it up to a five minute circuit with a minute rest in between.

Today we drilled loop chokes from half guard. Our position this week has been guard, but one of my ladies has sore ribs and a bum wrist – so we worked around it!

Mexico City Training Camp:

I just registered for a training camp in Mexico City with Mackenzie Dern and Sophia Drysdale. It will be at the end of July, and I am EXTREMELY excited for it already! Get your registration in now to reserve a spot!

Weight Classes:

In other news, I talked with my coach yesterday about my weight cut. He decided he wants me to stick with light weight instead of continuing my drop to feather weight. Not gonna lie, I’m kind of happy about that!

Size wise, I fit in the feather division better. Problem being, my doc says I have very dense muscle, so I weigh a lot more than I look. I’d have to lose a substantial amount of muscle to make featherweight, and that isn’t safe for me because of my hypermobility.

Meaning: I’m currently 132, so coach wants me back up to 137-138. I’m not just gonna fluff up though. I’m sticking with eating really clean, upping my caloric intake, and adding more strength training into my routine. I will confess, I’m going out for Italian food tomorrow for dinner with friends – but i’ll burn through that in no time flat!

See what Tournaments I’ll be at next! I love to meet people!

Lloyd Irvin Mixed Martial Arts Academy

October 9, 2013Leave a comment

Last week I had the awesome opportunity to train with the crew at Team Lloyd Irvin HQ just outside of DC! Best two days of training ever!

Day 1

10:00 am I got to enjoy my first ever wrestling class! Warm up of jogging, sprints, shots, and… Cartwheels. I haven’t even attempted a cartwheel since I flunked out of gymnastics at the age of 8 (for not being able to do a cartwheel!) I had momentum and went for it though, and was actually able to do it! Yea!
Next up we did sprawls/shots on command while just moving around in stance. I was informed that if I went out of my stance it’d be 25 push-ups… I asked “what’s my stance?” And saw the instructor take a step back to “basics” and showed me proper wrestling stance – which I then stayed in!
We did takedown drills for probably 45 mins – which I needed desperately! My arm drag is already showing improvement! The rest of the 90 min class was technique drilling, and I got a REALLY awesome takedown from it which I have already hit a few times live!

11:30 am Jiu Jitsu time! Warm ups, then pairing off to do positional drilling. I liked the format of each person getting a set amount of time to drill before switching – as opposed to keeping count, which I’m not that great at. (I get lost after 2!)
After drilling guard passing a few times, Master Lloyd emphasized the importance of blocking the hip, post-pass, for at least 4 seconds before moving on. Then he had us all line up on the wall while he called out pairs to move to the center of the mat and attempt to pass and stabilize position. Good times!
After this, he started pairing us off to roll. I have no idea how long the rounds were, but they were longer that I normally do. Again, awesome!
Time really flew by fast, and before I knew it, it was 2:00 pm and class was over!

Went out to grab a bite and then was dropped off at my hotel to nap for a couple of hours.

7:00 pm Sarj picked me up from my hotel and dropped me off for the evening class times. More drilling, more sparring – until it was 10:00 pm and I was dropped back off again! I slept REALLY well that night!

Day 2

11:30 more Jiu Jitsu! They had MMA sparring at 10 that morning, and I haven’t learned enough Muay Thai to be of any use in that class whatsoever – so I slept in a bit!

6:00 pm Nijah teaches a ladies “Cage Fitness” class and I asked to watch so as to get some ideas for our ladies program. It seems to have a completely different approach and feel than our ladies classes – I am going to see about integrating some ideas, or even talking with coach about a totally new program!

8:30 last Jiu Jitsu class! Again, more drilling and rolling! When we finished, I said all my goodbyes and dragged myself back to bed to prepare for my trip home early the next morning.

I just thrive off pushing myself, so I had an amazing time! I’ve never had a chance to roll with any high ranking ladies before, and getting to roll with Sijara and Nyjah was the highlight of the experience. Also, the effort everyone puts into their training very inspiring as well – there is a reason why they are as good as they are. It’s called hard work!

I’ve visited other schools before, and always felt some level of awkwardness walking in the door. This felt like visiting my hometown and seeing those awesome family members that I’ve missed! Thank you everyone!

2013 No Gi Pan Ams

October 4, 2013October 4, 20138 Comments

Well that was a whirlwind! I’m going to write about this whole trip in two separate posts.

Part 1: 2013 No Gi Pan Ams

This was my first big tournament as a new blue belt and wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into.

If you read my previous two blog posts, you would know that I have been struggling a lot with anxiety over the last several competitions. It was honestly getting to such a debilitating state where I needed to constantly distract myself in order to keep from hyperventilating.

About a week out from this tournament, I started not even being able to sleep – and hard training on no sleep is NOT a good combo!

Writing out my thoughts in the previous posts really helped a lot. I process things well if I write through them.

The key point that helped in this competition was: remembering how much work I have actually put in – and that I deserve to be competing. The other thing that helped was banishing negative thoughts. Every time a negative thought sneaked into my head, I would shove it out and speak three positives.

I felt really good going into my first match! I was a bit sad that I had the by into the semifinals (only 6 in my division!), but figured I could make up for it in the open.

I ended my first match via RNC with a very short time to spare. She tried blitzing me from the start – and man was she strong! I kept her in closed guard because I was concerned she would just smash my open guard – I’m not that confident in my No Gi skills at this point.

She got warned and penalized twice for face palming me – her fingers were up my nose at one point and I ended up with a shiner the next day from that.

I’m going to be working on my omoplata from guard. I had the set up a few times but never went for it. More drilling needed!

That match put me into the finals where I quickly tapped although I’m not entirely sure what happened (my videographer was unable to work my camera). I ended up at the medic corner getting my neck evaluated and iced – along with a recommendation that I abstain from the open. Boo!

All in all, I’m pleased because I handled my nerves well and did not stress out nearly as badly!

On the Podium – my semi-finals opponent didn’t show for her medal 😦

Making Weight
I’ve got a whole huge essay in my drafts folder on this subject, just haven’t figured out the best time to upload it. So consider this a sneak peek!

For this competition, I got my weight down to the lowest I think it has ever been in my adult life! I ended up weighing in at 135 on the official scale.

Slight spoiler for part 2… But I got some advice that really confirmed what I’ve been feeling (but not wanting to face)… And I’m gonna work my way down to featherweight instead of competing lightweight. The reason mainly being my body frame size – I always feel like a midget when competing.

Coach thinks I could make it down in time for No Gi Pan Ams. He thinks I can do it since I “eat like a fat kid” normally. I can change my division until Oct 26, so I I can get down within 4 lbs by then, I’ll do it. That’s 8 lbs in 3 weeks. Can I do it? Yes. Will it be tough? Probably…

Part 2: Lloyd Irvin Mixed Martial Arts Academy – Coming Soon!

Team Training Day

August 5, 2013September 24, 2013Leave a comment

I went to Philadelphia with my coach over the weekend for TAC Team training day. I rode up with 4 black belts, so I had the option of the middle seat, or in the back with the luggage – I chose to make a nest in the duffel bags. We only stopped a few times to fill up the gas tank – it was a bit cramped, but I slept most of the way – so not too bad!

We arrived Friday night about an hour before team training class, so we checked in to the hotel, and then headed over to the school. It felt good to move around after being curled up for 11 hours. It was pretty informal, no timer. So I flow rolled a warm up with one of our black belts, then went with a white belt, and then tried out one of Jared’s brown belts.

Team training was on Saturday. We had 20 black belts, and a grand total of about 100 people. We began with a few awards, then there were a ton of belt promotions.

We rolled 6 minute rounds, while alternating between brown/purple/black belts and white/blue belts on the mats. I got to roll with two blue belt girls, and 2 white belt girls. After training was over, I went out with a group to watch the UFC 163 at a local bar.

We are about to start a fight camp for a few of the guys – and it looks like a girl will be coming in to train as well for a title fight. Therefore, I’ll get to help out with the fight camp and I’m so excited!

This Saturday is the 2nd Ladies Open Mat that here in Nashville and I am stoked! I’m expecting a good sized group – thankfully a friend has picked up the marketing slack (my Achilles heel), and has been calling around to notify schools. (You rock Sara!)

Next weekend is the IBJJF Chicago Open. My coach is working with my deep half guard bottom attacks/sweeps – Hopefully I can whip out something cool! It’s going to be my first big tournament as a blue belt, and I am absolutely stoked to have 8 people in my division! Looks like I’ll be competing in Gi on the 17th, and no Gi on the 18th. I’m riding up with two team mates who both get off work late on Friday, so we decided to just leave late Friday night, drive through the night straight to the venue. I’ll be the only person competing on Saturday, so I can sleep on the way. We have a nice hotel downtown booked for Saturday night.

August 31st is the Atlanta Open – and my coach wants to take a huge team to it.

September 28th is No Gi Pan Ams – Not sure if anyone other than myself is planning to attend

October 20th is Abu Dhabi Pro Trials – totally going to that one!

November 6 – 13 is a Ladies Training Camp in Mexico with Mackenzie Dern, I’m getting my registration taken care of in the next day or two!

So far nothing planned after that until the European Open in January. Might have December off from events!

Additional side note: I’m trying to nail down a date to bring back the “Music City Open” Jiu Jitsu Tournament. Coach says we used to run it twice a year and it did very well – no idea why they stopped putting it on, but coach and I are gonna bring it back!

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