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Friday 18 September 2009

Bahrain BJJ

Well after what seems like the longest wait I finally arrived back to Bahrain late on Wednesday night. It was the weirdest thing stepping off the plane, for me I always notice smells first, Bahrain just smells completely different to England, the crisp clear autumn smell has been replaced with the seasonless dessert humidity. Annoyingly the relief I thought I would feel when I got here has yet to make an appearance.

I felt so nervous going to training at Reza's again for a mixture of reasons, mainly I was worried that reza wouldn't think that I should have got my blue belt, as the guys that train there are all really good. Training didn't really do anything to make me feel better about that, me and alex were just messing around and I did that triangle escape Ze had showed us where you hold the same collar to choke them and stack them till their legs open then go for double leg pass, I think its more of a last option but Reza saw and was like you should never do that you'll just get arm-barred and then drilled triangle escapes where you posture up to break their position. So from the beginning I felt kinda like my head wasn't in the game which I never get I always feel like when I train I'm so focused. Anyways as it was Ramadan there wasn't too many people there and fasting all day must mean alot of the guys don't have their usual vast amounts of energy so we just rolled for about and hour as Thursday is like an open mat session. I rolled with Alex, reza and ali, felt like I knew nothing, I think its going to take alot of training there to get back into the swing of things but luckily this year I will be doing lots of training and I know when I feel like I'm doing good here it will mean that I really am getting better.

The next competition the club here are doing is the Asian super cup but I don't think there will be girls competing, still I'm going to train like I intend on going to it just in case. And finally, a bit of good news in the midst of all my doom and gloom, there was a girl at bjj! She's a good foot taller than me and hella strong which should mean I have to really work on my technique, but I'm not complaining. Hopfully tomorrows training goes better, for now at least I have fixed my diet and sorted out my S&C training. My mantra for the next few months will have to be nothing in life worth doing is ever going to be easy, training 6 days a week with bigger stronger guys ain't easy but slowly and steadily progressing in bjj is worth it!

Monday 14 September 2009

Fond Farewells and BJJ battlefield

Well Saturday was the last training session in eastbourne, which was also the first grading held at canton martial arts. It was a fun and some what emotional last training session as Ze graded me to blue belt, along with Sophie, Alex, Ian, Adam, Ruben and Olly. I'm really happy that I was there for the grading as its been very tempting to go back to Bahrain early. Still trying to get all my stuff packed which is taking for ever it seems every time I think all my clothes are packed up i find another drawer full, that plus the 5 gi's and millions of books I refuse to part ways with has certainly posed a challenge for Alex (I was forbidden from actually participating in the packing process as Alex decided things would go alot smoother if I just brought him everything and stayed out the way)



This post is mainly just a thank you to all the great people I've trained with this year, all the canton guys who were there from the start, the "little guys" as we were so often referred to Joe and Sophie and more recently naz and Emma. Richard for letting me and alex come and do a bit of training every now and then. Tolly for sticking it out despite the first class when none of us knew anything, being such a good coach and bringing so many different people together. All the guys at slough, Ze for taking the time to coach me at competitions and making the trek to eastbourne to do seminars with us. Issac, richy, manj, chin for all the great rolls and constructive criticism lol. All the bad ass bjj girlies I've met at competitions and seminars, I'm sure I'll see you all soon you inspire me to keep training hard I'll miss you lots, come visit me in Bahrain

This is where i'll be training :)
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Rezas-Martial-Art-Center/27971395698?ref=ts

Got back from a final goodbye at training so thought I would post some funny pictures of the mad royal rumble style game Tolly got everyone involved in




Friday 11 September 2009

Tatami Gi Review

The more gi's I acquire the more I realise that it must be so hard for some girls to find one that fits right. Every gi I have ordered has been an A1 and while they all "fit" so to speak I have yet to find one that would take the place of my koral pants/ RGA jacket combo for competitions. I don't know if its just me that favours a particularly snug fit but it would be good if there was gi's suitable to a womanly physique available in the UK.

Anyways rant aside I do really like my tatami gi, I've wanted a black one for ages and at a very reasonable 45 quid i got my wish. Communication was very good, I received notification that my gi had been shipped and it arrived 2 days later. In terms of fit the pants are the perfect length for me and the jacket, despite having a much longer skirt than my other gi's also fits well with perhaps just a bit too much room in the shoulders, but Alex had success shrinking his so will give that a try when the tumble dryer gets fixed! I also got the pink rash guard size medium, its a stretchy breathable material and washes up really well.



I will post some more pictures later but I defiantly recommend this gi, the A1 size would be good for any one between 5'4 to 5'7 from 60-70kg at a rough estimate.

I was talking to my coach Reza in Bahrain and he was saying that there will be bjj 6 times a week with more classes a day, which means there will be lots of training to do when we get back. It will be the last few days of Ramadan and then I'll hopefully manage to find a job quickly and start saving some money!

Friday 4 September 2009

Catfight Gi review

I ordered a catfigh gi a while back, but unfortunately the A2 size they sent me ended up being way too big despite my attempts to shrink it. Luckily when I contacted them they were very helpful and sent me a new one in the right size which I'm very happy with. I got the raspberry colour similar to the atama kyra gracie one. If you are in the UK and thinking of getting one make sure you ask them about sizing because I think they have updated it to a smaller fit. Parcel force will charge around 20 quid surplus for tax too so bare that in mind.







The green gi is the catskull style and includes a small skull logo on the front of the gi and the catfight logo plus the cat skull logo above









The pink gi is the original style and includes a patch on the front lapel and the catskull logo at the bottom of the gi




The main difference between the 2 different styles, apart from size of course, is the different patches and the drawstring style on the pink gi compared to the usual style on the green pants. All in all I really like this gi, there was a few shrieks and hulk remarks when I bounced into training with the green one on so I'll see what peoples responses to the pink one are tomorrow! I've not really commented on sizes becasue I think they have changed thier sizing charts but A1 seems to be a good fit for me and I'm 5"4 and about 60kg.

I'll be reviewing the tatami gi soon, I stupidly sent it to my billing address in London but luckily my auntie is bringing it down with her when she comes for a visit.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Girls only 2 Stockholm!!!

Well the past few days I have been digging around for more information on the girls only martial arts camp in Stockholm, the camp will be taking place over 3 days from Friday 30th October to the Sunday 1st November.

I Have sent of my registration form and emailed them for information about the best airport to fly into but from what I could find Ryan air fly to either vasteras or skavsta both of which are about 1 hour and a half from Nacka.

Coach details

Skavsta – downtown Stockholm
Travel time: 80 minutes
Price: Round trip SEK 249, one way SEK 150*

Västerås – downtown Stockholm
Travel time: 75 minutes
Price: Round trip SEK 249, one way SEK 150* (BOTH AROUND 21 BRITISH POUNDS)



So it would seem that despite the long trek to get to Stockholm best value for money is to be fly to these airports.

Arlanda and Bromma are the 2 more central airports and there appears to be a number of modes of transport available including the arlanda express, a train service that gets you to the center in about 20 minutes.

The preliminary scedule for the 3 days is as follows
Friday:
18.00 registration and payment.
19.00-20.30 BJJ

Saturday:
10.00-11.30 Judo
12.00 Lunch at the dojo.
13.30-15.00 BJJ
15:30-17:00 Theoretical lecture
17.30-19.00 Sparring
20.00 Dinner.

Sunday:
10.00-11.15 Submission Wrestling
12.00-13.15 BJJ

link to the facebook event http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=100680496855

I'm pretty much 90% sure that I'm going to this and will hopefully book my flights as soon as I get back to Bahrain, I will probably fly with British airways as they seem to be the only airline who have a good deal and fly the most direct route to Arlanda. I'm really looking forward to this, it will be good to hopefully see some of the girls from the uk there too and If your thinking of going get on it and book flight now while there cheap Ryan air seem to have the best deals. Will probably post alot about this over the next month so check here regularly and I'll keep you posted on any more information I manage to find out.

In other news I hopefully have 2 new gi's on their way a pink catfight and a black tatami, haha it actually feels like Christmas eve as I also ordered a ton of books and DVDs off amazon hehe. So as usual I am broke but as they were all things I couldn't really get in Bahrain I splurged a bit. Anyways off to bed for me, I skipped out on training because I'm feeling pretty crappy at the minute, felt really sick and gassed after last night training and I only rolled about 4 times, so tonight's bjj involved watching a bunch of videos on www.fightauthority.com and alot of imaginary rolling in my head, bjj is a mental game after all !