Great times at another all-women open mat....

Another great Girls in Gis open mat this Sunday afternoon-- and though I missed the Renzo/Sperry superfight to attend, it was worth it.

We had a surprising number of upper belts in attendance-- three brownbelts, at least two purples, and then a horde of blues and whites. (Including three ladies who have been training 3 weeks, 1 week, and only 2 classes!)

This is Gabriela Mueller on the left who, with her husband, runs Team Gacho Jiu Jitsu (Macaco/Chute Boxe) in Spring, TX, and my instructor, Christy Thomas, on the right.  (All photos courtesy of my sweet husband, who came for the last couple minutes because he wanted lunch!)

Many thanks to the host school, Sean Cooper's Trainers Elite MMA for opening their doors to the group (this is where my husband trains, by the way!) and to their resident "head lady in charge" Helen, for running the warmup and teaching some techniques. Helen just got her blue belt so the feather weight blue belt division in Texas is larger by one... I usually only see 2-3 gals in that division at local tournaments and it's nice to see another lady join the ranks.

She taught a single leg takedown to halfguard pass to side control to a clock-like choke using the farside lapel under the arm and behind the head. She also taught a scissor leg takedown, as a counter to a single leg, that ends up with a kneebar. It was something like this:



I partnered up with a visiting brownbelt from New York who's in Texas for work, and had a great time. She and I skipped the scissor takedown; it looked a little iffy and I am happy to have a two whole meniscii right now :)

The open mat portion was fantastic. I got to roll with a brand new girl who has all the right basics and big-picture concepts... then Elena, a blue belt from Austin who trains at Paragon.. that was fun too because I'd never met her or seen her before, and we're about the same size, and she has a spunky, sassy personality. I feel like a little kid on the first day of school sometimes, all excited about making new friends. You think you know "everyone" who does jits in your hometown, until you find out you don't-- and it puts a smile on my face to add to my list.


Then I got to roll with Libbie, the NY gal. Whooooo, we had an epic roll. The kind I love because I feel like my body and brain are connected for once... I'm flowing, for once... things are working and clicking and my inside voice isn't getting in the way, for once :) I think we rolled for about 20 minutes! I finally had to just quit to catch my breath (no damn cardio!)









And then I finally had a roll with Lana, another Texas blue belt I know pretty well but have never rolled with. It was all going okay, she has a good guard and I was struggling to pass, until then, I was all tied up and had to stop a sweep by posting on my forehead. It was forceful enough that my sweaty noggin skidded on the mat a bit-- I actually asked her right then if she'd heard the sound effect of my skid-- but I foiled the sweep and got the pass. But then, cue sad music-- while I held side control I felt my nose start to bleed! Boo! Turns out I probably posted on my FACE. SAD FACE. So I cleaned up and by then it was time to head next door for lunch at an Italian place. Yum. I was good, too, I just had a big salad.

Just a quick comment about ADCC this weekend-- duh, Marcelo Garcia! and duh, Michelle Nicolini!

And last-- why wasn't Caio Terra competing? is it backlash against his outspoken stance regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs? Read all about it in Matt Little's latest interview on TXMMA.com.