Making weight... Questions at the end.

First... just crazy. I get a weekly email from the Home/Garden section of the Washington Post, and I read one of the articles about kitchen organization. It actually said this nonsense:

"Fridge aesthetics. Have you considered artfully arranging the contents of your refrigerator and freezer shelves? When you open the door, it will be a calming experience."

Some people need to get lives!

Second.  This was on DSTRYR-SG and it made me think-- as I have so often in the last few days-- "I should have done that at the Pan!"  But I'm not obsessing.  Much.



OK, on to more important matters.. Weight. I have given up the dream of ever being a featherweight. Why? Because I'd be unhealthy! How do I know this? (aside from the fact that, to attain such a weight, I'd have to completely give up every foodstuff which brings me pleasure, like donuts, pasta, or pizza, which is unhealthy by definition..)

Because the day I left for the Pan, I had my body fat percentage tested at my gym, Castle Hill Fitness, using the Bod Pod, and here's what the computer spits out. (It's as reliable a measurement as the old-fashioned dunk tank water displacement method, fyi..)

I have 18.1% bodyfat. That, apparently, is considered "ultra lean," "fat levels sometimes found in elite athletes."

Obviously, they haven't seen me in a bikini, but I'm taking them at their word.

For me to go from "squeaking into leve/light" (138 lbs) to "squeaking into pena/feather" (125 lbs) and still keep all my lean mass (113 lbs of muscle, bone, and internal organs) I'd have to go down to 8.5% body fat, well below the "essential fat" range for women of 12-15%.

I was damn happy with all this news.  At 38 years old, to be anywhere near "elite athlete" (even if it's just on a piece of paper) feels pretty good. I also felt relieved that I could stop beating myself up for failing to get down to 125.  I weighed 125 earlier in my jiu jitsu career (weighed 119 before that!) and kept wondering why the HELL it was so hard to get back there... well, it's because I have more muscle! 

Of course, when I was done with the whole weigh in and fight and such at the Pan, I proceeded to indulge my carb cravings.  Tacos, check.  Donuts, check.  Pizza, check.  Here's the FABULOUS pizza at Domenico's in Long Beach, with my friend's boyfriend Todd about to dig in...  trust me when I tell you, after you've made weight at Mundials you want to eat (pieces of) two pizzas.  One, the sausage/pepperoni one (below) at Domenico's, and two, the sausage/pepper one at Boston Gourmet Pizza (also in Long Beach, right next to the Aquarium of the Pacific.)

In fact, I even taste-tested donuts in Orange, CA where my girlfriend lives... I can now tell you that after Mundials make-weight, I will head back to YumYum Donuts on Tustin and have another crumbcake donut.  It. Was. Splendid.  (should have taken a picture.)

Anyway-- can you tell I'm back on Paleo now, and fantasizing?

Spent plenty of time talking to refs, staff, and other competitors at the Pan about the whole make-weight thing and the funny stuff we all do when we're in that place.  The night before I competed, I ate shreds of cabbage and one cup of light, nonfat yogurt.  I ate NOTHING and drank maybe an ounce of water before I weighed in at 1:45ish.  Then on my way to the mat, I drank mango nectar and it was sweet heaven.

Now after all that blather... how many of you people have some disordered behavior when it comes to weight and eating?  What do you do to make weight, or do you care? any special routines or diets or anything else you do?  What have you tried and discarded?  I have one friend who swears a colonic gets rid of 6-8 lbs, and another who said it did nothing for losing weight.  (But if you try it, the advice she shared was "make sure it's a closed system, not the open system kind"-- whatever that means!)

Discuss, and please include your gender, walking around weight, and competition weight.  Thanks!

Reflections on the 2011 Pan.

Here's what it looks like before anything gets started:

I'll tell you right up front, I didn't post my footage yet. I tried to watch it for the first time this evening, but I couldn't bear to. Ended up fast-forwarding through a bunch of it and even that was painful.

Work is really crazy and busy, so I had to work late, then run to make it to the academy for the start of comp class. My husband caught a bad cold at the Pan, and in the interest of not coming down with it too, I took it easy today-- just did my conditioning class at lunch-- and instead of doing the comp class, I got some footage of our warmup for this documentary on women in BJJ that I'm helping with. (I have to get all that footage to the lady who's doing it, Akindini, by the end of the month, yikes! but what a cool project! Akindini is a blue belt in Athens, Greece, and I can't wait to point you to the finished product. But I digress...) So I came home early from comp class and now sitting on the couch, watching "127 Hours" with the hub. And blogging. And not feeling like messing with my Pan footage just yet.

[You know it's bad when you'd rather watch some guy CUT OFF HIS OWN ARM WITH A POCKETKNIFE instead of watching your own footage, amirite?]

So what did I learn from the Pan this year? I still think my lessons from the Pan last year are true. Some repeats, some add-ons:

Purple belts by Koral are the wrong color purple. Too lavender, they show up on the TV cameras as blue, so they're not allowed. You'll have to run and buy a new one. Also, if your belt is frayed and has any of the core showing, gotta get another.
Gis by OTM, Shoyoroll, and any others with the pockets inside the lapel will have to have the pockets removed. (safety hazard for fingers and toes)
Know the rules especially when it comes to gi fit, patches, material.
Know how matches are scored. Remember you get advantages for things like flattening someone out in halfguard.
There's strategy and then there's strategy. I haven't figured these out yet. Otherwise I wouldn't have let her rack up points so bad.
I should have practiced more escapes! BAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
There's a big difference between an instructor and a coach (expect a blog post on this soon.)
Don't let your opponent cross your foot over their hip-- it's YOU who will be disqualified for knee-reaping.
Know what the hand sign for "stalling" is and know what it means.
Be ready- get your grips and GO GO GO. Don't hesitate, don't wait for a better moment.
This may be impossible to accomplish but, as a goal, don't come to the tournament with techniques that you "kinda" know. In other words, drill everything you know how to do until it's fluid and flawless and doesn't need thought for execution.

From what I did watch, here's what I see in terms of my screwups... I didn't GO GO GO when I got my grips. She did a guard pull and I didn't just go and pass-- I was thinking about being perfect and technical. I specifically thought to myself "Oh, she's doing situp guard. And Donald just told me how to pass that. I'll get my grip just so. I'll kneel forward --." And while I sat there and thought, she acted, and easily swept me.

Oh hell. I'm not going to go through all that. I'll just grab the footage tomorrow and post it but don't feel you have to watch it. In fact please don't. And if you do don't tell me. I'll sit down with Vidush and Donald and wear the hairshirt enough then.

It was a great weekend over all. I loved getting to see friends from near and far including Lana, Jay, Ugo, Sarah, Darren, Hillary, Dolph, Caleb, Katie, Mike, Gianni, Hana, John, Steven, Kristin, Jason, Melissa... I will say, the new arrangement behind the mats makes it hard to say hi to people. Used to be, anyone could come up to the barricade behind the mat-- but now, you have to be a blackbelt with a coaching pass. So I missed seeing a lot of friends I'm sure.

I worked the first full day as a ring coordinator; second day, I competed at 1:20pm, so I was a scorer in the morning, then took a break at 12:00 to see my teammate Rebecca compete. However, divisions were running behind, so at 1:20 she still hadn't gone and I had to run downstairs to be in the bullpen for my division. I was under weight on Thursday, but Friday morning I was ON weight as in NO ROOM TO SPARE. So I was total OCD nutcase in the bullpen, weighing, weighing, and reweighing, over and over, even though the check scale kept on telling me that at 1:20pm I was a pound under.

Here's what it looks like when it's all abuzz and busy:

After my stunning defeat, I showered and changed and returned to work as a ring coordinator. To be honest, it's not a bad job, not overly difficult, occasionally stressful, but it makes the time pass pretty quickly. There's a lot of things RCs can do to make their jobs easier, and some of the RCs don't do them, which makes it aggravating for the scorers.. but otherwise the IBJJF is working hard to improve the processes every day, which is good. Because there's a lot of room for improvement, as competitors who struggled to find their way through the bullpen, gi check and weighin will tell you.

Saturday, again, ring coordinator, and Sunday... ahh Sunday, Blackbelt Day... enjoyed breakfast with some peeps at the tournament hotel first off...

From left to right, it's Caleb of the Fightworks Podcast, Dolph of Jiu Jitsu Blues, Katie of A Skirt on the Mat, me, Mike of MMA Lab in Phoenix and my husband Mitch.

I finally got to watch some matches because I was a scorer. Well, I'd seen a bit and a piece here and there prior, like Gianni Grippo's exciting finals match against Christian Broadnax, one of the "Demon" Twins, in the featherweight purplebelt adult division.... but really nothing else until Sunday. Sadly, we weren't permitted to tape from the scoring tables any more :( But the matches were fun to watch.

Mundials is next... well, the Dallas Open in early May. And I'm going to be ready. Readier.

Readiest :)

poopie....

I promise a full explanation & footage when I get home... for now, the smartphone version:

Big props to my husband, best support crew ever. To Steve Hall, Alliance blackbelt, who cornered me out of the kindness of his heart since there was no one from my academy. And to Rebecca, my teammate, who fought two tough matches.

I lost my first match big, 20-0, to the girl who won gold. She was just clearly better than me. It was the kind of domination I dream of handing out. But I took it like... well, like a champ :) It was ugly, though. She pulled guard, swept me quick.. I grabbed bottom halfguard and the underhook but she killed it with a very strong & effective wizzer. I couldn't sweep her, she passed, I got back to half but she passed again, mounted, took my back, and I escaped back to being mounted again, and time ran out.

I have all kinds of thoughts & reflections. Will share soon. But know this- I met a girl there who lost at the Montreal Open 25-0 and came back to fight in the Pan and medalled. So I am NOT GIVING UP and I *will* fight at Mundials.

Breakfast get-together at the Pan American Championship

I'd love to meet you! So if you'll be at the Pans on blackbelt day (Sunday March 27) I encourage you to come to the tournament hotel for breakfast before all the world-class jiu jitsu explodes your head :) And since I compete on Friday at 1:20pm, I'll actually be able to eat on Sunday! Hooray!

Since my husband and I are working the tournament (we'll be ring coordinating Thurs and Fri, and scoring Sat and Sun) we need to leave the breakfast by 8am. Please join us for coffee or whatever suits your fancy at 7am, Sunday March 27, at

Aura Bar & Grill
Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport
18800 MacArthur Blvd.
Irvine, CA
92612
1-949-833-9999

You'll know it's me if you see a short, curly-topped redhead :)

Now let's drool a bit over some of the talent on display next Sunday... though I feel funny noting these names as if I know so much. I know there's a bunch of really impressive jiu jitsu out there from names *I* don't recognize that others more aware and informed will be excited to see. Just my ignorance I guess.

Felipe Costa
Bruno Malfacine
Caio Terra
Wellington "Megaton" Dias
Bruno Frazzato
Rafael Mendes
Gui Mendes
Ryan Hall
Justin Rader
Lucas Lepri
Jonathan Torres
Claudio Calasans
Gilberto Burns
Abmar Barbosa
Ian McPherson
Andre Galvao
Ricardo Abreu
Marcus Vinicius Almeida
Bruno Bastos
Braga Neto
Stephen Hall


And then the ladies! Holy cow.

Michelle Nicolini
Fabiana Borges
Luanna Alzuguir
Bia Mesquita
Emily Kwok
Hannette Staack
Hillary Williams
Gabrielle Garcia
Tammy Griego

FYI-- male blackbelts (rooster to middle weight) get started at 9am on Sunday the 27th. Brown/black women get started at 11am. Black belt adult men and brown/black females finals matches get going at 3:30pm.

Schedule is up here.

Please send gis for Moldova BJJ program... current info here!

From Bobby McMasters, today!

"I don't know if you're good with technology but perhaps you could make a running counter of how many gi pledges you have, how many were sent, and how many I eventually receive (confirmed by my contact here in Romania). These gis will eventually be brought to Moldova with a kids' team from Braila, Romania probably mid-June.

As you know, I wasn't initially really trying to just get STUFF and give away STUFF or money. This is typically counter-productive. BUT, I think we can keep the materials in the gym teacher's office without them growing legs. Also, I'm about 80% sure we can hold a seminar before, and afterwards we'll hold a competition between an established Romanian kids' team and the Burlacu team. Hopefully this will suffice for the sustainability factor for now and lead on to newer and greater things! For example, before harvest time I plan to have an all-village tournament to further incite interest in BJJ.

I know it's been a while but in light of the Japan situation I didn't think writing about giving stuff to some healthy and happy (albeit very poor) people made a lot of sense. That being said, I don't want people to forget about our Moldovan guys. So, I have some more info for those who want to help us...

First of all, we need probably at least 4 kids gis... these gis can be gis that your kids have grown out of but are still good quality.

Second, we need at least 5 adult gis. Again, if you have some awesome new lightweight gi and you don't need your older (but still in good shape) gi, no matter how big or small you are, send it our way.

Third, we need probably 3 NEW gis that look really nice (one child/teenager size, small adult and bigger adult). I know nobody is trying to buy some new gis just to send them our way but maybe you know someone who would love to put their patches all over them and have someone wear their company's logo around to various tournaments for years to come. These gis would be given out to the winners of our tournament so the probability of them wearing the gi to various judo competitions or even future BJJ competitions, and winning these competitions is pretty high. Also, a pimped-out gi is hard to find in Eastern Europe so on top of it looking cool the competitor could talk about how/where they got it and inevitably it would lead to a BJJ discussion.

Fourth, I would really love to do a women/girl's competition. The Soviets were really keen on equal opportunity and equal rights as far as women are concerned so this is not a foreign concept. I will keep this on the "dreams" list for now though.

Lastly, we will need some money. Even though the transport is paid for, I will need a little cash to build some new shelves for the gym teacher to take care of the gis and we may need money for food for the trip. I will keep everyone posted on this because I definitely don't want to make a budget mistake.

Gi address:

Mihaita Tudor
Str Traian 187-189 ap 32
sec 2
Bucuresti, Romania


AND... once again, anybody wanting to come maybe mid-June or any other time is welcome.

-b"

So, everyone, I would love to be a clearinghouse for this. You can send gis straight to them of course! But if someone with HTML skillz wants to help make a widget for me to use on this blog I'd LOVE it. In the meantime I'll just do it the old fashioned way and include a sentence in every blog post!

No kids gis
No adult gis
No new gis

But... I will be donating some of my gis. Gotta wait till after the Pans and do some sorting!

Train hard everyone and send me some gis :)

Super basics.

David Dunn, a JJ Machado bb, teaches a handful of useful stuff, like counters to the stack pass, reversal from bottom side control, an elevator sweep from bottom half... nice solid basic stuff. Thanks to the guys at DSTRYR-Sg for bringing this to my attention.

Inside Robson's head...

Matt and Lindsey, who stayed with me this weekend, train at a Nova Uniao gym in Dallas. Gene, in town for SXSW, got his purple and brown belts under Gustavo Dantas/Nova Uniao. BJJHeroes says this about Gustavo--

"Gustavo Dantas was part of the golden generation of Nova Uniao fighters, considered by many as the best lightweights team to have ever competed, a team that consisted of fighters like Vitor “Shaolin”, Robson Moura, Renato “Charuto” Verissimo, Leo Santos, Rodrigo “Feijao” just to name a few."

So it seems appropo to share the "rolling reflections" of Robson Moura today.



And I wanted to post some Robinho highlights... but so slammed today, I don't have time to watch any and see which is best.

Private, seminar and promotions...

Fun weekend... had houseguests and visitors in town.. Kristine, Triin, Lindsey and Matt for the Hillary seminar, and Gene from San Fran for SXSW.

Did an hour-long private with Hillary Williams before her excellent 3-hour techfest in San Antonio Saturday... wooo! great series! :) Thanks Lana and Andre Monteiro of Flex BJJ for hosting, and thanks Hillary for some truly miserable moments underneath you.

Then today, along with many others more deserving than I, I was promoted... 4th stripe! :)

Good training afterwards. I put into use a suggested guard attack (Thanks Gene!) and even pulled off, in live sparring, a move Hillary taught that I thought LEAST LIKELY to be incorporated by me into my game. Holy crap. And I even pulled off a variation of the sweep Dan, one of our browns, has been TRYING to teach me for two years... not for lack of effort on his part but more from my lack of ability!

Leave for the Pan on Wednesday night, fighting Thursday. On weight right now, though I am cutting it close. (Watched UFC last night, and treated myself with a buffalo burger, but brought my own steamed greenbeans to eat in lieu of the fries. That's either exceptional, or exceptionally lame, haven't decided. But the damn things actually tasted great so I was only sad when my husband ordered the key lime pie. Sigh.)

Training hard still but tapering starting tomorrow-- only noon conditioning and evening class from now through Tues, and only noon class Wed, and will be taking it easy in the evening classes.

I will post updates from the Pans on Facebook and twitter.... :) OH and don't forget, if you're at the Pan, Sunday morning 3/27 we'll have a very informal breakfast get-together at the tournament hotel lobby. I will post a blog entry about it tomorrow when the official schedule is posted.

New stuff.

SXSW, the biggest pain in the ass music/film/geekout festival, has infested my lovely town.

The upside, besides seeing Fightville's premiere (ROCKING movie) is hanging out with different peeps.

1. Coach Josh, purple belt in BJJ and blackbelt in judo, with his spunky, sassy wife Anri...

2. Tori, visiting from the east coast, fellow lightweight blue belt...

3. Gene, lawyer from San Fran, blackbelt under Marco Nascimento and smaller, technical, different game..

Thanks folks, for sharing your time and effort and energy with me, on and off the mats...

Also big thanks to Vidush, Courtney, Rebecca and lil P, who have endured my training lately and will continue to endure it right up until next Wednesday when I leave for THE PAN AM!

Nuclear crisis is freaking me out.

One of the most gripping, horrifying, can't-stop-thinking-about-it movies I've ever seen is K-19. Before that, I'd seen The Day After in grade school. I was 7 when Three Mile Island melted down and almost 14 when Chernobyl happened (pictured below). And my mom was a radiology technician who made X-rays at a veteran's hospital. So growing up and as an adult, I've always heard about radiation and what it can do to you.

I did a google images search for "radiation poisoning" and be happy I'm not posting any of the pictures.

What's going down in Japan is scaring the living **** out of me.

Great primer on what's up with Japan's nuclear reactors here.

The guys over at Scramble Stuff have put together a very cool tshirt you can order now and all proceeds go to the Red Cross to aid the victims of the tsunami/earthquake in Japan.

The front has the characters for "endure" and the back characters say "pray."

I ordered mine.. and you can text to donate, too. I presume they're all $10 donations, but I'm not sure.

• American Red Cross Relief: text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10
• Salvation Army: text JAPAN to 80888
• Convoy of Hope: text TSUNAMI or SUNAMI to 50555
• World Relief Corp. of National Association of Evangelicals: text WAVE to 50555
• GlobalGiving: text JAPAN to 50555 to donate $10
• ADRA Relief: text SUPPORT to 85944
• GlobalGiving: text JAPAN to 50555
• International Medical Corps: text MED to 80888
• Mercy Corps: text MERCY to 25383
• Save the Children Federation: text JAPAN or TSUNAMI to 20222
• World Vision: text 4JAPAN or 4TSUNAMI to 2022

And here's another list of ways you can help the survivors.