No rest for the Wicked!!

Bonjour!! 

Well then, it's been a while since I have made a post on here as I've been super busy the last few month. I made a good few lifestyle changes towards the end of last year and its been hard trying to find a spare few hours to sit down and reflect on everything to be able to write some blog posts and keep you updated.

So..... I have a few spare hours and I'm going to try and catch up and fill you all in on what's been happening with my BJJ journey and my life over the last 9 month. I will be doing separate posts about my travels and competitions etc but I will give you the low down in short now.

Where to start?

Well the first big change happened last September when I quit my full time wedding planner job and took up the full time Jiu Jitsu lifestyle. I dived head first in to training as much as possible every day as well as teaching the future Checkmat Champions at the Kids classes and the Ladies beginners class at my academy. I also decided on a career change and enrolled full time on a Sport Science Degree.

So I was pretty busy, but the change was good. My degree fitted perfectly around my training and i was able to train hard to feel confident enough to start competing internationally at some pretty big competitions whereas before i couldn't get the mat time in with working long hours.

September saw me compete in the first female match up for Sub15teen, an event that is taking the BJJ scene by storm, with 15 matched fights on a 15 minute no points submission only basis. More to come on this in a separate blog post I think.

November was the start of my international competitions when I flew out to Lisbon, Portugal for the Abu Dhabi World Pro Trials. Which was a great experience and a reality check as to how different the level of competition is in Europe (Must up my Game).

In January I made a deal with my self to spend as much time as possible outside of the UK, Compete as much as possible internationally and travel and train with as many new people as possible. Off I went to the IBJJF European Open in Lisbon, Portugal. I had so much fun that week with some really cool people and this alone deserves its own write up.

February I won my first bit of Abu Dhabi World Pro bling  at the UK Trial, picking up bronze whilst carrying a pretty nasty Elbow injury. I wasn't disappointed but I know I could of done better. I fought some really tough Girls and learnt a lot about my BJJ. 

As part of my New Years resolution Pact I jetted off to Los Angeles in California for the IBJJF Pan Ams which was an amazing experience, spent some time with some amazing people and hung out with some pretty cool people to. It was great to see Lucas Leite again and also meet the Mendes Brothers. Competing in America on such a big stage taught me a lot about myself and how to deal with the pressures of competing and the experience has definitely made me a better competitor for UK competitions. I loved LA, and i cant wait to go back, such an amazing happy place to be.

 


The End of March was pretty rubbish, I had planned to go back to America and test my skills at the IBJJF World championships, but various obstacles were thrown in my path numerous times with I had to battle with and the rising cost of the trip, I eventually surrendered and called it quits. I was gutted, I had a little cry, I ate ice cream and chocolate (which didn't make me feel better). But there's always next year and hopefully i will be ore prepared.

So as I wasn't going to the Worlds any more I decided to divert my attention to other IBJJF competitions and headed to Copenhagen in May for the Copenhagen open and No Gi Open. I love Copenhagen, such a cool city and its always great to catch up with my Checkmat Denmark Arte Sauve team mates. 

and now were up to date I think, British Open has just been and gone, my 3rd year competing at the event but in a completely different weight category. This time last year I fought in the Medium Heavy -74kg Blue belt division but since losing 18kg in the last year I fought Feather weight at -58.5kg. what a difference!! As always it was good to catch up with all the other competitors from around the UK over the weekend and see them on the podium. specially the ladies, the divisions have grown so much over the last few year which is fantastic for the sport.

So I think that's it in brief. I'm going to start working on some more separate blog posts to give you the low down in more detail about things and also introduce my new sponsor for 2014.

Ciao for now! :) x

The BJJ Globetrotter

After landing in Copenhagen late last night & checking into my hotel for the night with the most amazing pillows, all I wanted to do was sleep as I knew I was in for a tough few days training! This was at around 11pm, looking at the clock it was now 3am!! Finally I feel asleep to be wide awake again at 6am! I though I might as well get up get packed up and get ready to go explore!

So by 10am I had done the short train journey into central Copenhagen and onto about my 6th coffee as I waited for the girl who inboxes me on Facebook a few weeks ago! 

She had been delayed so I took the opportunity to go for a wander.... I didn't get far, carrying a 12kg backpack around when your not used to it takes its toll and my balance isn't the best! So free half an hour I headed back to the station and found somewhere to sit for a while!

Kira, the girl from Facebook appeared from the platform waving at me! My description of myself to her must have been spot on! We sat and had a coffee and chat for a bit, before going on another wander. 

Christian text to say he was leaving his home and shouldn't be long so I told him where we would meet, and again gave in an I depth description of what we looked like down to the colour of my friends Beenie hat just to make sure!

A short while later, a car pulled up beeping the horn and waving, it was Christian, again my description must of been spot on, we off loaded the pack packs in to the boot and off we went on the short car ride to his gym! 

I took the chance to quiz him on just about everything, after reading his book (the BJJ Globetrotter) a lot of the stuff he done, where he trained and the people he trained with interested me massively and I also want to travel so any bit of advice I could get would be great! 

He is just like he comes across in the book, friendly, funny, helpful and a bit of a joker and it had already felt like I had known him for years!

We arrived at the gym and the thought of dragging my backpack out the boot instantly made my back ache! 

Christians gym is pretty awesome and huge! Telling me he once had around 90 + people in there at once! 

I went off to get changed into my Gi and got ready for some rolling! 

Rather than drilling we went straight into some light rolling which eventually turned into more of a game! There was only the 3 of us in the gym so it was a nice and chilled out. I tried to play a lot of open guard and work from my back and he seemed to go along with it, but no matter what I done to pass or sweep he was already a step ahead! I was worried rolling with a black belt that they would just go to town on me and not give me the opportunity to play my game so they can give me pointers but Christian was great, small things I done which I couldn't pull off he helped me to correct them!

I always struggle with my triangles normally due to my partner being WAY bigger than me but he showed me a new way of doing the triangle which I had never done before! During the rolling session we would stop and chat for a bit then carry on rolling until the last rolls where things got a little carried away! Take downs the lot and only to did out what time of squeal or scream would come out of our mouth during the airtime! 

It was great fun! After about an hour and a half of rolls we got changed and headed down to the cafe for some lunch before we had to leave to travel to helsinge for the remainder of the weeks training! 

Christian was going to drop us at the central train station where we could catch our train, but instead decided to drive us 1\2 to 45 minute up country to the sticks and drop u at the camp which was so nice of him, but he just told us its fine he has to repay his debt to the universe for his previous travels around the world.

It was a funny car ride joking on and again a chance to quiz the man who knows all about BJJ globe trotting! 

We were finally at the camp thanks to Christian, and it was that time again to drag the backpacks out the boot and strap them on our backs!

I thanked him for the lift and his hospitality for the day and if he was ever in England to drop me a text and I would return the favour! If not he can pick us up on Sunday and take us back to the airport! Haha ;)

So if your ever in Copenhagen check out Christian graduates gym ( CSA.DK ) he Has been great in the run up to my travel making sure I had everything I needed and offering advice on where to stay etc! 

It's defiantly worth a visit!

But if you haven't read his book the BJJ Globetrotter, ( which if you are seriously into your BJJ then your a tool) go out and buy it! 

It has inspired me in my BJj and to travel and train, and doing so I'm in Copenhagen on a mini adventure lying on an air bed in a gym with about 100 other people training BJJ as I write this!

Massive thank you to Christian Graugart for the hospitality today, the training and the sneaky little tips you showed me! Thank you for also taking the time to make us feel welcome in your gym and for the Globetrotter goodies ;) see you soon! 

Første skridt som en BJJ rejsende i Danmark (First steps as a BJJ Traveller in Denmark)

So Today i fly to Copenhagen in Denmark for 4 days of tough BJJ training & hopefully i little bit of sightseeing.

after spending the last 4 hours or so trying to squeeze all my training gear as well as toiletries and clothing in to a travellers back pack, i am finally packed. minus the Danish Krone's which for some reason you cannot get anywhere unless you order them a week in advance. this should teach me to leave everything to the last minute like the day i travel! oh well!

My plan for the 4 days is as follows:

Wednesday:     Fly out to Copenhagen from Newcastle and i should land around 9pm. this will give me plenty of time to find somewhere to exchange my money, find my hotel for the night and get an early night.

Thursday:         I had a fellow female BJJ'er get in touch with me via Facebook a few weeks ago, to tell me she was in Copenhagen at the same time and going to the same place as me, and we could meet up and travel there together. so i will be meeting Kira at Copenhagen central train station around Lunch time from there we will both be getting picked up by the Number 1 BJJ Globetrotter in the world  Christian Graugart to head over to his gym for an afternoon of Training. then heading back to the train station in the evening to make our way up to Helsigne ready for the Checkmat summer camp.

Friday:  Breakfast then the first BJJ session of the day with a further 2 classes that day, the same will be for Saturday and Sunday. before i head back to the airport for my flight at 9pm to come back to the UK.

I Will be posting regular updates on my blog of my trip and all the cool people i will be training with.
Its going to be a great few days! :)

Nyd at læse om min rejse 

Northwest Medal Haul!

So its been a busy weekend again for Checkmat South shields. this time we were in Liverpool for the Grab&Pull North West Open 2013.

Me and 3 other Team mates (Shaun Scott, Gareth Wright & Wayne Peel) make the trip to compete in both Gi & No Gi on the day and in total bringing home 7 medals between us. 4 Golds & 3 Silvers.

It was a really big day for me as i knew i was up against my Nemesis Mollie Rose Baxter who over the Last year i have fought numerous times at loads of different competitions and have always failed to beat her, by a small amount of points.

I made it my mission to one day beat her in competition and today was that day!

Mollie is an awesome BJJ fighter, training from a young age and at the age of 17 years old has always dominated the BJJ Competition scene in the UK at both White & Blue belt level, and is considered one of the best female Grappler's in the UK at her level.

It is always a pleasure to be up against Mollie and fight her at competitions, as her game is very technical, no stalling and pinning you till the clock runs down so you can always guarantee a good fight when up against her. 

So today i wasn't going to let it happen, i wanted a Gold medal and i know what i had to do to get it....Beat her...

So i tried my hardest and hard work pays off.  :D

Results for Team Checkmat South Shields
Claire Crowther            Silver             Gi  Blue Belt Middle Weight
Shaun Scott                  Gold              GI  Purple Belt Medium Heavy
Wayne Peel                  Gold              GI  White Belt Super Heavy
Gareth Wright               Silver             GI  White Belt Super Heavy

Claire Crowther            Gold              No Gi  Intermediate   
Gareth Wright               Gold              No Gi  Beginners
Wayne Peel                  Silver             No Gi  Beginners

 

Train like a Champion with a World Champion

After a good weekend of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu i thought i would make you all a little envious by telling you all about the Number 1 World Champion that visited Checkmat BJJ gym, Scooby Jiu Jitsu in Blackpool.

We had the pleasure of having Michelle Nicolini come join us and teach a nice 3 hour seminar for us.

Jelous now?? if not you should be...

The Seminar started off with some simple passing guard drills, even though you would normally drill this simple technique numerous times and think you got it, you never really do, Michelle showed us some tiny little adjustments to make when passing the opponents legs into side control to make the weight pressure that little bit more unbearable. so the saying you can never drill a technique to much!, no matter how simple it may be or how ever many times you might have done it.

After the passing guard we moved on to defending someone passing guard. once the opponent coome to the side, you push away their head towards the floor and away from you hopefully leaving their arm on the inside of your hip. by doing this they leave thenselves open to arm bars, triangles omaplatas all kinds of stuff as well as plenty of space to escape and possible take their back. very simplet but very very effective.

Moving on from the passing guard drills to get warmed up, we went on to sneaky sweeps from Butterfly Guard. I really like this guard but I find it very hard to pull off the sweeps, specially if my opponent is bigger than me, I suppose its just a case of aimming to try and go for the position in sparring as much as possible until it finally clicks i think., after which it should just become second nature like the rest.

When i try the Butterfly guard on people and they manager to get to their feet, i panick a little as i never really had much of a game plan from there, but we were show a really effective sweep if they manage to get to their feet and it has stuck in my head since, i think i have only managed to pull it off in sparring once since the seminar the other times i dont think ive been quick enough.

Michelle went on to show a few different variations of the sweep for different senarios which helps, its always good to have a back up plan if the first one fails.

The last few positions we were show were a few different variations of the leg lock with so many sneaky tips and tweeks to mention. showing us tiny little things like changing the position of your arms, your knees, hips, shoulder, just to make the submission tighter & more effective than the usual leglock.

Coming towards the end of the seminar Michelle set up some positional sparring and joined in herself staying on the mats and sparring with nearly everyone who was there. i was lucky enough to roll twice. first time lasting about 1 minute before she swept me with the sweep she had just shown. off i went to the back of the que! Gutted haha.

Ssecond time around i had my fingers crossed that when i got to the front i would be paired up again, lucky enough i was. this time was a little more successful going for longer than the 1 minute of my last round. whilst rolling michelle pointed out little changes i should make to some of the positions i was going for, or explaing that i should just adjust and control certain parts of my opponent to make the pass or what ever i was doing become more succesful.

I just wish someone had recorded it for me. :(

The seminar was great and i took alot away from it especially the small changes that were made to the basic positions to make them more effective. it definatly all went in what Michelle was explaining to the point of writing this blog post nearly 1 week later i can still remember every technique thatbwas shown, which normally isnt the case.

It was an absolute peasre to meet Michelle and get the chance to do some sparring with her. the seminar was brilliant, really good fun and taught by a great teacher.

Hopefully we will have her back in the next few months before she starts training for the next Europeans in January. fingers crossed if i make it there would be good to have the extra corner coaching:)

Just a little bit of History....

Michelle Nicolini began her martial art training with Capoeira at the age of 14., then at the age of 17 michelle switched to Jiu Jitsu where she would ultimately make her mark as one of jiu-jitsu’s finest fighters.

What makes Michelle Nicoline such an outstanding jiu jitsu fighter is that she continues to compete and challenge herself as a young jiu jitsu practitioner and competitor.

Today Michelle Nicolini trains and coaches at the “Cavaca Fight Trainer;” and is known as an international jiu-jitsu competitor, teacher, and practitioner.

Michelle Nicolini is a multiple World Champion with numberous other titles under her belt, Michelle has consistanly placed top spot on all the Major Elite Competitions around the World. recently taking part in Metamoris II against Gracie Humaita's Makenzie Dern with both fighters taking the Draw

Michelle Nicolini's most recent victory was at the 2013 Mundials, once again taking the top spot and taking the title for the 7th year in a row.

Michelle faced Fernanda Mazzelli of Gracie Elite Team in what could have been the final of the open weight division. Walking at featherweight, Michelle decided to sign up for a heavier division and was able to submit Fernanda in the final to gain her 7th black belt world title. Michelle pulled guard then ended the match with a toehold with 7:18 left in the match.

Sub 7 No Gi Grappling Competition For Cain's Dream to Walk

I recently took part in a Charity No Gi Competition in South Shields, where all proceeds and entry fees go towards the Cain's Dream to walk Fundraiser.

It was a little local comp and similar to an inter-club event, and after turning up on the morning to watch i ended up deciding to enter, all for a good cause and also because i cant just sit and watch, i always feel the need to get involved and give anything a go.

So after no training for a grappling competition, on went the shorts and rash guard and started warming up.

there were 4 ladies all together so we all got put in a open weigh and experience division.

Little Cain was sat at the side of the mat watching every single fight, at the end of the day we were all their that day because of Cain and his Dream to walk again with out pain.

here the link to his page to find out more information about why Sub 7 organised the event for the charity.

http://cainsdreamtowalk.weebly.com/about-me.html

Cain is also a massive MMA fan and you always see him at all the local shows ring side cheering everyone on.

If you would like to make a donation to Cain's dream to walk you can do this by following the link here

http://www.justgiving.com/cainsdreamtowalk 

The ladies divisions were right at the very end and we were itching to get started, after going for a take down in my first fight and then losing to an Arm bar i went away with a bronze medal, i'm happy with the bronze i would of loved to fight again, but i wasn't able to after i get a nice knee to the face and the refs made the decision that i wouldn't fight again.

So over all a great day, good fun, lots of great fights, and a bronze medal and Black eye to take away from it all. 

And all for a good cause. :)

.

Future Champions

Its been a while since i have updated everyone with the goings on with my Brazilian jiu jitsu and my training. but over the last few months i have had the pleasure to help coach the Checkmat Kids class at my gym.

With around 20 children attending the classes over the last few month we were long over due a kids grading, so over 2 weekends we carried out 2 grading classes and promoted 6 of our little white belts to their next white & yellow belt.

Its been so worthwhile training with those kids and watching them learn and put in to practice the techniques we have showed them over the months. it also puts a huge smile on my face when the parents tell us how much they enjoy the classes and how we inspire their children to train in the gentle art or Brazilian jiu jitsu.

During the gradings which were carried out by Head Coach Black Belt Scott Ramsay, i sat to the side of the mat with their main class coach Jamie Berry and watched them perform the required positions to a top notch standard, and each one of them once fully completed each position looking over to us as if to say 'have i done this correct?' to get the thumbs up and proud smile from us both to let them know it was perfect!

I wish i had started my Jiu jitsu when i was younger as its so nice to see the determination of these kids on the mat willing to learn and do something with their spare time rather than wasting their lives away in front of a computer console. Its all about keeping active, having fun and making good friends.

**  Well done and massive congratulations to the following Checkmat Kids that received **

their next belt:

Charlie, Emily, Kayleigh, Adam, Kye & Adam 

In the next few month will see further gradings and hopefully more new belts for the rest of Checkmat Kids. and maybe a few little competitions in the future!

Checkmat Kids Future Champions.