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.

British Open 2013

More Medals For Checkmat South Shields

Now that The British Open has been & Gone, i though i would update my blog about the goings on from the weekends event.

Checkmat South Shields took 11 team members to compete at the British open. Now known as the biggest & best UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition in the country. 

Spread out over 2 days at the Body Power Expo at the NEC in Birmingham with space for 8 competition mats and over 1000 competitors, this is one of the most highly anticipated event in the year.

Everyone wants to get their hands on the Gold medal and become British Champion on that podium. and Checkmat South shields done just that.

After Months of hard competition training and around 20+ hours a week on the mats, all the hard work paid off and paid our Black Belt coach back in team points and great team spirit.

We all had an excellent weekend away and saw some great matches with some of us coming away with things to improve on for next time and some of us with not the result we wanted. But you have to pick yourself back up and try again. 

Results from the British open

Danielle Nesbitt - Gold - Juvenile division  British Champion

James Finch - Gold - British Heavy weight Champion

Claire Crowther - Silver - British Medium Heavy

Wayne Peel - Bronze - Heavy Weight division

All the other guys done an excellent job and showed some great jiu jitsu! 

Well Done Everyone!! :)

New Ladies Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Classes

Females in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

You may have noticed over the last few month the amount of gyms, teams & Clubs pushing for more females to take up the sport of Brazilian Jiu jitsu.

The main reason being is that the females already involved in the sport are pushing for woman to take part to create more training partners and more females entering the competition's around the country. Although it is good for us to train with our male sparring partners to learn from different type's of people with different strengths and sizes ETC, but you just cant beat rolling with another female your weight and size.

Don't get me wrong i like to hunt out the bigger, heavier higher belts at my club to challenge myself, but you do need the females around to adjust your game as they do tend to be more technical in their jiu jitsu and it is not all about strength.

The other reason being is that Jiu Jitsu is a great sport for fitness as well as great self defence. And it is SOOOOO ADDICTIVE!

Since training in Brazilian Jiu jitsu over 3 year ago my whole outlook on life has changed completely. i have goals and targets i would like to achieve as well as a healthy lifestyle. and i have the most amazing BJJ family i could have wished for. We all train, compete as socialise as a team, and everyone of them looks out for each other.

As more clubs are pushing for more females to get involved, we decided to start a Woman's only Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class. the aim of this class is to bring complete beginners in to the club and teach them the basics of jiu jitsu in a friendly all female environment for people aged 14 years and above.

Once they feel confident in the sport and can show they understand the basics we can then start integrate them in to the normal mixed classes. this will help them with their confidence in their first class.
All the male team mates are good and understand the difference between women's strength compared to theirs and understand how they are to roll with them at their first few classes. 

We are looking forward to building a strong female team who are confident to take part in Jiu jitsu and looking for some new challenges.

Ladies only classes are every Friday at 7.30pm and are held at Checkmat South Shields for women aged 14 years and above. Your first session is free and classes are £3.00 after. if you would like to come along and learn a new sport, anyone from any academy is welcome.

See you on the mats! :)

Pressure Makes Diamonds.

The weekend saw the Manchester open 2013 take place, And Checkmat were there in Force ready to Fight it out for one of those medals.

Competition training at Checkmat South shields started at the back end of March for this comp with plenty of drills and sparring. Working on some take downs, and passing guard, half guard & Spider Guard and anything else you can thing of to pass!

It's been a pretty tough few weeks of training and pretty full on but they say Pressure makes diamonds and it certainly did at Manchester.

I had entered in for the  +63kg division as Grab&Pull had decided to have free entry for the females but then reduced the weight divisions to either -63kg or +63kg for all female belts. which was so good of them, it meant more females would enter and you would get a few more fights rather than entering the same local comps and always end up fighting the same person. GOOD CALL G&P! :)

There was 4 of us in my division, which may not sound a lot to you but when you have spent the last year fighting the same 2 people every time in an open weight, this amount of people in a weight division was great.

All together there was 25 female fighters entered from white belt to Purple belt with the majority of them entering a comp for the first time!

I was called to the mat for my first fight, tapped hands and off we went. i went straight for a single leg and then for the pass, pretty much what i had planned out, after that i went with what i felt comfortable with whilst trying to maintain my top position. have a look at the video below and see for yourself.

Video Uploading......

I had won and got to the final! My nerves had gone and i just wanted to get back on the mat and fight again.

My final fight was called. i stepped on the mat tapped hands and tried my hardest to get the take down, i hate jumping guard, i have never jumped guard in a competition and i never will. its a chance to test yourself so why waste it!

The girl i fought was strong and neither of us could get the take down, eventually she sat down to her back and i went for the pass and she caught me in half guard.

I could hear my Coach and team mates shouting that i had 30 seconds left and i had to pass to win.

I kicked my leg threw to get side control and controlled my side position to get my points before time time ran out!!

Not the best of fights, a bit disappointing as i know i can do better, but overall i was happy with how well i had done!

I had just won my First Gold Medal for my New Team CHECKMAT!!

I'm pleased i took part and it was great to see so many new female faces at the comp, this is what the sport needs to grow, and with the help of people like Grab&pull more ladies will start taking up the sport.

My team mate Danielle Also competed in the female -63kg white belt division and fought 3 great fights winning her first in 20 second by Arm bar, Lost in the second to minimal points and won her 3rd by omaplata. she showed some great Jiu jitsu and controlled all her opponents well and went on to win Bronze in her Weight.

Visit from Chico Mendes

Recently Checkmat South Shields has a visit from Head of Checkmat Europe Chico Mendes.
During his time in the North East he held a 3 hour seminar at the club where around 45 of the clubs members turned out in force to support the event.

Arriving at the Gym that day, it was packed finding somewhere to put down your kit and get changed was a little manic, people, gi's, training equipment everywhere you looked with the odd hyper Checkmat Kid's running around waiting to start the warm up.

It was good to see the mat so busy and it was also good to share the mat with the next generation of fighters having the Kids there for the seminar. although it was unusually quiet and the normal South Shield banter was a little subdued to bland conversations, no swearing or obscenities specially with the children being around.
Every one was polite ( sort of) and very well behaved. 

After a quick warm up and a brief chat from Chico about what we would get out of the day we started with the techniques.
This seminar we were going to be covering Half Guard from top & bottom.

I use a lot of half guard in my BJJ game but sometimes i find i lose the position a lot so this was great for me.

Firstly we worked from the bottom, looking at how to secure the half guard and keep your half guard to your advantage. more knee pressure on the chest to keep them away and stop them flattening you to pass, learning that you need patience and waiting until your opponent moves before you move so you don't give away the position.

After a while of drilling this and playing around with it during some positional sparring we moved on to taking the back from half guard, shooting in for the leg in your half guard and getting your under hook to get the position, also from this we worked on a little deep half guard when your not able to go to back.

I haven't really worked much on using Deep half guard, as the position i think doesn't work for me. i always panic in that situation that I'm going to get stuck and give up a position to their advantage so its something i don't tend to go for. but after drilling the Deep half guard and Chico showing some good little moves and giving tips on how to improve the position, i found it quiet easy and i was able to use it on the bigger guys to. so i feel a lot more confident if the deep half guard is there to then go for it.




























Over 3 hours of BJJ with Chico Mendes, Loads more new positions and techniques to drill and a lot to take in, the seminar was finished, the Checkmat kids learnt a lot and it left them with loads to work on over the next few weeks. where as for me it had held me improve the positions i already use 100%, just the little tweaks of some positions i needed to improve it to be more effective, which is great. Also understanding you have to be patient wait till they move before you move hence not showing them what your going for, then counter their move to a better position for your self. Let them give up their game before you give up yours.


After a long day Training we all went out for Steak and Beer, well i just had steak.
It was a sober night for me and one of my Coaches Shaun Scott, we both had Hour long privates with Chico in the morning. we just judged the really bad Dance off's! :)

Sunday Morning Rolling

I was up nice and early while most of my team mates were in bed hungover after the night before. sat at the Gym at half 9, coffee in hand ready to start. (coffee - i need it to wake up in the morning)

I wanted to go back over some Half Guard and deep half guard with Chico  as yesterday there was a lot to take in and i wanted to make sure i was using the new tweaks the best i can. so we drilled the half guard position, as well as the taking the back.

Chico told me off various times about my arms, apparently ' I like to wave at people whilst rolling' to much of a performer you see, i cant help it.

I give me arms away far to easy, but once he pointed it out i noticed just how much i actually do it. lying on my back waving to the spectators instead of actually using them to help keep my position.

We also drilled my bad side as I'm to comfortable working from one side that when i get caught on the other i get stuck,. i found that im just as good on my other side and i can get certain positions and submissions from my bad side that i can't actually get from my good side. which was good to find out.

During the drills we were doing i tried to use my bad side as much as possible and i found different ways to use my half guard to better the position, which were different again from my good side. as well as being told off again for my arms which Chico pointed out i don't do it on my bad side.

This means that I'm to comfortable in the position on my good side, i subconsciously think i don't need to use my arms, where as on my bad side i know its not my strong side so my arms are always in. i had never noticed this until Chico pointed this out. but it is definitely something i intend to work on a lot more.

You'll see me walking around T-Rex-ing everywhere i go.

After the seminar i spent some time with Chico finding out what his thoughts were on Women in Jiu Jitsu. 
He's a very busy man who was due to fly out to Finland a couple of days later to start his Tour of Europe around his other clubs, so i was lucky enough to get some Answers from the Busy man.

       
    
 1) Tell me a background in your BJJ, how you started BJJ and what
             you've achieved.

         I started in 1993-1994 when i was 13 years old. I started on the legendary Academia Master Jiu Jitsu with Romero Jacare (black belt), Eduardo Jamelao & Ricardo Franjinha (brown Belt) and Leo Viera (Purple Belt). My first session was with Leo. We really fast we made one friendship, not only with Leo but with Rico (Orange belt) and Leandro (Yellow belt). In 1996-1997 Leo decided live in Sao Paulo to teach there. When Leo moved I started training with Octavio Couto "Ratinho" until 2003. In 2003 i moved to Sao Paulo to live and teach there with Leo. In 2004 Leo gave me my black belt.

1994 - Yellow belt under Romero Jacare and Leo Vieira.
1996 - Blue belt under Romero Jacare and Leo Vieira.
1999 - Purple belt under Octavio Couto.
2000 - Brown belt under Octavio Couto.
2004 - Black belt under Leo Vieira.

    2) what are your thoughts about woman in BJJ?

    I respect a lot. I know is very difficult for girls. But today has session just for girls with girls teaching. We will start soon in my club one session just for girls. Very important self defense for girls.

    3) what kind if impact do you see woman making in BJJ?

    It's funny! I remember few weeks ago i put one male white belt to sparring with a female Blue belt. After he tapped a lot he came to me and said: She know BJJ... The best impact is when the girls show what can do

         4) what kind if growth & changes have you seen happen to the world of BJJ where female BJJ practitioners are concerned?

  The big change was the number of girls. I remember just few girls doing BJJ when i started but now have a lot

         5) what adjustments or changes do you believe a necessary as more woman participate in BJJ?

           We are on the way. Have a lot girls teaching, a lot session just for girls and a lot competition. Also today have a lot girls like Michelle Nicoline, Marina Ribeiro, Gabi Garcia like idols to learn from.

        6) Where do you see the female BJJ community in say 5 yr time from now?

          Bigger than ever. You cant imagine!!!

         7) in your opinion does the nature if training (mat time) need to be different for women?

         On the mats doesn't have mens or women just fighters.

          8) what advice would you give a woman who is interested in taking up BJJ as a    hobby or as a serious competitor?

      ENJOY... LEARN... FIGHT...

         9)  who would you say was the number 1 of the elite female competitors in the world right now and why?

         Gabi Garcia. 

        But have Marina Ribeiro, Michelle Nicoline, Luana, Ida Hasson, Bia Mesquita,   Karem Antunes

        (Brown Belt).... All those above are really good and promote females in the sport well.

CHECKMAT!! :)