Pan Ams recap

I'm am walking around with a big, idiot grin on my face, after winning double gold at the Pan Ams.  I am extremely grateful to my coaches and training partners at Triangle Jiu Jitsu and the rest of Team Royce Gracie for their jiu jitsu awesomeness and team effort in preparing for this tournament. I am also thankful for my swimming, crossfit, and yoga buddies for the kick ass conditioning! Here are some points I took away from the experience. 

1) Women want matches, not guaranteed medals.

This was the inaugural year for the female masters division, and being over 30, that’s where I was automatically placed upon registration. One-by-one, other women entered the masters division until our numbers reached a whopping grand total of 4. And none were in my weight class. .

I started freaking out. What if no one else entered my division?! I did not want to fly to New York to simply watch a tournament. Later, I found out that we could move down to the adult division if we wanted to. I did so – and one-by-one, so did everyone else.          

I was proud that all the masters women opted to enter the division that would give them the most matches - not the division that would give them the guaranteed medals. 

I have no doubt that one day there will be enough women in jiu jitsu to support a masters division, but it seems we are not there yet. In due time, friends, in due time. 

2) Renzo Gracie is a jiu jitsu super hero. I was watching my teammate Jeff Shaw's match, when something in the background caught my eye. My other teammate Harold Hubbard had dislocated his shoulder - BAD. It was twisted at an awkward, grotesque angle that was so terrible that I could not stare at it directly.  The human body is NOT supposed to bend that way, Now, as many of you know, Harold is a big, giant pain in my ass. I daydream about heel-hooking him on a daily basis..Yet, it was hard to see him in this much pain. My attention shifted between cheering for Jeff and checking back to make sure Harold was ok. But I couldn't look at the latter for more than a second or 2, before I had to turn away in disgusted horror. (True, this is the reaction I usually have when I look too closely at Harold. But it is all a matter of degrees). Then the unthinkable happened. Renzo Gracie himself jumped from the stands, hopped over the barricade, and popped Harold's shoulder back in place, giving him immediate relief! Just like a jiu jitsu super hero! And just as suddenly, he disappeared back into the background.

3) My coach and I figured out what I need to work on. They say that winning is affirmation and losing is information. And that's true for the most part. But upon reviewing the matches that I won, it is still apparent what my weak points are. As I have said before, the blue belt is a nebulous realm with no clear end point. In Brazillian jiu jitsu, people can spend as long as a blue belt as folks in other martial arts will take going from white belt to black belt. This is quite a formative period and it is not to be rushed. And with so much as still a big question mark, it is worth a lot to get specific guidance about I need to do to improve. By constantly competing and reviewing my matches, I am starting to figure out what I am doing right and what I need to fix. 

For a  write-up on the female medalists, check out /beauty-and-brawn-at-nogi-pan/


Overall, I had a wonderful tournament, but it is time for me to once again focus on training in a gi, Oss!

You win some, you learn some

This weekend I competed in my first tournament as a blue belt, which, incidentally, was the no gi Pan Am games in New York. Also competing were my instructors Seth Shamp, Jacob Whitfield, and Ryan Hanseler, and my teammate Hameed Sanders. It was a very fun trip!

I survived my terrible, miserable diet and found myself only 1 pound overweight the morning before the tournament. But when I weigh myself at home, I do so first  thing in the morning, without clothes, and before breakfast.  With my fight clothes on and breakfast and coffee in my belly, I found myself 2.5 lbs over. So I jumped rope...

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I'm not a super sweaty person.So I jumped rope for a good 20 min before I dried myself off, put my rashguard back on, and checked my weight again. To my dismay, I was still a half pound over.

I began to fret (which, lamentably, did NOT make me sweat). In the IBJJF rules, the phrase "immediately disqualified" is tossed around a lot. Participants are given 1 chance to officially weigh in, right before their first match. The scales are open all morning, however, so you can weigh in unofficially as much as you want. During your official weigh in, if you are anything over your registered weight class, you get immediately disqualified. Not bumped up a weight class, but IMMEDIATELY DISQUALIFIED! These are strong words, for sure.

So I once again donned my sauna suite and sweats and jumped rope (harder this time) for another 10 min. It wasn't fair! I'm not going to mention names, but there are guys on my team who would only need to look at a sauna suite and think about jumping rope and  they would easily sweat out 5 lbs. My mom looked on with a mixture of concern and amusement. "Your hair is not going to look as nice in pictures as it did in the last tournament," she cautioned me. I agreed that this was indeed the case.

So I once again dried off and put  my uniform back on. My no gi outfit was different than what I usually wear. Athletes who don't meet the strict uniform requirements are, you guessed it, immediately disqualified. I wore a brand new blue belt rash guard along with a very old pair of running tights. I had stopped wearing the tights about a year ago for reasons that I did not remember but dug them out for this tournament. (My regular tights have a tiny zipper in the back that I was afraid would not make it past the scrupulous inspection of officials. Plus, my old tights are really worn out, and thus a little lighter).

I hopped on the scale and yelped for joy when I was a half pound under - more than enough for the 3 Advil and swig of Gatorade I planned to take for my elbow.

While my minor weight cut caused me anxiety, it did not affect my performance. Really, I felt fine afterward. My matches started and I realized very quickly that gone were my days of hulk smashing. My weaknesses were magnified in my new division. I realized that, among other things, I needed to get better at wrestling takedowns and half guard.

But I was super thrilled to win my weight class and bring home a Pan Ams gold medal!

My instructor Seth Shamp won a gold medal in his division as well, further evidence that he might be the wold's most overqualified purple belt. I was almost as happy for Seth's gold as for my own because I watched how hard he trained for this tournament. He couldn't have deserved it more, both because of his skill level and because of the work that he put into training camp.

The top 3 in each weight class would qualify for the "open weight class" or  absolute division. While not everyone who qualifies for the division chooses to compete, we ended up with a nice group of 8 blue belt women. (No one signed up to compete again with Seth, not that I can blame them).

I spent my entire first absolute match stuck in my opponent's guard. I discovered 2 more things that I need to  work on - a) having a more upright, backward posture when trying to open a closed guard and b) more forward pressure when standing to pass a guard. We were at such a stalemate that no points or advantages were scored. I won by referee's decision because, according to my instructor, I was more active.

It was during this match that I remembered why I stopped wearing my old tights. Now, I know you were too focused on the jiu jitsu to notice, but my pants simply did not want to stay up. I tried to ignore it - an ass is an ass afterall...we all have them. I strongly prefer to keep mine covered in public venues, but jiu jitsu takes precedence over modesty. Needles to say, I am now sending these tights back into retirement.

I watched the other girls in their first rounds and quickly picked out the "person to beat." This was a chick with envy-worthy hulk smashing skills. I went against her in the semifinals, where I lost to take bronze.

  

This was my first time ever getting submitted in a tournament and it left me a little heartbroken. I didn't mind losing so much - I have lost before - but in the past, even if getting crushed by points, I have always been able to fight tooth and nail to stay alive and not tap. But this girl was bigger, and frankly, a lot better than me. (Jake told me that she was stronger, better looking, smelled better, and probably made more money than me as well). She went on to win her next match therefore winning the absolute division.

I congratulated her afterward and found out that she was quite the accomplished grappler. During her 2.5 years as a blue belt, she has been to 3 Pan Ams and 2 world championships. 

After we took our pictures, her coach asked to get a picture with her gi top on "for sponsorship purposes." She looked confused but did what he asked. Then, instead of taking a picture, he handed her a purple belt. I started to feel better about getting tapped!

The Pan Ams were my first IBJJF tournament and overall it was a great experience. If you are wondering how they are different from local tournaments, here are some things I noticed:

IBJJF	US Grappling
Pure jiu jitsu – no gi divisions are based on belt rank	More inclusive to wrestlers – no gi divisions are based on belt rank OR time on the mats
Very strict about weight classes – they will not “bump you up” if you fail to make weight or if there is no one else in your division	Want people to have as many matches as possible. Not so eager to immediately DQ people, even for eating too many cookies
Stricter uniform requirements, including no cups for the guys	Let me wear pink and purple;  let the fellas protect their family jewels
Organizers have sexy Brazilian accents	Organizers may or may not have sexy Brazilian waxes

Getting ready for the Pan Ams!

 

These past few months, I've begun training for my first international tournament - the no gi Pan Am games. Now, those of you who have known me for a while, know that I can  be a bit hypercompetitive - meaning that I'm a nice lady until I am racing, fighting, or playing a board game against you....then, well, it's balls (or ovaries) to the wall.

 As a swimmer, I absolutely lived to race -  in practice, meets, and open water races. I was not a bad loser per se, but I'd do whatever possible to win, to the point of peeling jellyfish off my legs without stopping or knocking people into buoys if they cut me off. (Now, before you go calling me a pugnacious jack ass, you should understand the kind of role models I grew up with. In one of my fondest memories from childhood, I sprinted out of the water winning my first open water race! when my own mother dove underneath me, so that she would cross the finish first. All's fair in love and racing, right?).

That was just the beginning. Risk, a delightful little game of world domination, had to be banned from the Rice household one Christmas Eve. It was not a silent night and it sure was not a holy night, but dammit I refused to go to bed to wait for Santa until my troops had slaughtered Europe. My father felt the same way about conquering South America so the battles continued until my mom took the game away.

In running, well, even though I knew I was't built for  it, I did everything I could to beat the tiny, dainty girls at their own game...and absolutely loved their look of surprise when I was called up for an award, looking like I could bench press the rest of them.

Of course I've grown to like jiu jitsu more than I like swimming, running, and board games combined...so it's no surprise that I absolutely LOVE jiu jitsu tournaments. I compete as much as I possibly can.  Sure I try hard to win, but that's not my only focus. I also try to learn something, support my teammates, and make friends. And, yes, when I lose, I make sure to lose gracefully. Really, I do!

The Pan Am games will be a tournament of a different level and I am excited as hell. My instructor and a few of my teammates are also competing and it's been fun going through our own little training camp. We've been refining our technique, maxing out our cardio, and visiting other schools to roll with some fresh people. I can tell you, I've learned a ton. Training has become very deliberate and intentional. I've learned what the weaknesses are in my game and  now I focus on improving these spots every time I roll.

Something else that will be different about the Pan Ams is that I will actually have a weight class, as long as I keep my hands out of the cookie jar.  Until now, I've been pretty content to compete with the heavy weights for three reasons - 1) I like the challenge of it; 2) often there are not enough women at local tournaments so weight classes get combined anyway; 3) I really do like cookies.

But, I only have 5 lbs to lose and a month to do it. I've decided that the easiest way to cut back on calories without feeling hungry is to eat more protein and cut back on carbs. So, for the past week, the only carbs that I have been eating are in fruits, vegetables, salad condiments, and beer. All this healthy eating has me feeling pretty good athletically, but it leaves me dreaming about bagels and cupcakes. (My friend posted "Three bald eagles" on her facebook status this morning. I read it as "Three bagels eaten," and logged off the computer in a fit of jealously).

I can keep this up for a few more weeks, but after that I am going to begin the search for the perfect cupcake - one moist and chocolatey and with frosting so sweet that it hurts your teeth!