IBJJF rule changes - new female weight divisions and new black belt requirements for the mundials

The International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation has made a couple of rule changes over the past few weeks:

1) They have added 2 new weight classes for women. Since weight classes were lacking for the lightest and heaviest gals, the IBJJF has added rooster and superheavy weight divisions, beginning this year at the mundials.

Until now, the lightest weight class available for women was under 114 lbs (118lbs with a gi on). There has been a grassroots petition circulating on social media to add an under 105 lb division and it looks like the petition was answered!

Also until now, the heaviest weight class available for women was heavy weight - over 158 lbs (163 with a gi on). 158 and up is a pretty huge weight range. That meant that women who couldn't make 158 have had to compete in a weight class with no ceiling. Adding a super heavy weight division, in effect, puts a reasonable ceiling on the heavy weight division (somewhere around 170 lbs).  

I cut weight to make medium heavy and have always said that I only do so because otherwise I would be in a weight class with no limit. Well, as it turns out, I was full of shit. Even with a new division available, I will continue to compete at medium heavy at the mundials because I feel faster when I am a bit leaner. The new division does take some of the pressure off to cut weight for lower tiered tournaments, however.

My only concern with these changes is that having too many divisions for women makes our divisions too small, with too few competitors. However, I had the same concern when women's masters divisions were added, and those divisions are growing steadily.

Read here for more information: New Female Weight Divisions

2) The IBJJF is now restricting which black belts can enter the mundials
The new rules state "Athletes eligible to participate in the 2015 World will be:
- Black belts with minimum of 50 points in the IBJJF black belt adult ranking
- Former Black Belt adult World champions
- 2014 Brown Belt World Champions (all weight divisions)."

I am all for making the mundials more competitive, since doing so legitimizes our sport. After all, the world championships of most sports are extremely hard to qualify for. But it is ridiculous that any white, blue, purple, and brown belt can sign up for the mundials without restriction, while it is only the black belts who have to qualify. 

Earning a black belt in BJJ is an ernormous achievement in itself. If anyone should get a free pass to compete at the mundials, it should be the black belts. If the goal is to make the mundials more competitive, it would make more sense to eliminate the white and blue belt divisions altogether, than to impose these standards only on the black belts.  

Winning the mundials as a blue belt was one of the athletic highlights of my life. Yet, I am well aware that I only had to go against blue belts to win. The true world champions are the black belt world champions. While I am excited to go back to the mundials to compete this year as a purple belt, I recognize that every single black belt has more of a right to be there than I do. That is why I don't like this rule change.

 
 

For more information, check the IBJJF website:
Black belt adult division requirements for the 2015 IBJJF Worlds Jiu-JItsu Championship

A week of firsts...reffing my first tournament and cornering my first MMA fight

I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret. Now, this may come as a huge surprise to many of you, but here it goes. Every now and then, I can be just a little bit of a dork.

Not in the sense that I want to eat my own boogers or anything like that. But sometimes, I can be overly enthusiastic - especially about the small roles that I play in cool events.

Like when I got to ref my first grappling tournament. I use "ref" in a very loose sense, since the tournament was submission only, which dumbed down the job by at least 80%. Since there were no points to score, my only jobs were to make sure no one did anything illegal, to keep competitors in bounds, and to call for medics when necessary. But that didn't stop me from being super excited about it. I did my best but made a few mistakes (twice I stopped matches when competitors only looked like they were about to tap, because ohmygod the arm is just not supposed to bend that way).

Reffin' ain't easy

I learned a few things in the process. Being a ref is a lot of work and not nearly as exciting as it looks.

• Reffing requires constant attention for hours at a time. If you look away for even a couple of seconds, you might miss something and make a mistake. 
• Refs have no friends. No one remembers the 50 good calls that you make in a day. It's the 1 mistake that stands out. The affected grapplers will think you are the worst ref in the world and won't be afraid to grumble about it.
• White belts are like the sun - you don't want to stare directly at them while they are rolling, especially when they are defending a submission. Otherwise, you might be tempted to tap for them, which is where I messed up.

This brings me to the other highlight of my week - cornering my friend Jojo in his MMA fight. Again, I use "cornering" loosely because my responsibilities were once again limited.  The other 2 cornerers were Jojo's jiu jitsu and MMA coaches, who would do the entirety of the actual coaching. My job was to help with warmups and to carry the bucket. It was a small job, but I vowed to carry the shit out of that bucket. I even practiced my swagger walk. (Later, I got promoted to banner carrier, which was equally exciting).

Joseph Poteat at the Bull City Brawl

Besides carrying the banner and supporting my teammate, I was there to get a behind the scenes look at what goes on at an MMA fight. Familiarizing myself with the routines and environment would reduce some of the novelty if I decide to fight (and thereby reduce my anxiety).

I learned a few things from watching Jojo:

• There's a ton of preparation that goes into a fight, both in the weeks beforehand and the day of
• Fighting is tough and scary, but it is no worse than what a fighter goes through during training camp
• MMA refs are every bit as human as grappling refs

In short, this week has taught me that what I lack in experience, I'm not afraid to make up for with dorky over-enthusiasm. But I am grateful for the learning experiences of both reffing and cornering. As a result, I am more sympathetic toward refs and more respectful of all the preparation that goes into fighting.

Pre-self defense...using my words and knowing when to act rude

So much of jiu jitsu self defense deals with situational awareness. We train for worst case scenarios, but for X to actually happen (when X = terrible, awful, shit gone terribly wrong scenarios), a lot of little things often go wrong along the way. In the eloquent words of Kurt Osiander, when you find yourself deep into a disadvantageous position, "you fucked up a long time ago."

If I am truly aware of my surroundings, then I will hopefully never get to the point of using Gracie self defense techniques. I'm not saying that women never get jumped unexpectedly while running on trails or while walking to their cars in a dark parking lots. But, while these occurrences garner media attention, they are actually pretty rare. Self defense confrontations more often have some kind of lead up...and that is where I am learning that my preparation breaks down.

I feel confident in my ability to hold my own in a physical confrontation. I have purple belt level self defense skills. Physically, I am strong as shit from grappling grown men on a daily basis. And I have intstincts to react violently when I think someone is trying to hurt me.

But here's the problem...I have a really hard time being rude to strangers. Even when those strangers are creepy or otherwise inappropriate. So I question my ability to stop a confrontation before it escalates to a bona fide self defense situation.

Take last weekend. I was in line at Walmart (I hate Walmart for many reasons, but I am trying to eat clean this month and eating clean is damn expensive, so off to Walmart I go). I was checking my email as I got in line and began absentmindedly unloading my goods onto the conveyer belt.  As I looked up, the middle-aged man in front of me leered in my direction and asked me where I got my boots. I felt uncomfortable but mumbled something about the store and what a good sale they were having. (This guy probably was not interested in shoe sales, but in my brain talking about the sale legitimized the interaction and made it less creepy). I scooted backwards down the aisle, turned away, and refocused my attention on my email.

I maintained as much space as possible between me and the stranger in front of me, but as he finished paying, it was time for me to quit stalling and unload the rest of my groceries. The guy then turned to me and asked how high the boots went up. Now, clearly the correct answer here was NONE OF YOUR GODDAM BUSINESS. But like I said, I'm just not rude. Instead, I gave him the honest answer that they were only ankle high and tuned him out while I paid the cashier. I waited a few minutes before leaving the security of the store. Then, I remained on high alert as I walked out to my car.

Luckily, I turned out to be in no physical danger from this interaction. But as I drove home, I kicked myself for allowing this creep to take up so much space in my head. In hindsight, I should have told him off from the get-go, made it clear to those around me that I was uncomfortable, and cut off any further interaction with this guy right away.  

Failure to speak up for myself and use my "verbal jiu jitsu," extends to other realms of my life as well. I work in a job that has me going into homes to work with young children. Every once in a while, I go into a house in which the adults are acting inappropriately -  yelling obscenities, screaming insults at each other, or walking around inadequately dressed. None of these issues puts me in direct physical danger nor are they illegal. However, they could all be early links in a chain that might ultimately spiral downward to threaten my safety. But instead of speaking up, it is my tendency to find myself a quiet, hidden corner to work with the kiddos as best as I can. I shrink back and hide instead of confront. Again, I allow my hesitancy to offend others to give them the power to make me feel uncomfortable.

I have several jiu jitsu resolutions for this year. There are techniques that I want to become proficient at. And there are certainly competitions that I want to win. But my other resolution is to act proactively in situations that make me feel uncomfortable, thereby confronting and diffusing situations before they have a chance to escalate.

Something else happened to me this week, this time ending on a more positive note. I was between sessions at work, doing some paperwork at a cafe, when a woman approached me, holding her daughter's hand. They were ready to leave the building, but there was a group of men sitting outside who made the woman feel nervous. Listening to her instincts, she pointed her car out to me and asked me to watch them as they walked out. Now, this woman had no reason to believe that I trained martial arts or was any type of a badass - it was the middle of my work day and I was dressed like a pretty regular lady. I was just another body who could yell for help or call the police if something went wrong. Through the window, I watched the pair get into their car without an incident. I thought what a smart lady! This is exactly the kind of precaution I should have taken while leaving Walmart.  

Holy crap, I'm a purple belt!

I still can't believe it - last weekend I became a Royce Gracie, Triangle jiu jitsu purple belt! It hasn't fully sunk in yet. (A few days ago, I absent-mindedly said "I'm just a blue belt" and had to be corrected by my training partner).

Not much has changed, really. I roll the same as I did a few weeks ago. I still get tapped by the same people. The old maxim is true - "A belt only covers 2 inches of your ass. It is up to you to cover the rest of it."

Getting promoted by my now black belt instructor Seth Shamp!

In my job as a speech language pathologist, we have a maxim of our own - "Don't teach to test." In other words, the point of therapy is to improve someone's functional communication, not to improve standardized test scores. When therapy is successful, improvement in assessments may be the end result, but it is never the goal. The goal is to help a patient communicate in the world.


I think the same is true in jiu jitsu. Going up in rank is a measure of progress like standardized test results. They both are a nice affirmation. But achieving rank should never be the point of training.  Pedro Valente has said “No one should train for a belt. You should train for the knowledge, you should train for all the amazing benefits that jiu jitsu brings to our lives.”

I train quite simply to get better at jiu jitsu. Sometimes I train with a narrower focus, such as to win a tournament or to learn and incorporate new techniques. But the overall goal is to be just a little bit better than the day before. Changes in color are few and far between in our art, so if they become our goal, we are destined for frustration and discouragement.

My training partners Brad McDonald and De McFadyen got promoted too!

Getting a purple belt has never been the point of my training. Still, it is something that I have wanted from early on. When I was new, I saw purple belts as serious bad-asses. Now I see them as folks who are in it for the long haul and are likely to keep training for life.

So, yeah, I am totally psyched to wear a new color and to have a chance to compete in new divisions. Purple is my favorite color and my belt now matches most of my wardrobe. I am also psyched as ever to keep training for the simple sake of learning jiu jitsu.

My jiu jitsu tree has a purple flower!

Mixed gender bout Emerson Falcao vs. Juliana Velasquez cancelled

Much ado about nothing. Here's the link. Shooto cancels fake 'man vs. woman' fight in Brazil

Thoughts?

Emerson Falcao vs. Juliana Velasquez - Shooto Brazil plans the first profesional, mixed-gender fight in MMA history

History has been set for Dec 20th - Juliana Velasquez  is set to fight Emerson Falcao in a professional MMA match, the first ever such male/female match-up in history. It is the stuff for headlines, for sure. But is it a good idea? In that I ask, is it a positive step for the sport in general and more specifically for women who compete?

I would argue that, no, it is not good for either. It is, however, sensational and attention-grabbing and a sure ways to attract viewers.

My gripes are the following:

- I want women to have the same opportunities to excel in sports as men do. As a feminist, I like and generally share the women can do anything men can do attitude. But as a life long, competitive athlete, I cannot deny that men and women's bodies are different. To deny that men and women have different physical characteristics and body compositions is to deny biology. I have blogged about this in the past in women competing in men's divisions.

Just looking at a picture of the two fighters, it is clear to me that this is not a fair physical match up. They are fighting at the same size, but the strength disparity here is pretty obvious.

Sure, there are plenty of women who can beat plenty of men in any given sport. I am way out of swimming shape, but could probably still beat 98% of the world's population of men in an endurance swimming event. I am strong and have good physical conditioning, but within that 98% of men there are bound to be those who are stronger than me, have better cardio, or have better muscular endurance than me. Yet, I would still beat them. What this means is that, despite differences in physical attributes, I would still be able to beat male swimmers whose technical skill level is lower than mine.

Which brings me to my next point...

- I am not interested in watching world-class female athletes compete against B level males. These might make for interesting match-ups, sure. But they don't do much to test the relative skill levels of the athletes involved. I would much rather watch the best women in the world compete against each other.

I am also not interested in watching elite female athletes of today compete against elite male athletes from a previous generation. I am thinking of the landmark tennis match in 1973 when #1 ranked Billie Jean King defeated the formerly #1 ranked Bobby Rigs. Billie Jean King was 29 years old, Bobby Rigs, 55. Bobby Rigs was behaving like a sexist douche, running his mouth about how inferior women's tennis was. Billie Jean King beat him and I'm glad she did. But I would rather watch the best female athletes from today compete against each other than to watch them compete against the best male athletes from our parents' generation.

"Dumbing down" a male athlete by age or technique in order to provide a more even match-up against a female is insulting.

- This is a pretty clear publicity stunt. It is going to attract an audience for the mere fact that a man and woman will be hitting each other. To most folks, it just sounds wrong...which is why they are going to watch. For a sport already described by some as "human cock fighting," this mixed gender bout will add another layer of shock. But it is sensationalism that detracts from the legitimacy of the sport.

Can training MMA actually help one's jiu jitsu?

I've dabbled in MMA classes in the past, for a month or so at time, but just for fun and without any commitment or intention to fight. What's held me back was 2 things - 1) fear and a well developed sense of self-preservation 2) concern that time spent training MMA would detract from my jiu jitsu.

Tournament jiu jitsu is my bag. It is something that I can compete in for a long time and be successful at. A desire to win is what drives me to get to the gym early to drill and to stay late to get in a few extra rolls while others are mopping. Self-defense jiu jitu techniques are important to me as well. They are what give me the tools to stay safe when I walk into a creepy house at work, for example. Self defense techniques will empower me for the rest of my life and are part of a legacy that I want to help pass on to others. There are only so many hours to train in a given week, and I don't want to do anything that would slow my progress in either of these areas.

But MMA is a young person's sport and I am not getting any younger. If I ever want to compete in MMA, even in the vague bucket list sense, it is now or never. I think that I can put fear and self-preservation aside for a period of time - but I am certainly not willing to sacrifice my jiu jitsu progress.

But in giving MMA training a more serious try, I made a surprising discovery - MMA has been the best thing in the word for my jiu jitsu. I'm not saying this is true for everybody.  But for me, my body type, and my set of skills, it is proving to be the case.

My rationale is the following:

- I am now sucking less at scrambles. I've been an endurance athlete all my life, but fast-twitched, explosive movements are my downfall. In jiu jitsu, I've basically conceded that I will lose scrambles against fast people, so I've worked on tightening my game to minimize the occurrence of these scrambles. In MMA, I train with people who are much faster than me and without the fiction of a gi to slow everything down. Only here, losing scrambles does not result in tapping, but more often results in physical pain. Being of sound mental state, physical pain is something that I try to avoid. So MMA training has pushed me into a fight-or-flight state that has made faring better in scrambles a physical necessity. Sure, there are days at jiu jitsu now when I am too fatigued and beat up to roll worth a damn. But on a whole, I am finding that I am actually rolling better now that I am more scrambly. 

- MMA has forced me to develop takedowns. My strategy in jiu jitsu tournaments has typically been "try to bully my opponent into pulling guard and if that doesn't work, pull guard before she can take me down." It's worked ok because I have similar skill levels at guard playing and guard passing. But this strategy is bitchassness. I know that as I progress in jiu jitsu, not having a strategy to take the match to the ground on my terms is something that would impede my progress.

Say no to guard pulling

- MMA has forced me to use jiu jitsu in a way that is more realistic for self-defense. MMA and self defense are different beings. Jiu jitsu self defense is about surviving and escaping, while MMA is about dominating and winning a fight. Still, training some MMA has shed light on some sporty jiu jitsu habits that I have developed that would be devastating in a self-defense situation. Falling to my butt and playing deep half guard work for me in tournaments, but are suicide in MMA and self defense. MMA has also reinforced the importance of standing in base - instead on fighting on bottom from a losing position, why not stand up and fight again from a neutral spot?     

I will never compete in MMA on a high level. I still have too much of that pesky self preservation instinct and frankly, I'm too old. But if training MMA can actually make me better at jiu jitsu, my true love?! I'll take it!