Jiu-Jolie

Don’t talk about promotions….. December is a month for promotions in most academies. Competition season is over for the year, and most have spent their time putting in the work on the mats and becoming the best version of themselves throughout the year. Social media becomes a news feed of personal achievements and the words ‘congratulations’ and ‘parabens’ filled in the comments for the photos. We all know there is an average time you spend at each belt. White – 18 months to

Standing in the middle of the mats, hands on my hips, looking around at everyone partnering up together, and there’s me, on my own, no one to spar with. This is a common occurrence. It’s been happening a lot sine I was a purple belt. I’m now a brown belt of almost 2 years. At white belt it happened occasionally, but down to me being new and pretty crap, not knowing what I was doing and not a being great training partner. At least that’s what I thought. Towards the end of my w

Just recently I've been struggling with anxiety attacks. It's not something I've really felt before. Last year I had a mild attack before having to give a personal statement to the police after an incident happened in April. I wrote about this in October in my blog. Last weekend my chest started to feel tight and my head was a little fuzzy. I had just left teaching my women Jiu jitsu class and was on my way to teach my kickboxing kids at another gym. The feeling subsided and

When you go to a major competition, your eye is not just on that medal, but the title the championship win comes with. After competing at the British Nationals, I stepped my training up in a big way, clocking up a minimum of 10 hours a week of a mix of technical and sparring classes in jiu jitsu. Attended seminars, visited friends at their gyms and kept up with my strength and conditioning training with Will Wayland. I run my own company, so being my own boss gives me the f