Jiu-Jolie

Recently there has been a few discussions on the ‘women only’ seminars that have been happening over the last year. Comments have been made that they are unfair and ‘sexist’ as ‘men only’ seminars would be classed as unfair to women, so it shouldn’t happen the other way around too. This is where the more respected jiu jitsu practicioners and instructors step in to defend these seminars and the hard work that is put in by the female instructor teaching them and their aim to ge

Rome is a magical place for me. I first had the urge to go when I was just 17 years old and started to plan a trip with my mum, but the trip never happened and she went with my dad instead a few years later. So I packed my bags 2 years ago and made the trip as a blue belt and came home with 3 gold and a silver in the Rome open and European No Gi. This year I had entered as a very settled and comfortable purple belt, so I was ready to see how I could do in a higher rank divisi

Now I’m not one for excuses when it comes to training and competing fails, but there is something that women in jiu jitsu can’t get away from that can hinder our training and can affect the results in competitions. Periods. Last month I competed at the Abu Dhabi national pro trials in London. It was not my best performance ever, it was along the lines of one of my worst. That day I woke up with a fuzzy head, feeling lethargic and not wanting to get out of bed. I doubled up on

As part of the women's comission for the UKBJJA, and to help inspire more women to become part of the UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community, we planned and created a video to do exactly this. The video was filmed by Hannah Jell at Carlson Gracie London and finally released to help promote the sport. You can watch it here: #bjj #womenssport #supportwomensbjj #ukbjja #thisgirlcan #jiujitsuwomen

The beauty of a sport like Jiu Jitsu is that the women who train, support one another immensly. There is a brilliant community of women in the UK who train and compete, and now even a Womens commission of the UKBJJA (UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Association) which I am proud to be part of. We have women's open mats and training sessions all over the country, and today we had our own seminar to help support a brilliant British athlete Samantha Cook on her way to the No Gi Worlds in

When you start training in this wonderful sport we call Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. There is something so mesmerising about having your ass handed to you on a plate. Is it our ego slowly being suffocated and fighting for air? Maybe it is, and it's telling us that if we give it another round, we might just be able to fight off and beat that person who has been training a little bit longer, with a bit more experience and knowledge of the sport. Only if we use brutal strength and force