Saturday training

There wasn't much to write for Friday, I just had a cardio workout on top of work. There want open mat or class.

Today started with Caiman's private lesson at 9 am. 10- 1030 was kids Bjj, 1030- 1115 was jr adult Bjj, and finally 1115- 12 was jr adult mma.

Now that i'm with work I am off to the gym to do lower body... Yes I know it's late but it's best this way for me. Anytime fitness here I come!


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Darn snow

Yesterday, with the snow we got in Washington state, I had a little different work out than normal. At work I spent a few hours catching large rafts out of our big water slides. These rafts are easily bigger than me, and carry 4 to 5 people. So it was a good strength and resistance training. Amazing how I can turn work into something to benefit training...

Night class was slow, the snow and frozen roads stopped me from having my kids classes. Roice, one of my new 6 year olds was the only to come in so he got to have a private lesson.

Very few people made it into class so we just had open mat. I trained


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Getting ready for pan ams

So a few things have been stalling a lot of my writing recently. None of them are really what I consider good reasons but regardless they have made it more difficult to write. So what I'm going to do is write about my daily training getting ready for Pan Ams. Today is a bad day to start it but I will anyway.

It snowed today, and for some reason 1" of snow = impending doom in western Washington. I ended up working a 12 hour shift at work to help out. By the time that I could leave the roads were a mess and I couldn't make it in time for Bjj. It honestly made me upset, any time I miss Bjj I'm bummed. So it's now 1:06 am and I just got home from a good hour and a half at the gym. I honestly have to say I love Anytime Fitness for always being open. I did a core workout and a nice card workout as well to make sure I'm getting the best of both worlds every time I lift.

Tomorrow will be more back to normal, work, teaching kids and jr adults, advanced Bjj training, then weights again!

I know I'm doing it weird by weight lifting being so late, but for some reason it works best for me this way.

Anyways stay in touch more about training, lifting, balancing home and Jiu jitsu life, effective ways to get ready for tournaments, and product reviews are coming up.


Tuesdays jr adult class... Gotta love them. Oh and thank you Airik for being a great assistant coach I need the second set of eyes...

Tournaments and such

I figured I would do a little bit of an update since I’ve not been writing much recently.

There are two tournaments coming up for my team out here, the Revolution, a local organization, and the Pan Ams. The Revolution is March 12, and Pan Ams are March 24- 27. With these two tournaments coming up almost everyone is in competition mode. I am also going to keep a running list on the side of my blog, it will be of upcoming events in my area, so hopefully it will give people tournaments to look forward to. 

Class schedules have changed so I am now teaching all of the kids jiu jitsu classes, which is a huge blessing. They are absolutely amazing to work with and every class I am more and more surprised at how fast all of them learn. There are about 8 children in the 3-6 year old class, and probably around 20 junior adults. When class is full it is definitely a sight to see.

A few weeks ago I was asked to be in a documentary about women who do jiu jitsu. I am very honored and humbled to be in it because honestly I wouldn’t expect to be asked to do something like this. There are a few other women from all over the world who have agreed to do it as well, and it is a great project. you can read more about the documentary and everything that has been going on with it here at lutadoras.

I promise to find more things to write about, more videos and pictures to put up, and hopefully even another product review, I just need to get rid of my writers’ block!

Kids Bjj tournament

I want to just quickly congratulate the students on the junior adult team who competed this past Saturday. Congrats to Miss Alyssa for winning her first tournament! 2 weeks before Alyssa also competed at the Oregon sub league, she placed fourth and had an awesome arm bar against a boy.

Orion placed second, he won one of his matches. Great job Orion!

Troy competed in the white belt division and got second. Troy hasn't been training long, but he is a great competitor!

Austin did an awesome job as well and got second, unfortunately he got injured as well but I am still proud of him!

Finally my newest student, Nicole competed at her first tournament, not only did she have to fight a really big boy, but she ended up getting second!! Nicole also earned her first stripe on her white belt!

Congrats to all of the junior adults! Every one placed, and had a good time! The Revolution tournament is in March! Let's kick some butt!!

Taking care of that Cauliflower Ear

Cauliflower ear is seen everywhere in the martial arts community. Grapplers, boxers, and MMA fighters are probably the biggest culprits when it comes to having it. The more trauma the ear receives, the more of a chance you will have to get Cauliflower  ear. So what is it, how do you get it, how do you prevent it, and how can you get rid of it? Most of know what it is and have seen people with it, but I realized a lot of my teammates are missing an important step to making sure it doesn’t come back. Just in case I want to write about it to maybe help someone else.

So what is cauliflower ear? Cauliflower ear happens when the blood supply to the cartilage is cut off and the cartilage shrivels up and dies. How does the blood supply get cut off from the cartilage? It happens when either a blunt trauma causes a hematoma (blood filled pocket, bruise) to occur, or the skin is torn away from the cartilage. The skin on your ear is the only way the cartilage gets blood circulated to it. When there is no blood circulating to the cartilage it dies and shrivels up. So when the blood finally drains away, the damage is done. Prevention is pretty straight forward. Wear headgear for the martial art of your choice. It is the best way to prevent getting it.

So how do you treat Cauliflower ear if you do get it? As soon as it starts to blow up, you need to treat it. The best way to get it treated is to, if necessary, get it drained by a doctor. A doctor is going to have better tools, sanitized equipment, and resources in case anything goes wrong. If you can’t afford a doctor, it is possible to drain your own ear… I would definitely suggest asking around and finding out if a teammate has experience with draining cauliflower ear. Here is a basic run down of the steps though.

1. Disinfect all of your tools. You’re going to need a syringe, diabetic needles seem to be the needle of choice, rubber gloves, gauze and some thing to create compression on your ear.

2. Glove up, who ever is sticking you with a needle should wear the gloves. Keep bodily fluids away from your skin.

3. Locate the fluid filled pockets in your ear. They should be squishy pockets in your ear that move around. The hard stuff is the part that is too late to fix.

4. Drain the area. Stick the needle in to your ear and slowly suck the blood or fluid out. This step may need to happen more than once. Use a new needle every time, and stick in a different place every time.

5. After draining, use the gauze and light pressure over the points of entry on your ear. This will catch any more blood.

6. Compression. This is the part my teammates and friends seem to miss. After you drain the area you need to compress the skin to the cartilage, this way the blood doesn’t pool again and you can prevent most of the cauliflower effect from taking place.

There can be some side effects of cauliflower ear. Infection happens especially when draining on your own. Most often though the wrinkling and deformity of the ear are the only things that you really need to worry about with it. Cauliflower ear is easily treatable by a doctor or by yourself with a few careful steps. Don't forget to add pressure once it is drained, and it will greatly decrease your chances of having majorly deformed ears. But the best way to beat cauliflower ear is just to prevent it by wearing headgear

I actually found a great video on draining your cauliflower ear by yourself. Thank you to Phillipe Nover for putting up a great video!