Product Review: Fight Soap

Something pretty interesting happened a few days ago, I was approached by the owner of Fight Soap and asked to do a review of his product. Now this is something totally new for me, but I am definitely up for it. My normal skin cleaning regimen had been girly body wash every day, and then once a week I took the dermatologists’ advice and used dandruff shampoo, because I didn’t know where to get anything like Fight Soap. I’m really excited to try some of this soap out after writing the whole article about skin diseases you can get from training. If this stuff prevents it like it says it will, I will know a lot of happy fighters.

Thursday, 10/7, I got the soap and me being me, was super excited. They sent me a  purple soap call Vicious Vixen. They also sent me this little yellow sample one, which is called Brazilian Bully. There are 5 different soaps each one with a unique name, and purpose, so I am excited they sent me two to try. The big selling point on these soaps, other than the fact they can kill pretty much anything on your skin that is creepy or crawly, is that they are “made with vegan friendly and all natural ingredients.” So this stuff wouldn’t harm my skin with anything crazy and it was good for the environment. Sweet!

 Vicious Vixen

Fight Soap actually has done something pretty cool with the Vicious Vixen. They made a strong soap, for the females in the sport. There may not be many of us females but the fact that they do have something for us in mind, is awesome. I’ve used it for almost a month now and I have got to say I love the stuff. The Vicious Vixen smells amazing and it has Shea butter in it so my skin still feels smooth! The nicest part is no matter how gross and sweaty I am after BJJ I jump in the shower, and the soap makes the gross grimy feeling go away. So I can still smell feminine but not have to worry about if my soap is strong enough.

 Brazilian Bully

I’ve been using the Brazilian Bully to wash my face, mainly because it gets a lot more contact with gis and skin… And I’ve noticed I’m not getting the weird black heads I use to get.  This is a big plus, my skin is clearing up!! The Brazilian Bully has a clean Citrus smell, great for waking up in the morning. Also the crushed apricot seed exfoliated my skin. Which think about it everything these soaps are made from are all natural. Apricot seeds as the exfoliating ingredient, very ingenious.

The thing I love, that I mentioned before is the scents. They don’t smell like a hospital, or like sandalwood. So far Fight Soap comes in 5 different scents, all with varying ingredients.  I will admit the boyfriend is loving the smell of the soap. He didn’t know the smell was the Fight Soap. But after reading this he probably will… One month down and no ringworm, staph, etc. I know it’s only been a month but I am definitely sold. I really like the feeling, the fact it’s getting me very clean, and that I don’t need to worry so much about the nasty stuff you can pick up on the mat. This soap is my new body wash. 

All this being said. Fight Soap and any other heavy duty soap made to kill these diseases can only do so much. If you don’t clean your gear, or help keep your gym mats clean, then you won’t be able to prevent everything… sooner or later your luck will run out. So keep you stuff clean, wash with the right kind of soap, and you will keep yourself healthy!

Check out Fight Soap, the Fight Soap models, and the fight soap blog at fight-soap.com hope you guys enjoy!!

Updates, Seminars, and help these guys out!!

Ok lets do a quick update, Ruben Alvarez is now back to walking! After being on the receiving end of a nasty ankle lock. He’s been working hard though and is getting closer andcloser to being back on the mats!

There are to really awesome seminar opportunities for midwesterners coming up. We can thank Small Axe Jiu Jitsu for putting both of these on so check them out!

There is an Andre Galvao seminar October 30, check it out here It’s a really great opportunity. Andre Galvao is a great competitor and has a lot of good technique.

The next is something that I wish I could do! Small axe is working on doing a women’s weekend bjj camp. Again Small Axe bjj, is trying to put this on, and if i could be here for it i would definitely be going. Check here for the info on the seminar. Seriously ladies of any level should go to this seminar they have Emily Kwok, Felicia Oh, and Val Worthington coming to teach the seminar.

Finally there is one other big thing that I want to encourage everyone to go and do. There is a gym in San Diego trying to help give kids a chance to do bjj even if their family can’t afford it. I’m a major advocate for kids and women’s bjj programs so I have to ask you guys to PLEASE cast your vote for these guys… They are doing a contest to win $5,000 from US Bank to give kids bjj scholarships. Let’s see how many children’s lives we can change.. So please Vote!

I was Interviewed, Wait Hold on A Second….

That’s right guys I got interviewed. Which is weird because I have never been interviewed. Normally I am the one asking the questions… So anyway I did it for a group called Musica1. Its a bilingual website that’s now all over the Nation. I was really honored to be their first athlete and non latina, that they interviewed. Anyway check it out! it was pretty fun!

I wish I could put the video on here but I don’t have the embed code, anyway check out the link! My Interview it’s at the 22 min mark!

Don’t make too much fun of me, I was super nervous…

Tips for New Students

Everyone has been the ‘new person’ so in an attempt to make the transition either to starting BJJ or training with a new team, I’ve come up with a list of rules and I have also gotten other people that have been doing jiu jitsu for a while to give helpful suggestions. Like always take posts like this with a grain of salt, they are supposed to be a mixture of serious and funny.

1. Tap out on your opponent.This may sound weird but if you are sparring or even practicing a submission, tap on your partner, not the mat. And do it with some meaning, not just a feather light tap. There are always lots of things going on if you tap on the mat, the sound may get drowned out by other sounds going on at the same time. If you are in a place where you can’t tough the person, say ‘TAP’ loudly and/ or tap with your feet. Doing this may be the thing that saves you from passing out or getting injured.

2. The trunk of your car is bad storage for your gear. If you throw your gear straight into your trunk after practice and don’t take it out till then next day before practice, it will make your gear stink/ and possibly mold. That is gross, end of story

3. If your gear stinks, we reserve the right to not spar with you. Sorry but if you do not follow the above mentioned rule, or if you wait until you smell so bad someone tells you to wash your gear, then we reserve the right to say no. Yes not everyone washes their gi every day, but buy some Fabreeze, preferably the anti-microbial one so it will at least kill some of the gunk on your gi. Most of the time people will endure a little bit of smell, but be reasonable here, don’t make us suffer.

4. When using changing areas or bathrooms lock the door. This should be a no brainer. Close and lock the door. I don’t want to open a partially closed door and run into you changing. You may not care but remember your gym has adults, females, teens, and children. Protect everyone!

5. Knock on said doors before trying to open them. Again some people forget to lock the door, by knocking you can find out if someone is in there or not. Also it scares the crap out of me every time I have the door locked and someone just yanks on the handle and tried to open the door. So just knock, it’s a nice thing to do.

6. Wear  something on your feet to go to the bathroom. Bathrooms are generally dirty areas, so going from our mats to the bathroom bare foot, in the socks or wrestling shoes you were wearing on the mats, is just gross. Buy a pair of cheap flip flops and put them on every time you leave the mats, or keep your shoes by the mats and put them on before gong to the bathroom, it keeps stuff clean.

7. If you find something weird growing on your skin, get it checked out before coming back to class.  It’s that simple, if that infected hair isn’t looking right, you have weird bumps or sores, or a round red spot on your skin get it checked out before going to practice, don’t infect your teammates, if you’re not sure what I am talking about, see THIS article.

8. If you are a larger person/ muscley  please be aware of your weight or strength.  In my case yes I may be a purple belt. But that only helps me so much when I have a guy that can bench 3 times my weight picking me up and tossing me. Or if someone twice my size has side control and is trying to suffocate or squeeze me. From experience, my 5’3” 120 lbs can’t handle Your smaller teammates will love you if you learn to balance and not use all of your weight/ strength on them

9. While some catch on faster than others, no one becomes amazing over night. With the exception of BJ Penn who got his black belt in 3 short years, jiu jitsu is a difficult sport. The people that have higher belts have been right where you are and know that it can get very frustrating. One day in class you will just kind of hit you how much you have learned or how much you have grown so far. So keep working this sport does take time!

10. Sparring in class is not Mundials nor any other big championship. Use this time to make mistakes, and fix them. Sparring in class is to try new techniques, to think and make game plans. Please don’t go full out against your teammates, someone could get hurt. Most of all relax and have during class!

11.While sparring, move for higher belts. That’s right, if you’re sparring and you get to close to another pair, whoever has the highest ranked person rolling gets to stay, the lowest one’s have to move. It’s just courtesy. Now occasionally everyone is even, whichever set can move easiest and restart in the same position, moves. There will be some times where higher belts will move for lower belts, like when the lower belts are in a place to finish the match (submission), or the lower belts are much bigger and the higher belt moves to get out of the way of whatever is going on. But generally speaking, move for the higher belts.

12. Please do not call it ‘Jits’ yes we all like to shorten the name of the sport some how. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a long name, but there are already jiu jitsu or BJJ, how many names do we need to call it? Besides, there are a lot of people that have been in BJJ a very long time, and really don’t like hearing it called that.

13. While there is some good technique shown on Youtube, most of it is bad. We all like to watch video of technique, read the books out there, take notes, practice at home, etc. You need to be careful about what sources you are using. Many good jiu jitsu coaches have websites and online video tutorials. Many will have a couple free tutorials, with a membership you can buy to see the rest. Those are the best online sources. Using Youtube to supplement your game is like using only Wikipedia as a source to write a paper for school… Not smart. Anyone can post anything on Youtube. There is some god stuff but most of it isn’t legit. If you’re going to use it, make sure the person teaching the skill is good, many of the top competitors have one or two videos up, but leave youtube for looking up opponents past fights, or watching top athletes compete.

14. Remember to relax! You’re here to learn how to do a martial art, specifically BJJ. BJJ is the ‘Arte Suave’ it’s really hard for your teammate to help you through a technique, if you are so stiff your arms are shaking. If you remember during technique to stay loose and relaxed, the techniques become easier. If someone comes over to help keep loose, listen to everything they say then try and move, occasionally they will put you in the right place, don’t resist, just go with the flow!

15. And finally! If you have a question, just ask! If you don’t know how to tie your belt, if a technique just isn’t going right, or you just aren’t sure ask someone! The higher belts know what it was like to be new, the white belts that have been there a while know how it was to be new we all are willing to help but if you don’t ask, we don’t always catch it. If you’re shy, look for someone on the team that is always talking to every one, or has a smile on their face, and of course the instructors will always try to help. The more questions you ask, the faster you learn!

 

Those were just 15 basic things that should help out anyone who is starting BJJ, or switching/ visiting a school. Some were meant to be funny, but all of them are there to be helpful. I hope it helps someone new. If you have been training a while hopefully it made you reminisce, or made you think about how to help out those new people at the gym. Either way hopefully it affected someone!

Big changes may be coming.

So for those of you who don’t know me very well Iam a recent college grad. When I graduated, I didn’t have a job lined up, I couldn’t find one anywhere. I reverted back to lifeguarding which was something I have always done and loved. Well it doesn’t pay well for someone with bills, and student loans. So I have been actively seeking jobs. I have found a few, and one of them is calling me in for a second interview. The only thing is it is literally across the country. In a totally different town, state, region, etc. But the good thing, and honestly one of the reasons I agreed to apply for the position out there, is because there is an affiliate school, close enough, that I will be able to still do BJJ in my free time.

So What does that mean for now? Well it means next Thursday I will be in another part of the country doing my second interview, visiting the BJJ school, and just seeing how everything goes. The good news I get to visit an affiliate school! Train with them for a day, meet everyone, and watch some of the students fight in an MMA event. The bad news, well I’m not sure about bad new yet but I really am excited to go out there and visit Michael Proctor, and his team at Gamebred Jiu Jitsu.

Fight Soap

So this group called Fight Soap got a hold of me and requested that I do a review of their soap. I just got my sample, and I’m excited to try it out and see how it goes! I think it’s a great that I’m getting to check some of this soap out. It kind of goes along with the post I did about what you can get from the mats. You can check out that post here. So look for that post coming up soon.

There is a new BJJ poll up on the right hand side, please feel free to vote! If I can get a good response on it I will try to find good video of the winning guard position.

I have a few shout outs. Congrats to my blue belt teammate BT    for an awesome showing at the Michigan Open on 10/2. BT got third place, and is a pretty hilarious guy if you have never met him. Every school has a comedian of the team, well BT is actually a comedian, he gets paid to make people laugh and he’s always keeping us in good spirits at the gym!

Secondly, good luck to John ‘Sampson’ Correa at the US grappling Chicago this Saturday! We wish you all the best and let us know how the tournament is!!

Finally, I have to shout out my friends over at BJPenn.com, Erad, Jofil, Filharmonic, Munks, Benjii, Eddie C, Miss Hillary of Penn Academy, and to anyone I didn’t name I’m sorry! Thank you guys for the support! you know I’ll be in there chatting away whenever I can!

And finally, as crazy as this sounds, in the month of October I have already gotten over 1,000 views already! Thank you everyone for reading! Please give feedback I love to hear what you guys want to see. If this keeps up I plan on building a full website and seeing what happens! So stay tuned!!!

Apparently I’m now Sponsored by the BJJ Lifestyle!

The past few months I have been working on getting sponsored by the BJJ Lifestyle/ BJJ legion. After a bunch of fun/ crazy missions I am now sponsored! So anyway any time I end up succeeding in completing a mission I will go ahead and post it on here.

 

So here is the car with her newest sticker… YAY BJJ LIFE.

And because I’m always on my computer, blogging and such I decided to put the Life/ Legion stickers on it too…

So if you guys haven’t seen the stuff that is  on the BJJ lifestyle you will definitely have to check it out. They have super affordable gi’s, t-shirts, lifestyle belts, just crazy stuff! The guy in charge of it Luke, is pretty hilarious so even if you don’t buy anything, just go on there and read his posts, and the crazy stuff he comes up with.

Kind of a stinky Week

So this past week I have definitely been a little under the weather…. Strep Throat will do that to you. I’m finally almost totally recovered though, YAY! Unfortunately I was bad enough I only was able to go to jiu jitsu once this week, and after techniques I was so wiped sparring and specific training weren’t an option.

I’m also working on a few blogs but unfortunately while waiting for other people to come through I’ve been left with a few mostly finished posts, so I am going to do a few things with this one. #1 I am going to talk about the newest addition to the BJJ family,  #2 I am going to post some pictures that i forgot about from the UFC and #3 I am going to put video up of a technique that I like, and want to learn more of.

Say a big olá to Olivia Marie Riviera! She is the newest addition to the BJJ family! She' has one tough Momma in Brown Belt Vanessa Smith. Anyway I wanted to wish well to Momma and baby. I can’t wait to see them both around they gym!! Vanessa and baby Olivia actually inspired one of my earlier posts, which you can check out here.

Ok so I found a few more pictures from the UFC weekend, and I’m still trying to get a hold of the last few… Dumb camera of mine kept messing up. Thankfully I have people who took pictures, it’s just trying to find them… Anyway here is Mr. 10th Planet, Eddie Bravo and I. And then Herb Dean and I. Crazy week way to many pictures, I need to find the rest!!

The final thing today is a highlight technique that I definitely want to learn more of. I was shown this video a few months ago and I keep watching it because it’s something completely unique. Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu has made it famous. If you don’t know who Cyborg is, he is a black belt, who competes at Super Heavyweight, but his tornado guard, is something that has really made me want to try it.. I have a friend who trains down in Miami with Professor Abreu, and I actually hope to visit him and train with the team, this video kind of pushes me to go sooner rather than later..

Anyway check out this intro to tornado guard. I will be trying to do these during open mat until I can get them right!

 

To all of my friends who competed at No gi Pan Ams great job!!! I believe a few of you medaled if you send me your names I will definitely do a big shout out!! Keep working hard and training hard!