bjjfights

Sometimes, it’s nice to be reminded about the beginning of the journey.   I am always excited when I meet someone so new to the sport that they are just glowing with excitement and anticipation.   They look at you with eyes shining.   They can’t wait to roll with you and test themselves and learn from you.    I am not the most athletic chick on the mat.   Not the most coordinated.   Not the most fit.   Not the one people ask for help.   But last weekend I got to train with some really cool newbies at Girls in Gis.   It was a privilege to train with them.   To show them what little knowledge I have about jiu jitsu.   They reminded me of a time not too long ago when my belt was fresh and white and clean.   They reminded me of a   time when my white belt had an empty black bar and was devoid of dirt and blood and sweat and tears.   I left that event with a full heart, smiling, happy, knowing that I had helped someon...

I love the fact that my daughter and I train together. I affectionately nicknamed her Tasmanian Devil Girl on the mats. We have been blessed with some of our best memories because of jiu jitsu. Training together and going to seminars and attending Girls in Gis events and our Team SMAA open mats has given us countless hours of bonding time. Jiu jitsu allows us to push each other, talk to each other openly and support each other. I love that. The thing that I don’t love is watching her struggle. Lately I’ve been watching her feel defeated and broken. I feel helpless not being able to help her. Not having the right words to say to comfort her. It’s hard being a Mom sometimes. I want to protect her from everything bad in this world. On the mats I want to protect her too. I don’t want her to get hurt emotionally or physically. So, it’s a fine line we walk as jiu jitsu Moms. How do we let go enough to let them grow, but still protect them when we need to? I guess we will figure it out togeth...

Lots of cool things going on.  My affiliate school, Solis Martial Arts Academy, launched a new women's only jiu jitsu class yesterday.  It's going to be every Tuesday and Thursday.  Might pop in a couple times a month (or more, it was really fun).  There were about 17 women there last night.  I had the pleasure of working with someone who was trying jiu jitsu for the very first time.  That was extremely cool.  Our school, Dirty Bay MMA,  is having a women's only Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai seminar on Saturday.  Our hope is to expose women to these two martial arts and show them that there's nothing scary or intimidating about training, and that it can be great fun and a great workout.  Sunday is Girls in Gis in San Antonio.  I can't wait to train and visit with all my jiu jitsu sisters.  So what's going on with all of you?  Wishing you peace, love and great jiu jitsu! :)

I started writing this almost a year ago.   I just could not bring myself to post it.   It is very personal.   Then the rape of the young woman on New Year’s Eve happened…and it rocked the jiu jitsu community.   I still waited.   Today I decided I needed to release this burden.   Here goes…this is for my sister. I share a lot about myself and my family on this blog, but something that most of you probably don’t know is that I had an older sister.   Her name was Melissa.   She was four years older than me.   When I was little I would follow her around and hang on to her every word, and if she asked me to do something (even if I knew it probably wasn’t a good idea) I did it anyway, she was my big sister after all.   We rocked along like this for a while until the little sisters came along and she didn’t really want to play with me anymore, she was four years older than me after all.   But, I have really good memories of her and me as ...

You might be wondering where Mrs. Ibarra has been for the last month.   I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, just extremely busy.   Work has decided to go a little crazy on me, but I’m trying not to let it affect my training like I usually do.   I’ve got to keep my perspective and keep things balanced.   So, on the jiu jitsu front, I went to another Hannette Staack seminar in San Antonio.   It was just as good as the first one.   This time around we worked on deep half guard.   I love half guard, but still trying to wrap my head around deep half guard.   I know you can make anything work for your body type in jiu jitsu; you just have to play with it until you get it right.   I’m going to have to play with this one a bit more to find the right fit.   And that folks is one of the reasons why I love jiu jitsu.     Saw some really great news today – Hannette Staack and Fenom Kimonos Announce Pro-Partnership.   Check it ...