bjjfights

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! :)

JIU JITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!   I’ve been seeing some wonderful stories about the diverse group of people we’ve got training the gentle art.   It makes me so freaking happy.   You can be 45 or 61 or 16 or 6.   You can be short or tall or thin as a rail or a chunky monkey.   You can suffer from a mental illness or you can be challenged mentally or physically.   You can be deaf or even blind.   You can be slow as a turtle or quick as lightning.   Those things do not decide whether or not you get to train this beautiful art.   That is the beauty of jiu jitsu.   That is what I love about jiu jitsu.   JIU JITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

Usually I celebrate my age.   Age is just a number.  In fact, I really enjoy being able to hang with the youngsters in my jiu jitsu class, and even in my Muay Thai class.   If I can make it through the entire class, no injuries, still standing, no worse for the wear, I count that as a victory!   For all the older grapplers out there, check out this cool t-shirt.   You can get one at bjjtees.com for a limited time…I ordered mine today.   You can also follow this guy on Facebook at Old Man Jiu Jitsu .     Last night I did have a moment though.   One too many people took my back, got on top of my back and smashed the crap out of me.   It was just too much for my old lady body.   I had to tap and sit out the last few minutes of class.   The old back was just not having it last night.   But, I’m not going to let that get me down.   I will get back up and go back to class and hopefully this time I will grapple smarter an...

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 ...

This week we are back at our routine...me and Tasmanian Devil Girl.  Truthfully, she's more tired and sore than me, probably because she skipped out on one too many classes during the holidays and I didn't.  I've jumped back in full throttle with my Paleo eating...I sort of derailed myself during the holidays.  I also hit a major milestone this week, six whole months without a Dr. Pepper.  Now that's something I thought I'd never say!  I do have a confession to make, I've been cheating on my acupuncturist with the chiropractor.  I have to say that both are great for repairing all the damage I do to my neck and shoulder sitting at a desk all day...yes I said it...sitting at a desk all day.  As rough and tumble as Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu are, sitting at a desk all day not moving is way more damaging to your body.  So, this new chiropractor is giving me tons and tons of good stretching exercises to do.  It's all great stuff, who knew the things ...