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Monday, February 27, 2012

2012 NAGA Tampa


So the Women's Class went to our first tournament!
 Here is Madison getting ready to do battle! :)
 At Fabio's, we have a tradition of tying up new competitors up on the way up to the tournament.

 They are lucky the trip was only an hour away! LOL
It was Madison's dad's first tournament as well, and Stephanie was also competing. Me and Robo Rowan were there to support.

 After coming to the tournament, Robo Rowan has decided that she wants to "beat some people up" too. She will be terrorizing the teen division in no time! ;)
 Stpehanie getting in the zone. 
Warming up before the tournament started.

Some of my favorite girls. Erica (on the far left) also competed. 

I am so proud of "Mad Dog" Madison. After only three weeks of training, she stepped on the mat to compete. She ended up having to fight a girl who was older, bigger and with way more experience. Even so, she did awesome. She defended a guillotine, swept the girl and was trying to pass guard when the girl caught an inverted armbar. Madison didn't know how to escape that because she had never seen it before, but even so she started to roll out the right way, but then got confused and went the other way. Unfortunately, she ended up hurting her elbow. But she is already back in class and is planning to compete again when her elbow is better. She is a fighter! :)

Steph and Erica also did really well. They each got second place in their divisions. I am so proud to be a part of Team Fabio Novaes and to have the chance to train with so many great people!




Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Mock Tournament

One of the girls from the Women's Class is competing this weekend at a NAGA in Tampa. I am so excited. As this is her first tournament, Stephanie and I have been trying to prepare her for the intensity of a tournament grapple by putting on a lot more pressure and being a lot more aggressive in sparring. But last Saturday, we took it a step further and had a "mock tournament" during class.

(some of the girls from class)
Everyone sat along the wall. The girls that wanted to participate went up one by one to face off against me or Stephanie. Either Steph or I acted as a coach. We started off each match like it would go in a tournament, with the "ref" talking about the rules and asking each fighter if they were ready. We timed each match five minutes.

The girls have not started from standing very often, and they had never had to grapple with the whole class watching, with a coach screaming at them. It was a good exercise. They did some of the best grappling I've seen them do and they got a little taste of the adrenaline rush that they will experience when they compete. I was really proud of them!

We are going to try it again tonight, and this time I am going to have all the girls on the wall shout: half for one of the fighters, half for the other. And we are going to have two coaches, one screaming for one of my students and one screaming for me or Stephanie. Should be fun. :)

In other news, my son Noah did his first BJJ class this past week! As you can see, he is a natural born fighter. LOL

He absolutely LOVED it and can't wait to go back. I am excited about being able to do jiu-jitsu with him.