I used to think I was Wild and Crazy....then I competed in the Female Purple Belt Light/Feather division at the 2014 Worlds!
WOW!! What a week!
Going to Worlds is always eventful along with being stressful, exhausting but, always fun! This time was no different except for a few slightly different events!
We started off our trip with the 5 1/2 hour drive to CA, which was a ton of fun since I was water loading, this meant several stops along the way for "potty" breaks. After a long, painful trip we stopped off at our Lotus Club affiliate school, Team Oyama in Irvine to train a little, hang out with our extended BJJ family and check our weight.....our 1st eventful moment!! I was happy to see that I was only a little over weight and still had 2 days to go. Tyson, however....was 11lbs over! All of the sudden my anxiety focus was not on ME anymore! Our next 48 hours consisted of eating fruit and a few almonds and sweating our butts off! Tyson did make weight, barely and I was 3lbs under. What a relief!
My next awesome moment was when I ran into Lana Hunter (the girl I had pegged to win my weight class) and she said "Oh, you have the girl that beat me and won Worlds last year for your 1st match" this was an awesome piece of info to get the day before competing ;)
Unfortunately, Tyson and I didn't bring home the bling this year but, we both had a great experience and learned! I have no regrets and saw some of the most talented Purple Belt females I have ever seen! The competition was incredible and the one thing I really noticed ALL weekend long...BJJ girls are CRAZY, FIERCE and BAD A**! It was an honor to compete amongst them and I have come to the conclusion that I need a little work on my aggressive, crazy competitiveness!
Aside from competing, Andrew and I worked all 4 days as score keepers. We had a front row seat for the action, keeping score for The Miyao Brothers, Bruno Malfacine, Leandro Lo, Romulo Barral (one of my new favorites!) and more!! I also was the "Athlete Collector" on the Black Belt final day! I had the sweet job of making sure the Black Belts got to the podium after competing, this was not an easy job by the way, they did not want to go to the podium, they wanted to celebrate, take photos and jump into the crowd and most of them spoke only Portuguese, so this took a lot of "hands on" maneuvering and guiding, so I'm hoping some of their magic rubbed off on me, I did carry Michelle Nicolini's shoes and Buchecha's phone and headphones and got very close to jumping in on a group hug with Rodolfo and his coach!
WOW!! What a week!
Going to Worlds is always eventful along with being stressful, exhausting but, always fun! This time was no different except for a few slightly different events!
We started off our trip with the 5 1/2 hour drive to CA, which was a ton of fun since I was water loading, this meant several stops along the way for "potty" breaks. After a long, painful trip we stopped off at our Lotus Club affiliate school, Team Oyama in Irvine to train a little, hang out with our extended BJJ family and check our weight.....our 1st eventful moment!! I was happy to see that I was only a little over weight and still had 2 days to go. Tyson, however....was 11lbs over! All of the sudden my anxiety focus was not on ME anymore! Our next 48 hours consisted of eating fruit and a few almonds and sweating our butts off! Tyson did make weight, barely and I was 3lbs under. What a relief!
My next awesome moment was when I ran into Lana Hunter (the girl I had pegged to win my weight class) and she said "Oh, you have the girl that beat me and won Worlds last year for your 1st match" this was an awesome piece of info to get the day before competing ;)
Unfortunately, Tyson and I didn't bring home the bling this year but, we both had a great experience and learned! I have no regrets and saw some of the most talented Purple Belt females I have ever seen! The competition was incredible and the one thing I really noticed ALL weekend long...BJJ girls are CRAZY, FIERCE and BAD A**! It was an honor to compete amongst them and I have come to the conclusion that I need a little work on my aggressive, crazy competitiveness!
Aside from competing, Andrew and I worked all 4 days as score keepers. We had a front row seat for the action, keeping score for The Miyao Brothers, Bruno Malfacine, Leandro Lo, Romulo Barral (one of my new favorites!) and more!! I also was the "Athlete Collector" on the Black Belt final day! I had the sweet job of making sure the Black Belts got to the podium after competing, this was not an easy job by the way, they did not want to go to the podium, they wanted to celebrate, take photos and jump into the crowd and most of them spoke only Portuguese, so this took a lot of "hands on" maneuvering and guiding, so I'm hoping some of their magic rubbed off on me, I did carry Michelle Nicolini's shoes and Buchecha's phone and headphones and got very close to jumping in on a group hug with Rodolfo and his coach!
I want to wish a big congratulations to Logan Jewell, my teammate, on
taking Bronze in the Purple Belt Heavy Weight division! This is a HUGE
accomplishment! Logan smashed through his 1st three opponents,
his 1st match ending with a score of 30-0 but, ending up losing in the semi
finals to another great competitor. My other teammate, Joe Gomez had a great
fight too!
I'm really proud of my teammates/friends
just for getting out there with the BEST in the World!
taking Bronze in the Purple Belt Heavy Weight division! This is a HUGE
accomplishment! Logan smashed through his 1st three opponents,
his 1st match ending with a score of 30-0 but, ending up losing in the semi
finals to another great competitor. My other teammate, Joe Gomez had a great
fight too!
I'm really proud of my teammates/friends
just for getting out there with the BEST in the World!
Thank you so much to my sponsors who made it possible for me to go to Worlds, have music to listen too, smell pretty, have awesome memories and be able to recover afterwards!
Oss Arizona
Kristensphotos
Gi-Soap
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Chick Buds
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Oss Arizona
Kristensphotos
Gi-Soap
for 15% off use code LESLIE15
Chick Buds
for 20% off use code LESLIE20
