Hell hath no fury like a woman Jiu-Jitsu fighter

When was the last time you saw a, (spoken in a hushed voice) thirty-something mother, take the plunge and dive into the world of Jiu-Jitsu? For those of you who don't know Gina, she is one of only a handful of women who have braved the gauntlet of male students to venture onto the mats of our Jiu-Jitsu class.

Our class continues to grow, so it might be easy to miss some of the female students. If you want a lesson in how to use technique rather than strength or how to leave your ego on the edge of the mat, grapple with one of the women.

Gina began her martial journey at thirty-five when she started learning Karate. She earned her black belt last June. She is an avid competitor as well, winning gold medals repeatedly in sparring competitions at the Cornhusker State Games. She has also medaled in the Kata competitions.

She has been a regular student in our dojo's sparring class since its early beginnings. Gina has studied some Judo and dabbled in almost every other discipline offered at Roseberry’s Martial Arts Center. She did a short stint helping out with teaching the A+ Positive Kids Power class at the dojo (for 3-7 yr olds).

Gina began learning Jiu-Jitsu near the beginning of 2009. She caught the bug early and has remained a regular student since. Last June, Gina was interviewed on Athena Medusa about her Jiu-Jitsu journey.

We captured some great open mat footage of Gina yesterday, so I put together a couple of videos. I think there's some real value in watching yourself grapple. Of course, we are always the most critical of ourselves. Gina expressed some of her thoughts about her performance after watching the videos, but admits that it is a wonderful tool and an awesome learning experience. She talked about how she was able to see so many things in both the videos that she didn't even realize she was doing, and so many things that she should have been doing.