This started as a blog about training together as a family, in part to inspire other women & families to get involved. As female participation in jiu jitsu has increased, as we have grown as athletes and as we learned that families training together aren’t such an anomaly, the blog has evolved. Jen gets personal with posts on ambition, challenges & achievements in BJJ, CrossFit & with nutrition, while Tom's posts are more educational, informative and analytical in regards to training. On occasion you may hear from the kids.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

I am a member of a team...

Marcelo's birthday celebration.



by Jen

"I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion."...Mia Hamm

Okay, it is time for me to get a little mushy. I love my team! I have the privilege of training with an extraordinary group of people from all walks of life, under the leadership of a strong-willed, determined, but compassionate coach. Had I never started training BJJ, I would have never had the opportunity to welcome these people into my life.

I guess the "mush" has been inspired by many activities over the last few weeks. As you may have saw in a previous post, Marcelo's coach, Master Andre Pederneiras hosted a seminar at our school on June 23. He was traveling with students Jose Aldo and Marlon Sandro who joined us as guests earlier in the week. They were all working with Marlon for his upcoming Bellator fight against Genair da Silva. All were warm, humble and genuinely nice men who made me proud to be a member of the Nova Uniao team.

This was my first official BJJ seminar and I loved it. In the three-hours we learned several new moves from take downs to chokes and had the opportunity to train with guests from other schools. It was an honor to learn from my coach's coach. That Saturday night many of us showed up at the Hard Rock to cheer Marlon on in his fight against da Silva. What a great fight that was!

On the 30th we came together as a team to celebrate Marcelo's birthday. We practically took over our local hangout, Shenanigans, and celebrated over dinner and cake. I believe that evenings like these bring us closer together.

On the 4th I hosted a small barbecue for my family and a few friends and was happy to have our two female training partners join us.

The unanticipated benefit of bjj training is the addition of new friendships found in my bjj family!

More pictures:

Seminar:
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Bellator Fight
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4th of July
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Happy 4th from Team MMBJJ (Tom, Logan, Hunter and me, our nephew Sean, Sanya and Claudette)

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The Girls of MMBJJ

1 comment:

  1. Love that last picture! Looks like a fun group of ladies... all of whom have killer guns! =)

    ReplyDelete