I know, I know, I’m slacking. Nogi Worlds was on Sunday, and here I am just now getting to writing on the following Friday. In my defense, I had quite a lot of Physics homework and a Parasitology test too. 100/100 on Physics, 91 on the Parasitology test. Come on, ask me the life cycle of the ixodes tick that is a vector of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, I dare you.
Friday I went to classes, picked up my training partner Justin from the gym, and we were off to the airport. I’m not used to traveli…
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Added by Hillary on November 13, 2009 at 4:00pm —
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I distinctly remember chatting with [Roberto] Cyborg in Florida over lunch about my belt. Roli had been training with him the week before I got there, and apparently the two had talked. "No, I told him you need more time, he needs to wait until after next year's Worlds, so you can grow." I neglected to realize that Cyborg is a sneaky Barzeelun and was just messing with me.
On Wednesday we were training, as usual, but it was a rather small class. While fending off the strength and top game of a…
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Added by Hillary on November 2, 2009 at 9:35am —
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Alright, if the traffic of MTX didn’t just quadruple because of that little creeper-magnet, I’m all out of ideas. As indicated, I’m finally above age. Wednesday was my 21st birthday and I’m more excited about being able to go out to watch TUF at a bar with friends than anything else.
I spent the week after ADCC managing to find twelve times more photos of my arm being hyperextended by Sayaka than I did of defeating either Laurence or Megumi, but what can you do? Karma’s a bitch!
I’ve never bee…
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Added by Hillary on October 19, 2009 at 9:30pm —
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Para esse mesmo blog em português, olha depois das fotos.
I have trained for three years and four months. I’m a full-time pre-med student, not a full-time athlete. As just a purple belt, I’m the highest ranking [active] jiu jitsu student in my unknown school from Little Rock, Arkansas. And I’m on a plane, hungry as hell, on my way to Barcelona to compete against the world’s best. This is re-freaking-donkulus.
That went through my head, oh, only a few thousand times as I was on my way to…
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Added by Hillary on September 29, 2009 at 4:04am —
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My blurb of confidence at the beginning of the last blog has been waning, but that's the general pattern for me. The closer I get to a tournament, the more and more nervous I get. The more worried I get about if I can hang at that level. That, however, is what fuels my training. If I thought I was good enough, I wouldn't get better. As it stands, I know that I have many, many flaws and I'm training like a madwoman to minimize them until ADCC.
This weekend I headed the 5 1/2 hours to Fort Worth,…
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Added by Hillary on August 31, 2009 at 1:00pm —
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ADCC is 6 weeks away and I love hearing people saying, "Wow, you should be happy just with the opportunity." I haven't spent three (admittedly quite short) years training my ass off all over North and South America to be happy just going to ADCC. I'm not going for experience, I'm going to win. I don't give a damn what belt the other girls have, I don't care how famous they are or whatever they've won in the past. Nothing matters except the ten minutes you're on the mat. Focus, train, and leave e…
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Added by Hillary on August 17, 2009 at 3:46pm —
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The weekend was marked with a couple going-away parties, and I once again confirmed that I can’t keep up with Brazilian nightlife. I need to be in bed by eleven, up by eight, and that’s how I function. Irritated by the fact that Flamengo tied Nautica, I slept in until 8:30 then went to the hospital to help the chief translate a medical article to be published. I headed to Gama Filho later in the afternoon. From there, I went straight to Campo Grande with Rodolfo and Gabriel. Those two kids reall…
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Added by Hillary on August 8, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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I have one week and one day left in Brazil. Not too thrilled about that. I seriously considered faking my own death and staying, but my dad always told me he’d go on a killing spree if something happened to me—and I’m 99% sure he wasn’t joking. That, and it’s slightly difficult to hide a blond haired, blue eyed, white girl that does jiu jitsu in Rio de Janeiro.
I spent the week training at Gama Filho—yep, training. I’ve got to be insane. I wandered in with the cast and Julio (Mestre, 5th degree…
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Added by Hillary on July 31, 2009 at 8:00am —
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Most gringos return from Brazil with pictures of them in front of Rio’s beaches or Cristo…but I’m coming back with X-rays. Awesome.
Because of my shoulder, last week was lighter. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon were spent at Gama Filho where Rodolfo Vieira and Theodoro Canal are helping me more than any person could ask for. Those two are very, very good souls. Rodolfo’s looking to do seminars so if anyone’s interested, just PM me. I’ve been finally opening up my judo and it’s amazing…
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Added by Hillary on July 21, 2009 at 6:57am —
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Yay! Blog!
This week was pretty intense at the hospital, worked every day except for Wednesday. There was a course Thursday and Friday where some of the best surgeons and professors from Brazil came here to explain the temporal bone.
The more time I spend around neurosurgery, the more and more fascinated I become with it. Tuesday afternoon, I watched the two eldest residents removed a four-inch diameter section from a young man's skull in order to remove a tumor. This guy's brain, a lumpy pink…
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Added by Hillary on July 14, 2009 at 4:31pm —
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No internet, I'm gonna die. This is just absurd.
My roommate and I have been watching the same few movies we have over and over. I've seen The Beach, The Office Season One, and Meu Nome Nao Eh Johnny about twenty times each. But it's worth it.
Training is getting better and better. I'm attacking and defending foot and leg locks a lot more naturally and flowing through rolls a lot better. I've gotten a chance to roll with some higher ranking girls and have been doing extremely well against them…
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Added by Hillary on July 4, 2009 at 10:44am —
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Rio de Janeiro—land of great asses and sick Jiu Jitsu.
I flew out, coughing my lungs out, less than 24 hours after I arrived home from California. Rather than spend two days assuring my training partners that I didn’t have swine flu, I rested the first bit of my trip and started training on Friday at a Checkmate school very close to my closet-sized Copacabana apartment. The head instructor there showed me a secret guard sweep that’s absolute magic. Because of it being Brazilian Valentine’s Day,…
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Added by Hillary on June 24, 2009 at 11:51am —
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I remember thinking before my trials weigh ins, Man, I’m getting in good shape! I’m gonna stay down here. Then, of course, I remembered that hard training requires energy. And that I really, really like food. So, I’m a [relative] fatty again…and I’m quite content.
Roli forced me to take two days off from training and I was kind of lost. With school on break and no gym for two days, well, I wandered around with my dogs in wonder of what to do. A few more days of hard training and I flew up to Mi…
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Added by Hillary on June 8, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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Robertinho picked me up at 8:20 AM Thursday—ten minutes earlier than he said he’d be here, so there are investigations looking into whether or not he’s actually Brazilian—and I was off. Got home to find that ADCC had FINALLY put up when and where weigh ins would be Friday. Instead of being around 5 like I expected, they are running from 2 PM to 6 PM. With my arrival set for 2:05 PM, I cut 5 pounds of water in the sauna Thursday night.
Friday, I’m hungry, and definitely not happy. I woke up at 1…
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Added by Hillary on May 24, 2009 at 9:30am —
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Okay, not so much about the flow roll part, I'm pretty sure these guys are intent on taking my limbs home as trophies.
Monday was excruciating. Training from 10 AM to noon, open mat from 6-7 PM, and evening training from 8-10. Roberto’s warm up drills are killer. After the normal jogging, situps, triangles, etc, Cyborg had us all line up in pushup position. The fifteen or so of us did ten pushups in unison then maintained pushup position as the far person began to army crawl under the other mem…
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Added by Hillary on May 22, 2009 at 9:00am —
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Friday, rest is coming soon. It's a good thing, because with the amount of oddly-placed bruises on my very pale body makes the entire beach look at me like I'm a domestic abuse case in some Miami based witness protection program. I was all set to rest in the morning--crawling off the futon mattress I realized that I had completely stiffened up from the week's training. Alas, a very tough purple belt named Leanna had come to train with me, so I reluctantly put on some shorts and headed downstairs…
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Added by Hillary on May 18, 2009 at 11:00pm —
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My God, this is the life. I've been waking up at the crack of nine, cooking some spinach and egg whites, and relaxing reading antique versions of Gracie Mag until morning training. Waking up and having to walk past the tatames to shower makes you hungry like nothing else. After pulling the gis and pillow out of my packed back, I discovered where my fashion priorities lie. Keep in mind folks, I packed a white, a pink, and a black gi, complete with rashguards matches to the gis and my purple belt…
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Added by Hillary on May 14, 2009 at 8:28pm —
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Finals week was hectic, but I survived. Jiu jitsu suffered before my Evolution and Organic Chemistry finals, but it was back to normal after almost a week of scattered training. Back to training hard, and especially with Justin. We've been working a lot of mock tournament matches and it's been exhausting.
Friday I headed off to the Dallas NAGA (www.nagafighter.com) to ref. After weigh-ins in a super ballin' (that's street for "very classy") hotel we all went immediately to bed; it was going to…
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Added by Hillary on May 13, 2009 at 8:29am —
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I've neglected my duties, people. It's been since Pan Ams since I posted, but not out of my own desire.
April 18th was supposed to be the New York Open for me, but the karmic gods wouldn't have it. I've convinced myself that I'm a black belt in packing, capable of comfortably smushing a weekend's worth of clothes, a laptop, and gi into one backpack. So, there I was sitting in the airport for 10 hours waiting on airplane with that piece of folding mastery, only to discover that I would not be ab…
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Added by Hillary on April 29, 2009 at 7:36am —
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Training started for the week at BTT Long Beach. The only problem was that last year’s Pan Ams middle weight purple belt champion, Jen, was a BTT student. Knowing we’d face each other and we’re each other’s biggest competition made conversations a little awkward. Marcelo was a very diplomatic coach, fine tuning my game and pointing out some mistakes right before Pan Ams and not trying to tell my game to Jen.
I get nervous before big tournaments. Incredibly nervous. I spent any free time outside…
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Added by Hillary on March 30, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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