The Shintaro Higashi Show - The Reality of Being a Woman in Jiu-Jitsu with Lydia Coleman

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

In this episode of The Shintaro Higashi Show, we’re joined by Lydia Coleman — a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Pan-American champion, Judo brown belt, and co-owner of Rolling Bear BJJ in New Jersey. Lydia shares her journey from striking to grappling, how she built her competitive career, what it’s like to run a gym as a woman, and the stark differences between the judo and jiu-jitsu communities.

Yeah, and I ignore it I look back at my book then all of a sudden I see her take steps towards me and I look at her and Then I take my headphones on and I go can I help you is can I help you and she goes? Oh, you know like and she just said you know a whole slew of profanity to me, and she goes you took my seat I'm like I'm sorry and then you know me being me. I'm like. I'm sorry I didn't see your name on the seat and she took it personally she smacked me oh boy hello everyone welcome to the Shintaro Higashi show we have a very special guest Lydia she is a phenomenal grappler judo black belt jujitsu black belt jujitsu

black belt judo brown belt oh sorry I mix that up but yes you're an all-around grappler let's go with your current accolades let the people know what you do here yeah sure so uh hey guys what's going on i am a jujitsu black belt under fiona rapinski who is the most recent featherweight master one nogi world champion and I am a Judo brown belt under the infamous Sensei Nicholas Yoneska out of Cranford JKC in Cranford, New Jersey. And I am a co-owner of Rolling Bear Jiu Jitsu out in Kenilworth, New Jersey.

Little something about me, I love competing. I've been competing for over 10 years. I am a Pan American champion in the black belt division. I won that two years ago. So that was like a huge thing, right? I like just got my black belt hopped into my first major and I won. So that was like a really big confidence booster and been placing first, second or third in almost every IBJJF tournament at black. So it's been fun. As far as judo is concerned, it's been really cool.

Hopped into the competition scene in 2021 where I actually jumped into my first judo tournament, I think two weeks into training, like officially. I know I started my judo journey with you back in. Yeah. What was it like? 2018? A long time ago, yeah. Yeah, it felt like, it feels like forever. But you moved to New Jersey. Yeah, no, how could I? Right by a house, the audacity of me adulting.

So yeah, so I resumed my judo journey and hopped into a tournament like two weeks in, and I loved it. So I've been competing as much as I possibly can. Some big achievements there was as a a green belt I took second place at the US Open against the only match I lost that day was to that Mongolian Olympian who I cannot yeah who I cannot pronounce her name to begin with but that was like you got a close one though. Yeah it was only by W was Ari so you know I definitely this is amazing it was really cool definitely took some data from

there and you know proceeded and then I took third at Nationals my first time ever doing national so that was really cool and then yeah so I just been competing a lot so it's been fun awesome and you're taking a little pulse from grappling and competing because you torn ACL Yeah, I got a boo-boo this past US Open, but you know stronger and better. I have a Phenomenal PT who I'm gonna shout out if you guys are in New Jersey definitely visit Michael Soya. He is awesome He's no-nonsense and he is a grappler for grapplers. So that's awesome. Yeah, and thank you for sending me that video of you tanner ACL

Thank you for that. I know you are so welcome You are I got a text from Lydia like yo check this out I look at it and say you going down so I got my leg. I'm like why would you send me this? I don't need to be seeing that Because I wanted you to be aware. It's just like a PSA. You know well now. I'm aware We all know Tanya Toshi extremely dangerous. man yeah how's your recovery it's been good I'm still not training I'm doing super light movement if need be I just started doing like heavier pivoting motions so it'll be six months next week so we'll see yeah how

I'm coming up from there for a flexion? Yeah, full flexion, full extension, single leg work, getting that quad nice and strong, getting the ham nice and strong. Nice, nice, great. So my question to you, my issue with my grappling podcast on the YouTube is that it's 97% male is the demographic. So I figured it'd be kind of interesting to bring you on

and then kind of talk a little bit about being a woman grappler. You own a dojo as a woman, which is not, it's a very, very rare thing. So let's talk about that kind of thing. Make it like a political gender conversation, if you will. Hold on, let me get some more water for this. Hold on. That's a humongous glass.

I drink a lot of water. Hydration is important. Very important. Yeah, so where to start? When I first started training, it was definitely really hard, right? I was the only female in the gym. This was back in like 2012.

And I'll never forget the day that I signed up, right? It was like hey thanks for your first month dues here's your ghee here's your white belt you come back great you don't come back no hard feelings you already paid for the month and I got destroyed it was so bad yeah and even like competing right at white belt at that time if I had a match it was great if I didn't they would put me with somebody who was was great, if I didn't they would put me with somebody who was a lot heavier than I was and they would put me with different types of people or they would like bump me up to like a blue belt

division which at times I would get completely murdered. So they do that they bundle these divisions together when there's not that many competitors that's a thing for sure. What made you go into a jiu-jitsu school in the first place? So at the time I was training Muay Thai and boxing. I have a, my first- How old were you? I was like 22. So what made you go into Muay Thai in the first place? So when I was a kid,

I used to box and I used to do Oyama karate, which is all striking and all like hits and stuff. So I missed it. Right. I was a college athlete I swam and I played lacrosse yeah no martial arts sports nothing yeah right in high school you're just a regular high school kid oh no I did swim I swam and like from a combat sports standpoint combat sports I got my black belt in taekwondo but you know how like you go in you pay like $100 a month and you show up and they give you a belt like every month so I don't count that

but it was fun it was fun I mean I got to hang out with my brother right like that was like the best part that's good time yeah yeah but then after college I just wanted to compete and that was that's right around the time where Misha Tate and Ronda Rousey had like their their beef going going on from like back in the day, like strike force, I think that was right. And then strike force transitioned to UFC. And as I watched these women, right, these like super powerful women who, you know, Ronda's a judo Olympian, right? She's a bronze medalist. And Misha Tate at the time was a Brown or black belt in jujitsu,

which was also a very rare thing. You know, I looked up to these women and I went, you know what? I kind of want to be on a big stage eventually. I'd like to see where this is at. You know, even in the athletes world, right? Athletic world. My college swim team, by the time I graduated, only had 15 girls, which is nothing. We all had to swim multiple events in order to even qualify for anything

So I wanted to be in a sport where I feel like I could make a difference Yeah, so yeah. Well, and then you did boxing and Muay Thai and then what made you go grappling you like? I'm gonna do MMA. Yeah, I Tried a little bit here and there You know, I eventually just started falling in love more with jujitsu. I felt it was a little bit more longevity than potential CTE and getting smacked in the face a couple of times. So I had, I had a good time, um, with the striking, but I really enjoyed grappling and I felt that I could control the match, right?

Whether I was losing or whether I was winning, I felt like I could be in control of that particular scenario. So when you went into a grappling studio, were you like, oh, there's a lot of dudes in here, like, you know, like these guys are sweaty, some of them are probably disgusting, you know, because of the hygienic thing with grappling, were you like, ah, at all or?

No. No. I grew up with like, you know, I have a younger brother who? Played football so like sometimes his his like gear would be all over the house and that's not like shit Like yeah, I grew up with boy cousins that you know My brother and I are the youngest out of like ten cousins and the ten like seven of them are male Yeah, so like I I'm used to like wrestling, I'm used to like being tough and rough and no, it never bothered me.

I think the only thing that was really awkward was they didn't know how to train with a female. Yeah, that's a whole thing. And we're gonna get to that. Yeah. Man, so, yeah, cause you know, I have a daughter now and I'm putting her in grappling, but she likes skating and ballet so much more at this point

that I'm not trying to force anything but you know I get it like I grew up with this girl in the dojo she did judo from like five years old to like 12 and I remember the exact moment when she decided to like quit you know she was doing it whatever it was and there's just like humongous ogre looking dude at the gym he would just sweat profusely and he was kind of like really heavy guy like 260 270 You know and you just got a smoke cigar so he's stunk of like cigar smoke and sweat and he was just like a hairy guy and

He's working out this girl who's 12 like went for Tomonage You know and now he's like in this open guard top position and he like leaned over in his sweat from his bald head Just like dripped down into her face like into her eyes and her mouth and she was like you know like freaked out and i was like that moment i did judo with this kid for seven years because i was a child too i looked at it i was like this girl's quitting next week i just knew it and then guess what she quit next week yeah you, so it's like, you ever have those moments? Like, how do we avoid that? You know? I'm very selective with who I train with. Even though I'm not

petite, right? I'm not five, nine. Yeah, I'm five, nine. Yeah. I'm a little bit more swell. Chintaro. Let's be realistic here. But you know, I've always been a big kid. I've always been like a big, big girl, right? Like, and I put that in air quotes because I'm not your stereotypical five, 310 pound chick. I'm five, nine. I compete in the 78 kilo division.

It's unfortunate how like, if I'm like, I tell people I'm five, nine and people like, oh man, you're tiny, you're short. You're like, you're not a big dude. And then I'm like, oh, and then you're like, I'm five, nine. And it was like, yeah, people I'm 5'9", and people are like, oh man, you're tiny, you're short, you're like, you're not a big dude. And then I'm like, ugh. And then you're like, I'm 5'9", and it was like, yeah, Lydia's a big chick. I'm like, that's unfair. Justice, justice for the short kid who's out there.

Yeah. Yeah, so I mean, again, right, it's different, and even at my size, I'm very selective, and even when I'm training or when I'm visiting, I don't go for the biggest guy in the room. There is no metal for me if I tap out the six foot six, 300 pound guy, right? Like there's, and there's no benefit for me for training. As I got older, right, because I'm turning 35 this year. So in my 13 years of experience, I've noticed that if you're selective and if you're

transitioning from understanding how your body works and your comfort level, you don't have to say yes to everybody. And that's not just women, right? That's men too, right? I'm very selective now too. I don't just go with anybody random, you know? Yeah. So you want to make sure that, you know, you protect your body first. Like when I was younger, I couldn't care. I was like, yeah, give me the biggest guy. But now I want to have longevity in the sport, and especially coming out from this injury, I cherry pick who I want to train with, right?

Do I trust my students and do I trust my training partners? 100%. Do I trust my spouse? Yes, my spouse is a big dude. He's six four, 300 plus pounds, right? Big boy, big dude. But am I going to train with him exclusively when I come out? No, I'm going to try to find partners my size or partner smaller than I am so that

this way I can protect my head space and protect my body. Okay. So you ever have, I'm sure you've had experiences with guys. So like training with a woman, you know, like you have any advice for sure you've had experiences guys like so like training with a woman You know like you have any advice for people like what should it look like how should it be because you run a club you? Have women in your club. I do yeah, so but you guide the guys like all right this side trained you are you explicitly like Hey, this is how you train with these people or you just kind of like let them kind of so I'm weird Yeah, you know you don't work out with the girls You you know, like how does that work for you guys? So luckily we don't have any like weird people at my club Which I'm like very grateful for like me. Everybody's pretty like chill

But I tell my job has a weird of I'm the one that walks on and sweats and just go alright, let's go No, I always tell my girls my ladies Hey be vocal. If something doesn't feel good or if you feel like he's doing too much, you'd be like, hey, can we take it easy? And not that I'm saying

you're supposed to like roll light with me. I mean, you and I have rolled together. You know I'm pretty heavy-handed. Like I don't care. Oh yeah, man, yeah, you definitely, yeah. But there's a time and place, right? Like if you're gonna fight me, like it's the finals at Worlds and you're going to give me 100 percent. Like I'm going to try to give you 100 percent.

But realistically and biologically speaking, you will have the advantage at all times. Right. Because you're a guy. So my best advice for all the guys with women in their club or with girls I want to train with guys, be vocal, communicate with each other. If this doesn't feel good, say, Hey, I don't like this or you know, Hey guys, you don't have to win. Maybe your best position is, oh sorry. Maybe your worst position is a position that I'm working on, or maybe it's a position that's my best position. Play your worst against my best. If let's say you're not a guard guy,

but the 120 pound girl wants to roll with you, play your worst against my best. If let's say you're not a guard guy, but the 120 pound girl wants to roll with you, play guard. Or if she says to you specifically, I need to get out of bottom side, do side control, but don't give 100% of your pressure. I'm not saying get 10% of your pressure, but gauge it communicate with your partner. it communicate with your partner it's tricky you know it really is tricky with the gender stuff and usually i don't pay attention to majority i'll just train with whoever but i'll tell you an experience i rolled with somebody who was like 130 pound woman and then you know moving around doing stuff she goes for an armbar and she freaking cranked it and i was like i was in a lot of pain you know and i was like kind of pissed and then like it healed six months later like she went for all the arbin like i kind of like let her have it and then she like cranked it and then i was like kind of pissed and then like it healed six months later Like she went for the other arm and like I kind of like let her have it and then she like cranked it And then I was like i'll never get with this person, you know So like it's tricky because it's like, you know, you can't

Go hard, but if you're not going hard, they get offended sometimes not all women obviously, you know And then like in my case with this one person I got injured twice and she didn't like break my arm or anything but I had hyper extended and I was in like pain for like three it was like a three to four week recovery period you know crazy you know so like it's tricky right so how do you because you were on a club right do you see sort of actions that you're like, you know, this has got to stop or? Yes, I have. I have an I have age and weight disparity in my club.

I let 15 and 16 year old high school kids train with my adults. And with them, I always remind them, hey, that's a kid. Right. I have a guy who loves leg locks. Like that's like his main study. That's his main game. And anytime he rolls with like one of my high school students, I go, Hey, remember, this is a child, he might have a mustache, he might have a goatee. But this is a child. And if I see anything, and especially now, right, because I'm like the all seeing eye of Sauron, because I can't freaking train right now. So I'm just sitting there looking at everything. If I see them go absolutely nuts with this kid and like ripping things, after the roll, I'll pull that person aside and be like, hey man, like I get it, like he's pushing the pace, but this is a 15 year old who's 125 pounds. You're a grown-ass man, 200 pounds, what are you doing? Like take it down a notch, be a little bit more technical. who's 125 pounds, you're a grown ass man, 200 pounds, what are you doing?

Like take it down a notch, be a little bit more technical. And I've learned that certain people just can't roll, right? Like if it's just like, it just doesn't mix. So I'll try to like match them up or if they're like the last two, I'll try to like change the groups around so that this way there's no conflict on the map. Nice, nice. All right, so you've been obviously both judo community jiu-jitsu community judo

women's community versus Brazilian jiu-jitsu women's community are they different or are they same different very different I very different very different interesting why and how so I'll give you an example. And I don't ever like to get involved with like the USA judo drama, but it's out there. Yeah, but it's out there, right? It's been out there. So when we competed at nationals, it was like the first time ever it was a six woman bracket for 78.

Okay. And it was the first time that it was a bracket that big. So we each, so I was seated. Quickly right? If it's a six person bracket, then they do a round robin? No, it's a bracket. Oh, it's a bracket bracket. It's a bracket bracket. So basically, Nicole Stout and I both had buys, right? Because she was one, I was two or like vice versa. So we each had a buy and then there was a match under us and then we fought the winners of that match and then went into either losing bracket or the finals. We each had two matches and a buy. And when we went up to collect the prize money, because this, this past nationals,

they were saying that, Hey, if you have like six or more people in your bracket you're eligible for prize money six or more exactly we were just that sick so we went up to them we're like hey and they're like actually you guys don't qualify because you uh you guys had to buy and we all looked at each other right the top podium women all looked at each other and we all came together and wrote a very polite and professionally kind of email worded email to the leadership of USA Juneau. We're like, Hey, so technically speaking, this is like exclusion, right? Because we don't ask. It's not our role as competitors to go out and advertise, Hey, we need more

people. We need more people. It's your job as the tournament organizer. It's your job as the national entity to actually get more people to compete. So it was really cool. It was the first time I ever experienced like people coming together for a cause. We eventually got our prize money, but it wouldn't have happened if like none of us came together. So I thought that was really cool.

And in the community, there's some people that are like that. And then most other people are not How so I? feel that in the jujitsu community, there's a lot of Measuring up against right like you have your greats right you have your Fiona Davies your Adelphi for it she's great such a great grappler. And nice lady. Yeah, you know, like you have people like her who actually really want women to get equal pay who want women to train other

women. And then you have other women that I've seen in the community who essentially have like a pissing contest with other females like, oh, like, you know, I train better, I do better or like they're just have like a chip on their shoulder where it's not necessary we're already so limited with training partners like there's no reason to act like that and I just feel like there's a lot more drama in the jujitsu community because between women we were talking about right between women and also between clubs and between like because there's just so many more people.

Yeah, there's a lot more people. In the US for sure. In the US, there's a lot of doubt. You know, it's like 10 to 1, 5 to 1. The jujitsu is, there's so much more jujitsu than judo in the US for sure. So like the, it's insane. Like the town where my club is, there's like two other clubs, maybe three within a five mile radius, which sucks, yeah jiu-jitsu and like only Cranford is like the only judo club

around right yeah so you know it's a lot it's a bigger population right when you have that many people together with multiple personalities something is bound to happen right different things about different people come out and it's just that's probably why I took like a big step back last year from the jiu-jitsu community was because I wanted martial arts to be martial arts, right? When you want to enroll your kid, for example, when you want to enroll your daughter in a program, you want to have that community, you want to have that discipline, you want to teach her how to really protect herself from external and internal

bullies, right? So there's that sense in Judo where you just don't get that in Jujitsu and it makes me really sad to say because I spent most of my career in Jujitsu. Yeah, I mean definitely Judo one of the main facets of respect and mutual well-being and benefit and all this stuff. So it is respect and mutual well-being and benefit and all this stuff so it is you know martial arts that's rooted in that kind of respect based philosophy you know yeah but you don't see you're saying that jujitsu community is not as respectful as a judo community or they're not I feel like it used to be and then we have like the brogy or the no gi bros that that have come out and you know who just love to talk and love to

like talk down at each other. It's gotten to the point where it's becoming like a WWE scenario or like you don't you never see like a match where there isn't a hype or if there is a hype you know they're just talking talking about each other and we shouldn't do that we all really train we train really hard and especially like the ladies right And we shouldn't do that. We all really train, we train really hard. And especially like the ladies, right? Like we already have a hard time finding partners. We already have a hard time finding, you know, competitors. Like we should be cool, right?

Like, and there are women who are like super cool in the community, like Dominika, Emily Kwok, right? These are just examples of like black belts who are just like really chill that are a personal friend, personal acquaintances and her friends of mine that I I've known them that they're really trying to build up the female grappling community, you know, like the girls and geese organization.

That's great, right? It brings women together and it's women only seminars led by women black belts, female black belts. So it's like, what is it think about that? What is that? So Girls in Giz, yeah, they're a non-profit organization. By the way, Girls in Giz, every couple of generations, there's like a few women in the dojo and they always make like a new group chat

and it's always Girls in Giz. Like it's so original, right? And I'm like, this is the 17th time I heard that. So not that original I thought it has a nice ring to it does absolutely and then there's other things that are out there But we won't go to get into it here. This is a family show But basically girls and geese is a nonprofit organization and what they do is donation based seminars I had the opportunity and privilege to host one of these seminars

with my black belt Fiona. And basically, it's a it's a chance to bring all women together. And it's a chance for women to be women and they offer scholarships for underprivileged women to train and they do like all bunch of like charitable stuff for the females in the community, which is really great. It's very similar to GLOW, which is the Southern States. It's the Southern, sorry, not GLOW, GLOWS, the women's grappling ladies only of like Southern States or something like that.

Yeah. How do we get more women in the sport judo specifically in the you I mean globally It's a whole nother ballgame, right? Right. You got superstars like Kelly Aurova from Was it Uzbekistan? Yeah, that's the one who no she's from Kazakhstan. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah But like you got these like global superstars like, you know, the Gucci But like you got these like global superstars like you know, Daeguchi, Klemke, Kelly Rova, you know the the Greek girl at 70 like all these superstar women and they're you know, there's tons of girls doing judo across the globe but here at home domestically how do you do this?

I think it just needs more publicity right? Look at how women's wrestling has kicked up in the last year, year and a half. Right? Now they're offering, I think they're gonna be in the NCAA soon, something, I heard that recently. That's awesome. So, well they did. Gotta teach my daughter how to wrestle.

You should, you should, and then she can beat you up. You know what, we do like lots of little games, you know, like, for instance, like she likes me to carry her, you know? Right. So I'm like, all right, carry me. I was like, all right, you for instance, like she likes me to carry her, you know, right? So I like alright carry me I was like, alright You got to climb and then I'll like give her a hand and she'll climb up to my shoulder You know and she has to go behind me and then she has to put in hooks in a seat belt before I could start Moving right, right?

So like she has to like climb onto my back get the seat belt in and get her clasp hands class of this And then I'll go to the bedroom and then I'll like try to shake her off you know and then sometimes I'll like pop a hook off you know yeah and then she like reinserts it she doesn't know she's grappling but it but we're grappling I'm like yeah inceptioning her you know so yeah yeah so fun I don't know why I told that story but yeah it's cute no that's good but like like It's cute. No, that's good. But like Like it's games like that, right that introduce small children, especially like small little girls Like it's okay to play rough with dad dad's your protector dad should be your protector dad is like your number one guy

Wow, right like my dad played rough with me like my whole life But even now we we like slap around like this all the time. So yeah Love you, Jim So, uh, yeah, I I feel like if we got more publicity and if we Really promoted more of the benefit of why judo jiu-jitsu like particularly judo. Why why is it beneficial for females to learn? how to defend yourself by Breaking someone's grip off balancing them throwing them and holding them down and making sure like we're safe. I feel instead of it being

looked at as oh it's like one of those like grappling sports, it should be looked at as a self-defense model too. Especially for females right because majority of the time as a woman I'm not going to get punched right like a guy or my attacker is probably gonna try to get me on the ground grab articles of my clothes grab my hair if I know how to like disarm the person put them in a bad position and get myself in a safe spot why not yeah I feel like dudes mugging dudes more weapons you know like yeah that pulls a knife on you or something but women and men like guys who were trying to they're like I'm

just now grapple her like grab her or take her down or out you know yeah boy if someone did that to you holy moly right it'll be their last day on earth yeah you ever have to defend yourself one One time. One time I was actually, this was like in 2017-ish, like I was a new-ish blue belt. Yeah. And it was against another woman believe it or not, which was like bizarre to me. Yeah. I was on the path train and I always tell people the story and like it's like people just don't understand why this happened. But I had my headphones on. And you know, I always read a book

whenever I'm on the train, I get on the train, and I sit down in the seat, because it was like the first seat that was open. Then I just feel eyes on me. And I look up and it's this girl like glaring at me. And I ignore it. I look back at my book. Then all of a sudden I see her take steps towards me and I look at her and then I take my headphones off and I go, can I help you? Is can I help you? And she goes, oh, you know, like, and she just said, you know, a whole slew of

profanity to me and she goes, you took my seat. I'm like, I'm sorry. And, and then, you know, me being me, I'm like, I'm sorry. I didn't see your name on the seat. And she took it personally. She smacked me. Oh boy. She's she just straight up and I looked at her and I just went like this and I stood up and Then I like took her down and I had her in Just the tackle I just tackled the shit. Nice. Yeah, just like blast doubled and then tackle I just tackled the shit nice yeah just like blast doubled and then I picture she big small what was her weight she's about like five or five

okay so yeah yeah average female what age oh I got 70 no I found out she was a 16 year old girl with angry issues okay all right because her mom watched the whole thing and then stopped her mom was there Oh, yeah, so like someone had to push the little red button on the path And then I know what happened then like the path doors were open Yeah, so like I wrapped her up in like First I took her back right like so like seatbelt and hooks and then I just kind of like scooted us out of the train Because it tells you to like leave the train if the situation is there go on to the platform So I'm literally sitting in the dirty dirty ass Jersey

City platform like holding on to this girl like just wrapping up wrapping on to her and she's like freaking out and the mom was like please let her go she didn't mean it she didn't mean it but cops come and then I wanted to press charges and then the mom was like no like my daughter's disturbed she's got problems and I felt bad right like I'm like yo like Am I really gonna ruin a kid's life because she's like angry So yeah, well that was like the one time that one and only time ever and I try to be as non-confrontational As possible when I'm commuting that pretty chill person

It's like 6 a.m.. And like yeah get out of my face. It's crazy sometimes out in the world, you know That's a good story. Yeah, but I like quick commercial break. Okay. Thank you very much Eliza Jason Lavon drew For sponsoring the show hot queen.ai. Thank you very much You can sponsor this podcast by going on patreon and picking one of the membership options do you know i do a patreon yeah there's a discord chat there's a video chat option you can do one-to-one mentorship with me so all these options are available for everybody it's priced pretty high because i live in new york and my time is very valuable obviously no but definitely sign up for that and then you kind of have access to me that's kind kind of the idea. Go to Patreon.

My editor will link this thing. Lydia, where can these people find you? You guys can find me on Instagram. I am at Lydia Coleman JJ. Or you can find me at my club, Rolling Bear BJJ. I'm in Kenilworth, New Jersey. Come by, hang out. So what is your next thing for Judo and Jiu Jitsu

like competition wise like what's next? I'm gonna take a break this year. Oh that's right cuz you have other things happening. Yeah I have other stuff going on. My knee and everything. That's another thing you know women at a certain age tend to have you know biological things have babies and, you know, biological things, have babies and stuff, you know? But I know plenty of dudes. Oh yeah, my wife's pregnant. Oh yeah, we have a toddler at home or a baby and infant.

Oh, my wife, you know, we have twins. They're four months old. Here to train three times a week, you know, at night. Like, just came from work. Like, my wife allowed it, you know, like night. Like, just came from work, like my wife allowed it, you know, like, but it's different for women, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I plan on training for, you know,

when the time comes, like I plan on training up until I can't train anymore, right? Like I've already had conversations with doctors and whatnot. It's scary though, you get a fat guy go neon belly or something, you know well, so that's the thing right remember earlier kind of like Rewind a little bit. I said be selective of your partner. So still the risks are there It's just like it is because you know

You could be have a great partner and you can't completely zero out the risk that someone next to you rolling Chips falls and lands on your stomach, right right so it's like I'm always like you know yes train but go to the gym and do cardio you know cardio come on I don't know I'm just kinda like rolling I feel like it's very risky when you're you know obviously I'm not a doctor I don't know the science I haven't looked at the statistics or the data behind it I'm just talking up my ass out of my ass here making stuff know, obviously I'm not a doctor, I don't know the science, I haven't looked at the statistics

or the data behind it, I'm just talking up my ass, out of my ass here, making stuff up, but like I'm, you know, pregnant, I'm always like cautious, you know, I think like one time in my gym, like, oh, I'm four months, can I do this? You know, can I take light break falls? I was like, no, you know?

Right, so my advice is this right there's always a risk for injury there's always a risk for problems right like I'm sure we've had we've heard horror stories of how people blow out their ACLs in practice not even at a competition right so there's always a risk especially when we do a combat sport yeah so which brings me to kind of like plug my next thing that's coming up. I'm doing an all women's women's only class Friday night starting next Friday. Oh, um, so it's a key class, right? Like, so ladies, if you're in the area, bring your key. If you want to learn, come learn. And I'm going to create a women's only environment on Fridays from seven 30 to eight 30.

So we'll do like a little ladies night, but you know, kind of segueing back into training. While you're in like a delicate situation or pregnant, right, you have to be selective. So like right now, even for drills or whatnot, I have my main training partner, like you see, she's a purple belt at my school. And she also is aware of like stuff with, you know, my knee and everything else. So whenever she and I train, like we always have like a little corner, right? So we recently moved, right? We recently upgraded our space. I'm at like a almost a 3000 square foot facility right now. And of the of that, like I have huge mats, right? Like shout out to Matsu, they came in clutch with our mats with that. But they we just pick up a little corner. And you know,

we're doing drills, we're like, we're working like positionals. And, you know, I have vision of people around me and vice versa, right? When I'm on top, she sees things or I see things or when she's on top, I see other things. So it gives an opportunity for us to kind of have insight on like what to do. Right. And my best advice is just listen to your body. Right. Again, I'm not going to seek out the biggest, baddest dude in the room when I'm pregnant and just be like, all right, it's me and you do like, that's not going to happen. Like I'm obviously going to be smart. And then I'm going to listen to my body,

even like when lifting, right? Like, you know me, I love to lift. But there's time, there's a time and place, right? Like I'm still going to, I plan to still lift. I plan to still do like my day to day. Yeah. And yeah. Nice.

Awesome. Well, good luck with everything. You heard it here with the women's only prize. It's going to be every Friday. Every Friday. That's it here with the women's only prize. It's gonna be every Friday every Friday That's amazing. That's great for the community. I hope people support it I hope you reach out to all the gyms, you know, and I hope you put it all over your Instagram So people like and share it, you know, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm buying a story. I mean, I'm not a woman's I'm not gonna go by You can do the open mat before I'm not gonna go by Yeah tag me in the story I'll reshare it on my Instagram

You know, we do have a couple women it is far for a majority of my people though You know, like if they're coming from Brooklyn to come to the Upper West Side to go to Jersey It's a hike and a half, you know, but I will definitely get the word out It's a hike and a half, you know, but I will definitely get the word out Yeah, and you're doing a great thing by you know being a woman dojo owner and being in the sport and you know I'm sure a lot of people can get a lot of value, you know from the experience that you've had, you know I know you get attacked on the path strain, you know Yeah, thank you for being on and best luck to your knee and your career and yeah we'll be seeing more of you absolutely thank you