My promotion, Invicta, my sleep, thoughts, depth, Syndicate Muay Thai, corona virus

Holy Moly, it’s been a month since I posted last! Well, I wrote an article on Bloodyelbow about getting my black belt.

So on February 15th, Mike went to Evan Dunhamn’s jiujitsu academy, where I train jiujitsu, and they promoted me together. It’s been a long crazy road! Click here to read about it: https://www.bloodyelbow.com/platform/amp/2020/3/9/21153955/power-rangers-black-belt-happy-warriors-roxanne-modafferi-19-year-bjj-journey-editorial

I cried from happiness a lot. And I now feel like I’m glowing inside. Constantly whenever I put it on. ^^ It’s been my goal for…EVER. I can’t even put it into words. Read the above article and see the picture I painted.

I’ve always imagined various scenarios of how I would get it, when, in the gym? Which gym? After a fight? After a match? On the podium? By who? I knew that none of those fantasies would happen just as I imagined them… they never do. But what happened was one of the best possible outcomes. I wanted Mike to be there, since I think he played a major role in my development from brown belt level to black. Rene and Taylor at Duhamn’s were the most influential in raising my gi jiujitsu level. I’ve had the good fortune to be able to take Evan’s classes when he teaches on Saturday lately.

Okay so that happened. I’ve really been doing a lot of thinking lately on people, teachers, teaching, levels, and depths of understanding. What’s the difference between a brown belt and a black belt? A lot, actually. The number of techniques known, competency at executing the moves in live competition, depth of understanding, and more. I feel that I have a high level of competency in my fights. I probably know a medium/average number of moves. I have a deep understanding of things like chokes, armbars, and sweeps. However, somebody like Matt B from Dunhamn’s is still a brown belt, but I think he knows a greater number of techniques than I do (I took a class he taught), and has a pretty deep knowledge of his favorite moves. Taylor is good at leg locks but not so much spider guard.

I never really looked at it that way, as analyzing people like that. Now I can see everyone has a different depth of understanding about different things.

So a few weeks ago my bestie fought in the Invicta FC Phoenix rising bantam weight tournament! She was supposed to be on the card as an alternate but somebody pulled out and she got put in! SHE PERFORMED SO WELL!

She won the first round smashingly. Lovely elbows and clinch-work! I mean, it’s not like I’ve been trying to try all my AJ-clinch stuff on her for the past six months or anything like that. ^_^ She’s also been working elbows with assistant coach Marvin “Beastman” Eastman. She lost her second round fight by split decision which I think is crap. I think she won it. :/

She wanted to cosplay Sailor Moon and looked great! I got the Luna outfit but only wore the top….for now.