Here's some more behind-the-scenes action from the first Australian Female Only BJJ day camp - an interview with Fiona Muxlow, who'll be teaching the no-gi and takedowns seminar on the day.
For those of you that haven't heard of Fi, where have you been?!? Not only is she one of Australia's leading BJJ and MMA pioneers, she's also the head of CrossFit North Queensland.
Fiona and I are off to England at the end of the year for ADCC - not the first time Fiona has represented Australia - here's what she had to say about the camp:
What are you going to be doing at the female only day camp?
I will be teaching the no gi, submission wresting and take down session.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your training and your goals?
I started my martial arts training in my first year at university. I have floated between favouring standup and grappling the entire time.and have competed in BJJ, knockdown karate, pankration, judo sub wrestling and MMA. Nowadays MMA and sub wrestling are my main foci, the number of times I have worn a gi this year can be counted on one hand (ed - I'll take credit for forcing Fi to train gi at least once this year).
When in fight training I train twice a day - once strength and conditioning, once sport specific - 6 days a week. When not in comp I drift between 3-5 days a week and the same for strength and conditioning. CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting form the base of my strength and conditioning program.
We'll be heading to England soon to compete at ADCC - are you excited about potentially facing Chris Cyborg or Gabi Garcia?
Yes and no. There are so many good girls in the division, Cyborg and I are both Arena fighters so im not sure if we will get matched up against each other first round, although it would be pretty cool. Garcia, I honestly only found out about her once she was invited ( I have been out of the BJJ comp scene for a few years) what can I say... she wont be the heaviest girl I fought, although she will be the tallest. Whoever I come up against I'm just going to do my best. and aim to better my performance in 2007. I don't have anything to lose.
Why do you think events like this day camp are important in Australia?
BJJ for women is still very weak in terms of numbers. Although the girls that are involved do quite well on the international scene. We need to build up the number at grass roots level so girls can turn up to competitions and actaully have other females to compete against, so many time i have terned up and there has been no one to compete against so I've fought the boy or they have combined divisions so 55, 65 and 100kg are all in the same division (and none of them had actually planned to be part of an abolute division).
Fi is one of the greatest female fighters I have met
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