1 .Hey Elaine, you are becoming a celebrity in the BJJ world, specially since your last participation in the Pan Ams. But many of us only know that you are tough female fighter that practices BJJ and enters competitions in your 70s, which is something rarely seen. Can you introduce yourself to the BJJ community. Hi, I’m  Elaine Beiersdoerfer.  I live in Alabama and I’m part of Gracie Barra Alabama, in Pelham, Alabama 2. How/why did you start BJJ? Professor Kalif Silveira and Elaine. I started jiu jitsu when I was 69 years old.  When I was 21, while my husband was in graduat ..read more

Creative solutions in tough times! Most of us are stuck at home during the worldwide health crisis due to the Coronavirus. In some countries, lucky us, we can go out to the park and enjoy a long walk or a bike ride. Nothing too wild though. Many of you can’t even do that. In some other countries like Italy or Spain people can go out on the streets only to buy groceries or to got the doctor. Enjoying culture has been drastically reduced to online tours on the websites of some famous museums or watching a documental in Netflix if you can call this culture. Theaters, musicals, movies or museums h ..read more

The worldwide actual situation of social distancing and isolation is being very hard for almost everybody. Many of you are worrying about how to pay the next bills. Many may feel lonely. Lots of you are worrying about your elders or just missing so much to visit and hug your best friend. Some of you may be even mourning the loss of a dear friend or family member.  But today I will write not write about them, or maybe yes, because I will write about these people who on the top of it all have children to take care of, to home-school, to entertain. I will write about moms and dads, specially t ..read more

Let’s start with some numbers. In 1998, IBJJF included women’s division for first time in the history of hour sport. There were only 2 weight divisions and combined all belt levels. 10 years later at the IBJJ European Championship 2008  for instance, there were  5 weight divisions, 1 age division and 4 skill level divisions (brown and blackbelt were combined into one). Again 10 years later at the IBJJ European Championship 2018, there were 8 weight divisions, 4 age divisions and 5 skill level divisions. The number of competitors has grown up exponentially. Even if the number of at ..read more

In the last few months I have seen lots of new mums asking over and over again in different Facebook groups or internet forums, how to deal with training, specifically sparring, while you are still breastfeeding your baby. Nursing, which is way more than breasfeeding, is a wonderful thing to do. It is healthy for the mum and specially for baby. It is the best nutrition your baby can get without a doubt. It supports its immune system, it helps baby to ease pain, to relive stress. It makes even stronger the mother-child bonding and it gives you some of the most beautiful, peaceful and precious m ..read more

Does anyone else have a huge stack of BJJ T-Shirts that tend to sit and take up space? They may be too big, too small, just not your favorite one, super old, but you’re just not willing to toss them out. Instead of sending them to the thrift store, or throwing them away why not turn them into grocery bags? As more and more countries and states in the USA have started to ban plastic bags, reusable bags are becoming more popular. Turning t-shirts into grocery bags, not only reduces waste, but its cost effective, you already have the shirts, no sewing machine is needed, only a pair of scissors. T ..read more