03/01/2015 - Equality Now GrappleThon in March | Artemis BJJ | Open Mat | Half Guard

Class #622
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 03/01/2015

I'm still getting all the press releases etc together for the Equality Now GrappleThon over the International Women's Day weekend (7th-8th March 2015), but the Facebook event is up and running. So, that has all the details you need for donating, along with links to setting up your own fundraising page. Just like last year, Seymour 'Meerkatsu' Yang has kindly agreed to do one of his awesome t-shirt designs, while Tatami Fightwear are again proving their generosity by donating t-shirts for the fundraisers. Most important of all is getting those donations in: you can do that from anywhere in the world, you just need a debit or credit card!

Donation link is here. Any technical problems with that, please let me know, as this is the first time I've used MyDonate rather than JustGiving for a GrappleThon (because our chosen charity, Equality Now, is on the former rather than the latter).
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There was a decent turn out for the first class of 2015, although one of our stalwarts (the venue owner) was away at a course. It was mostly beginners, so things started off with me running through some options from side control, the americana and kimura. After that, they got stuck into sparring with each other. Annoyingly, I still can't join in sparring properly, especially at the PHNX open mats because it is often a high proportion of big guys. I don't often spar with large white belts due to the injury risk, but I rule it out completely if I've already got an injury. Not their fault, but inexperience combined with a significant weight difference is generally a bad idea.

Instead, I spent most of my time either watching those guys spar, or rolling with Tracey and her young son. That's much safer, as they're both light. I look forward to this injury finally healing up so I can get stuck in again, but I have to be patient. The next GrappleThon is coming up in March, so I want to be back to something near 100% by then, especially as I'm also intending to do my next visit to RGA Bucks in February.