April 2011

Martial Arts and Me

I was born in Japan to a Chinese immigrant family. My father was a progressive. Against the grain of Japanese society, he believed in equality for women and encouraged me to explore outside of the narrow scope of traditional gender roles. Growing up with two brothers, I took a liking to “boy” activities – especially combat sports. Watching kickboxing, boxing, and wrestling matches on TV was a family activity that we enjoyed weekly. And when the TV was off, my brothers and I would toss each other around, imitating our heroes on the screen.

When we hit our teen years, both of my brothers began taking Karate and Kung Fu lessons. Girls, however, were not allowed in any of the martial arts schools in my hometown. So, instead, I focused my sights on other sports, like skiing and scuba diving.

I came to the U.S. in my mid 20’s. I got married, had kids, led a busy life as a working mother. I didn’t even think about doing martial arts for a long time.

Then, one day, my husband, Alan, expressed interest in doing Judo. He thought that it would be a good activity for our three kids, as well. We decided to check out a school in our area called East Bay Judo Institute (EBJI). I walked in without any idea of what to expect. But watching the kids in the Judo class, I began to reminisce about my own childhood and how I would wrestle with my brothers. So without hesitation, I enrolled my entire family – my husband, my three kids, and myself, to take Judo lessons. At the ripe old age of 40, I was excited to take on this new adventure.

Doing Judo at EBJI was like nothing I had ever done before. The school produced Olympians and World Champions; training was rough. But it made me feel like I was in the best shape of the 40 years of my life. I enjoyed challenging myself and I dedicated myself to it. At 44 years old, I competed at the national level. A few years later, I earned my 2nd degree black belt.

It was around that time that UFC came out and I first heard about Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was curious about these sports, but there were no places to train in our area. Without a school, Alan and I just decided to gather some friends and train on our own, wherever we could find space. Soon after, we found the organization Straight Blast Gym International (SBGi), which helped us build our casual training into a school. By 2002, we had formed Modern Combatives or ModCom MMA, the first Mixed Martial Arts gym in the East Bay.

Joining SBGi has been the best thing to happen to our gym. Being an affiliate of a larger organization lets us be a part of a community of gyms all over the world. SBGi has provided us with a great support system and has helped us so much over the years. The greatest support has been from SBGi president, Matt Thornton. He has been a relentless advocate for people, regardless of gender, age, size, color, creed, profession. I am only one of a very small number of female members and quite possibly the oldest member of SBGi, yet Matt has always made me feel included. In such a competitive and male-dominated sport, Matt’s support has helped me be strong and carry on.

My greatest supporter has been my partner in training and in life, my husband, Alan. The only reason I’ve come as far as I could in martial arts is because of Alan’s love, support, and encouragement. While I travel all over the world for seminars and training camps, Alan stays behind and takes care of our gym. When I’m too sick to teach a class, he’ll cover for me. It’s nice to have someone to trust and rely on. In business and in marriage, we help each other out and work as a team.

Being able to do Martial Arts at an older age helped me challenge myself in other areas of my life. I went back to school at age 48 and earned a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology (specializing in Child and Adolescent Psychology). And I’ve been able to use my expertise in counseling in combination with Martial Arts to help many children and adolescents with their self-esteem, behavioral problems, and anger. Together with Alan, I also taught Judo and self-defense classes for the Berkeley PAL (Police Athletic League) Program, a non-profit organization that promotes positive activities for at-risk youth.

For the past 9 years, I have also been working as a Sports Psychology Consultant and have worked with college athletes and amateur competitors. More recently, I have been helping coaches of various sports through coaching workshops and seminars. I have been the ModCom Competition Team Captain since 2009 and helped competitors achieve their goals, both physically and mentally, even coaching one of our members to become 2010 World Jiu Jitsu Champion.

Last year, at age 60, I was awarded my black belt in BJJ by SBGi president Matt Thornton. To earn a black belt, one must be evaluated as a coach and exhibit a full understanding of the concept of BJJ and the SBGi training/teaching method. And on top of that, as a SBGi tradition at belt testing, one has to endure what is called the “Ironman”, in which the tested has to go against everyone in the room with a higher ranking belt. It was a grueling experience, a little old lady up against 12 big, burly, young men, but I survived and can be proud of my accomplishment. I may very well be the oldest female BJJ black belt.

People ask me how I’m able to do combat sports at such an old age. Determination? No. Super human nature? No. The simple answer is that I’m having fun. Just like I used to with my brothers.

Lily Pagle
Gym Director, Coach
Sports Psychology Consultant

MODCOM-BERKELEY
1450 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702
MODCOM-FREMONT
38487 Fremont Boulevard, Fremont, CA 94536

www.moderncombatives.com

Camp Review:

The reviews are in and everyone seemed to really enjoy Spring Camp 2011 in Berkeley CA.

The camp started Friday evening with the traditional roll. Following this students were broken into four groups, and four sessions took place between Rick, Travis, Cane and Lily. Cane focused on some core fundamentals for the escape game involving short frames, long frames, and the distinction between the two. Rick focused on guard passing, in particular low, tight, smashing passes. Lily taught how to stand up quickly from guard when you are matched up against a much heavier opponent. And Travis focused on breaking posture when your opponent is in combat base.

Saturday morning started off with a two-hour session taught by Matt Thornton on guard passing, in particular the F.I.T passing game. Emphasis was placed on ‘finesse’ passes to start, in all variations, and followed up with ‘isolation’ passes if that doesn’t work. After Matt’s session the seminar members stayed an extra hour for Dax Soto’s purple belt ironman.

After lunch Travis Davison took over with a two-hour session on attacks from crossides. After reviewing the fundamentals of holding top, he focused on the staple position, and went through a series of great chokes and attacks from there. This was a must attend session that elevated everyone’s game.

At the end of Saturday the entire seminar lined up for a long ironman session that culminated in long time SBGi Coach Ray Price receiving his brown belt!

Sunday started with a session completely devoted to coaching, taught by SBGi coach and BJJ black belt Cane Prevost. This two hour long session dissected all the different drilling methods, their appropriate time and place of use, and why we approach drilling the way we do. You could walk around after Cane’s class and here other black belts with a dozen years of coaching experience themselves talking about the things they picked up, and will change after taking Cane’s class. This was a fantastic session.

After lunch the group had a rolling session that was followed up by breaking the entire seminar down into four groups. Five sessions were taught, and each smaller group rotated to every station. These sessions included the fundamentals of sweeps, by John Diggins; an excellent course that really broke the concepts of sweeping down to two principles, and demonstrated it to the group. More details on smash passing, as well as some chokes from Rick Davison, passing half guard by Lily Pagle, and a stand up session devoted to moving the hips in and out with correct posture while boxing, featuring Brian Walsh. As always the camp ended with a Q & A for all coaches.

This was a great event, and we want to especially thank Alan and Lily at ModCom for being brilliant hosts, and for volunteering their home for always wild SBG after party on Saturday night. Look for the next Fall Camp in Oct to be held at a resort in Mexico! Details to come in the next two weeks, see you there.

On Oct 23rd 2010 I had the privilege of awarding Lily Pagle her BJJ Black Belt.

Lily began training with me over a decade ago, at the age of 50. In that time I have watched her game skyrocket; her positional skills, timing, defense, submissions, and understanding of the science of BJJ is top notch. She has also shown herself to be a talented coach, with a solid understanding of how to break down and pass on the game; as well as all the drilling methods that SBGi is known for.

And finally, as a person Lily represents the best of what SBGi can be. Lily is my seventh black belt, and my first female student to achieve that level. At the age of 61 she stepped up in true SBGi tradition and iron-manned all the higher belts in the room. It was an inspiring display of an impressive, and highly technical game. It was an honor to be part of it.