BJJ: Bali, Jiujitsu and Jelly

My last fight, I had 24 hours notice. This time…I had three hours.

I took a break from Jiujitsu to study Spa Therapy and haven’t been in the gym for two solid months. Last weekend, I went up to Canngu since my school was on break for the week of Nyepi (a day of silence/ religious holiday).

I was at AMO spa doing my rounds of the sauna and ice bath, having a relaxing time. My friends from Bali MMA, Corey and Luke, happened to be there. After some small talk, they roped me into this Jelly Wrestling tournament which they were refereeing for a party later.

$300 USD grand prize. I’ve done more for less. Count me in. There were seven girls in total competing. Because of the odd number, one of the girls automatically made it into the next round.

The main rules were: No biting, punching, hair pulling, kicking, gouging, head butting. Easy, got it! Each competitor wears a sock. Opponent must get the other persons sock off. Final Round is two socks.

Later in the evening after the tournament, Corey and I were breaking down the fights/ competitors/ environment over a well-earned plate of pasta. I fought the most out of everyone, three matches while the others did two or one. He told me all the girls were nervous AF and one looked terrified. One of them was chain smoking and taking shots to relax.  Half were local and half were foreigners.

He also told me none of them had fight experience. This is important because what he said didn’t sink in with me until that moment of hindsight.

I remember my first time rolling on the mat many moons ago: Just a gentle roll at the gym with someone who knew I was a white belt and would go easy on me. I was a little scared and clueless but knew this was a chill environment. No money, just learning and helping each other.

Oh God…these poor girls. I’ll be honest: I was a dick.

$300 on the line and I came ready for war. My mind was racing with fundamentals like side control, mount, maintaining a heavy weight distribution, taking the back, sprawl, seatbelt. Just another version of no-gi.

My first opponent was a European looking gal who had a couple kilos on me.

I gave zero fucks. Grabbed her neck with my right, pulled her down with my left under-hook. Got her in side control against the wall of the inflatable pool, kept my weight distributed on her chest while using a frame on her neck, other hand grabbing for sock.

This is a good time to mention: The pool was filled with a few inches of watered-down gelatin. Once you factor in the displacement caused by two average sized female bodies, the height is a few inches more. So…if someone is in the bottom of side control, their face is probably under the surface or struggling to stay above it.

After my first match, Luke adds a rule to the fight: No downing. No pulling/pushing head under water. He made strong eye contact with me as he said it. Oh alright…if I must *sigh*. Got the sock, first match down.

For my next match, Corey looks at me and says, “Give us a show will you? Go like 70%...” I thought it was an odd thing for him to say, so I nodded and brushed him off, still in a daze and catching my breath. Then I got in the pool and saw my next opponent. Gosh darn, she was a sweet little Indonesian girl, one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  She smiled at me with great big eyes like an innocent fawn, and I stared somewhere in the vicinity of her chest, my eyes boring a hole into her delicate forearms.

No, she is the enemy.

And GO! I grabbed neck/ under-hook again, fought to take her back…which I did. Except, I made sure not to put my hooks in or else it would have exposed my sock. My right arm was wrapped around her neck for a rear naked choke, while I kept my other arm gunning for her sock. I used my weight to push her forward.

Halfway through the round, Luke called a time out and added another rule to the fight: No choking. Again, looking at me. Okay…ok…ok…I’ll just do the seatbelt. Look at me, look at my arm…I’m just doing the seatbelt to maintain control, I’m being a good girl. She was little but she squirmed and gave me a good run. Got the sock.

Dobby is a free elf! Almost.

By this point, I’m breathing heavy. I’m tired. My stamina has gone way down, I feel it. I went from training 2-3 hours w/ at least 30 mins solid sparring, five days a week for three months…to two months of a relatively sedentary lifestyle. And I join a jelly wrestling tournament on a whim. YOLO

The MC starts hyping up the Last Fight which is me, who JUST did two rounds in short succession… and the buxom Italian girl who got to sit out first round (lucky duck). I look at Corey and exhale, “Five minutes…gimme…five minutes to breathe.”

After what seemed like two minutes, I look up and she’s already in the pool. I rush to put both socks on. Luke’s telling me to get in and…GO! This one was a bit of a blur. She somehow got me in a guillotine, but it was more of a head control while she went for my sock. I transitioned to bottom of the guard but that exposed my legs, so I fought to recover/ sit on them. I was going to whip out the good stuff…but no drowning, no choking

And no FRICTION.

It wasn’t a quick fight, but it felt longer than it was. She took a sock. I pushed forward, sprawled while holding onto neck and under-hook. Grabbed her sock a few times but couldn’t get it to pull the other way. Eventually she got my other one. Ah well, win some, lose some.

Most fun I’ve had in a while. I lost so I wasn’t expecting anything and none of the competitors got anything for competing. But they gave me a Runner-Up prize: a food and drinks voucher worth over $100 USD (1.5 million rupia)!

Back to the plate of pasta and aftermath breakdown. During our conversation, Corey told me he was chatting with the other girls before the match and realized how much all of them could have used the money ESPECIALLY the local girls.

For those of you reading this who’ve never been here, I want to stress $300 USD is a LOT of money for the locals here in Bali- and to win that after less than an hour of work- at least a solid two weeks’ plus worth of wages (feel free to comment and correct me, this is ballpark based on cursory research and personal experience).

It gave me a new perspective on the whole thing. For me, the money would have been a nice chunk of change for my next trip. But for them, it could have positively impacted their lives in a very significant way. And I’m willing to bet they don’t get too many opportunities to make money like that.

Unlike in Bali MMA Fight Night, they didn’t get anything for participating. Considering I’ve had two years of training, it wasn’t really a fair fight.

So I invited all the girls who lost to come help me spend my 1.5 mil voucher at SVA. It’s a three-story Indonesian tapas restaurant where the tournament was held. A typical meal in Bali costs 15-50k. SVA is a little fancier in presentation and price, but this was still a lot of money for food and I wasn’t going to eat it all by myself.

Of all the girls, only one could make it out…and it was Lisa, my round two, the little fawn. Spoiler alert: She really is as sweet as she looks. Corey came and so did my friend Jeff from Bali MMA. Desi was one of competitors but she also worked at SVA so she was our server for the afternoon. Happiness is real when shared.

Between the four of us, we literally ordered one of everything on the menu: 11 main dishes, 4 desserts, beverages, and a side of edamame. What a dream!

The whole experience was time well spent. I made new friends, caught up with old ones, got free competition experience and an extravagant meal.

Like I said, I’ve done more for less.

Check out video clips of the other matches on my Instagram