Hi, I’m Helene, a fresh Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt (January 2016) and I like rolling…
At almost 35 years old (February 2016), I’ve decided to leave everything to travel for a while. I created this blog for friends, family and bjj partners who want to follow my trip. I am not used to speak about me so I hope I won’t enoy you. And I will try to do as less mistakes as possible in English! Let’s start.
My sports journey
I did 8 years of gymnastics (1989-1997). I started wrestling when I lived in Strasbourg in France (2000) and I moved to Belgium one year later (2001). I found a wrestling academy in Brussels but I didn’t train a lot and finally I met a woman who took me to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (2004).
When I started BJJ, I was not regular and I liked No Gi. I didn’t like this heavy fabric’s pieces : the gi. I thought that wrestling was better until I saw the Olympics games in 2008. At this moment, I realized the power of BJJ and I started to train more and more with the gi.
My bjj journey
I started to train with Patrick Chaput in 2004 and I got my blue belt in 2007 under Patrick Chaput and Flávio Behring.
In 2009, I changed of academy and I went to Malicia team.
I got my purple belt in June 2011 (after a 3rd place at the world’s Ibjjf championship), my brown belt in December 2013 and my black belt in January 2016 (after I won the european’s Ibjjf championship).
And now, it’s only the beginning of bjj.
My competition journey
Due to the lack of women to train with, in 2004, I started to compete. It was the opportunity to fight against women, to increase my experience and learn.
I did a lot of small competitions in Belgium, Netherlands and France. I did my first Ibjjf European’s championship in 2010 in blue belt where I lost my second fight against Mackenzie Dern. At this time, I didn’t know her and I didn’t know anything about BJJ people. But this has changed…
After that, I have started to do a lot of international competitions.
My best titles :
- 3rd place – blue belt – light feather – ibjjf world’s championship 2011
- 2nd place – purple belt – light feather – Ibjjf european’s championship 2012
- 1st place – purple belt – light feather – Ibjjf no gi european’ s championship 2012
- 1st place – brown belt – light feather – Ibjjf no gi european’ s championship 2014
- 1st place – brown belt – light feather – Ibjjf european’ s championship 2016