A new all-female opportunity in Mexico City is scheduled for November 6-13 as organized by a member of GMA Brasa Mexico Academy. Six-time world champion Mackenzie Dern will be leading a training camp that will support Jiu-Jitsu in Mexico and the females who are involved.
The community of females in Jiu-Jitsu is steadily growing in Mexico with the help of a purple belt named Itzel Bazua Aguilar. With the help of her boyfriend, they created a place to train at their house called Promahos BJJ where she teaches women-only Jiu-Jitsu classes. The government supports the already existing Mexican Federation of Jiu-Jitsu and in turn, the program and its athletes have been helped financially to promote Jiu-Jitsu and compete internationally.
Itzel’s goal with the 2nd Female BJJ Training Camp is to promote female BJJ by helping them to improve and believe in themselves. She says, “Because I had the hardest time as a white belt (I was the only girl, the smallest and the youngest, and they never took me seriously), I didn’t believe that I could achieve something. Then my instructor Tomas Salgado came to the academy and psyched me up, demanded commitment from me and guided me to become the athlete I am now.” It is the influence of her coach that she hopes to extend to the females of Jiu-Jitsu in Mexico.
Her future events are more female camps with Mackenzie, seminars, tournaments (all female), free open mats and classes given by black belts, and maybe a money fund to sponsor girls that don’t have enough money to dedicate to the sport as they would like to.
The costs of the camp cover training and lodging. Before Oct. 4 the cost is $160 with advance payment of $80. For more information email: itzelbazuabjj@gmail.com
