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In the hotel the night before the climb, the man began to show Oh the positions used in BJJ. The next day, poorly planned execution by the guides and more storms led to a sleepless night and the thought that “I can’t get off this mountain fast enough.” Added Oh: “I was thinking, ‘I’m not so good with outdoor sports, so what’s this sport he was talking about?’” After watching one class, she was hooked on BJJ and signed up the next day. Ignoring the fact she was the only woman in the room, “I started learning. I just kept showing up and getting beat up.” Her involvement started as a two-days- a-week hobby. She competed in her first tournament after six months, finishing second, and added a day of training to her weekly routine. Another successful tourney and “it just sort of took over my life. I slowly kept adding days, then twice a day and three times a day. I was always pushing and expecting more.” Oh earned her black belt in less than five years — a process that often takes twice that long. About six years into her career — after snagging the black belt, winning several titles and finishing second in the prestigious Abu Dhabi Combat Club world championships (considered “the Olympics of grappling”) — she admitted saying to herself, “I’m not too bad at this.” Battling the best Tournaments are based on belt level or size and weight categories. Some also include open classes where all the black belts, for example, regardless of size compete against one another. Gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu is when both combatants wear cotton kimonos they can grip to help submit or control each other. Traditional BJJ involves wearing rash-guards and boardshorts, which cannot be grabbed during a match. When Oh started competing, she acknowledged it was sometimes difficult to book matches due to a lack of female competitors. Matches can last from five to 20 minutes — or be over in seconds with a submission. Oh, listed at 5-foot-1 and 115 pounds, was a more deliberate competitor. “I was of the school that whatever presents itself, I will try to capitalize on,” she confided. “In training, it was always wanting to get better and learn faster. All those things you’re trying and doing and making mistakes, that’s giving you data and information on what not to do.” Oh didn’t limit her involvement in the sport to competition. BJJ introduced her to
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Three years later, however, she would return to the “arts” — the mixed martial version. A new option BJJ is a martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting and submission holds. Its history dates back nearly 100 years. Part of the allure for Oh was that art and technique could be used to counter size and strength. But she knew none of that at the turn of the century. She entered the Los Angeles Marathon because she wanted a medal that said 2000 on it, but a “nightmare storm” engulfed that event. Later in the year, she was rock climbing with a friend when a spot opened to join a group slated to climb California’s Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S. On the long drive to northern California, her friend’s husband “mentioned this sport he did called Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He was very excited about it. He said it was fighting but no kicking or hitting. At the time, I only understood fighting as karate or boxing.”
ALIFORNIA STORMS SPOILED a pair of major events for then- 33-year-old multi-sport athlete Felicia Oh in 2000. That’s when the
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Maricopan moved her endeavors indoors and became an unlikely champion in Brazilian jiu- jitsu. Today, the Province resident continues her career outside the ring. “It took me 33 years to find the sport that made sense for my brain and my body,” she said, adding she was a gymnast prior to hurting her back and dropping the sport at age 15. “I was not very good at it, but I was committed to it. “When I look back, that taught me how to work hard and be focused. I was doing it for the love of doing it. Those things always carry over to some part of your life.” A Seattle native, Oh earned a master’s degree in fine arts from UCLA. She started her career in the computer field, leading to work in broadcast graphic design and eventually helping start the digital media department at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in 1997.
Province resident Felicia Oh, representing the U.S.A., wins the Gold Medal at the FILA Grappling World Championships in Antalya, Turkey, during the 2007 World Wrestling Games.
InMaricopa.com | September 2024
September 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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