WOMEN ON THE MATS

Hi! I’m Carolina,

I’m a purple belt coach, student, competitor and sometimes referee 🙂

I moved to the UK at the end of 2016 and felt like I wanted to learn something new and needed to  make friends, that’s how I found BJJ.

My first gym was Checkmat affiliated Trojan Free fighters in Worcester (now Three points martial arts), where I trained my first few months– I tried MMA, K1, wrestling and finally BJJ.

In the Summer of 2017 I moved to Exeter and started training at Horizon Academy, where I still train.

Competition was very important for me in my first years – I tried competing around once a month and managed to achieve some cool things – and enjoyed competing all around the UK and in the Europeans in Portugal. I still really enjoy competing, and preparing for it is one of my favourite things to do in BJJ, as it gives me an objective to work towards. I have also made some awesome friends on the way – people I still enjoy visiting and training with.

My love of competing drove me towards my referee training, which I found quite cool and terrifying at the time. I have since refereed in a few competitions and it’s something I want to keep doing, as it keeps my knowledge sharp and it’s another way to keep attending competitions.

Another thing I really enjoy doing is attending Seminars and Camps, training  with different people/ coaches has really helped me find the BJJ I like and meet lots of awesome friends along the way – the social side of jiujitsu is really important to me and it makes me feel like we are one massive family.

Around 3 years ago I took the opportunity of teaching my own women’s classes at Horizon, firstly as a self defence class and now as a BJJ/ competition class – depending on what the students are more interested in at the moment. Self defence is the reason I first started jiujitsu and I find it’s a very important part of the sport, specially for women.

In 2024 I had a little baby girl and my training changed completely – lack of sleep and no recovery was massive and being a mum took over. The one thing that kept me consistent was my women’s class. Now I still really enjoy competing but I do it very sparingly, even though I am wanting to get into it a bit more – 2026 will be the year!

Now onto open mats, they have been a constant in my bjj journey – a place to meet people, make friends and learn jiujitsu. I find open mats an awesome place/time to test your jiujitsu without the pressure of a competition. You can just have a chat with your training partner and figure out what you both are expecting of that roll. Open mats are one of the most valuable opportunities we have to meet different jiujitsu ways and training styles.

 Women’s open mats have helped me massively as it’s pretty hard to find people my size in a pretty male dominant sport, which I really value as a way of trying out my jiujitsu against people similar to me. There have been a lot of women along my journey that inspired me, taught me and kept me going – even when I was disheartened and not enjoying it anymore. I have a lot of love for the women I have met along the way and will always be up for another open mat!

Our next open mat is at Horizon Academy BJJ Exeter on Sunday 18th January, 1-3pm

Follow @hasta.pasta or @womensbjj.horizonac on Instagram for more information