Ana Yagües is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt who was born in Madrid, but grew up in Seville, Spain. Since then, she has relocated to Germany as she moved to the country aged 22 to finish her university studies and do her pHD in physics. She began training five years after moving to Germany and adds “I started at 27. I wish I had started before! But at the time, BJJ was really very unknown, more than nowadays, especially amongst women.” Interestingly her introduction into the world of BJJ was the result of a relationship break up – as she puts it “I started thanks to a bad breakup, HA! As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining, right? I was having a rough time and needed a way to unleash my energy. I needed something to hit, to get me out of depression, so I started with kickboxing. A team mate who practiced both kickboxing and BJJ told me I should try jiu jitsu. I was not convinced at all. I watched a couple of classes and all I could see was a bunch of sweaty men rolling around. It didn’t appeal to me at all. But he insisted and at some point I tried it. The coach partnered me with another girl, a blue belt who was smaller than me. She destroyed me without hurting me and she did so easily despite me using all my strength that I was completely amazed. I fell in love with the sport. I knew I wanted to do this forever.” Since then Yagües has come a long way and got her black belt on the podium of the European Championship in 2016 when she was 37. She owns her own academy together with her partner Tony Hesse, called Nexus Fighter Academy. The gym is under Team Ganbaru and professor Ezekiel Zayas who is her teacher from Spain.
In terms of her favourite positions, Yagües uses the shin on shin guard and says “My best and favorite sweep is the one I do from the shin on shin guard holding the arm of the opponent between their legs”. On top she likes to use double unders or the knee slice to pass the guard and her main submissions are the bow and arrow and triangle chokes. Surprisingly, she hasn’t had too many injury issues whilst training and claims “I am very lucky. I never had a major injury besides every centimeter of my body aching after hard sparring days haha. I have twisted my fingers a couple of times and have cervical pain. But nothing that keeps me apart from the mat for more than 2 days, except my 3 pregnancies. Even then, I was out of the mat for less than 2 months each time.” She also states Michelle Nicolini as having the biggest influence on her game, stating “Michelle Nicolini without a doubt. She was my idol when I started this sport. I met her in a seminar and loved her style. Since then I have trained with her several times. She is amazing.”
Currently competing at under 64KG, Yagües speaks about her best achievements in competition and mentions “The Absolute division of Worlds Masters at brown belt. I had to beat a woman in the semifinals who was over 90kg…it was such a hard fight and I got to submit her with a bow and arrow. It was an unbelievable feeling to have the whole venue cheering you. The BJJ community wants to believe that technique conquers all, that technique beats size and strength. Well, it is not always that easy, so when someone makes it happen it’s a real joy. It was amazing.” We also asked her about her toughest matches and no surprise it is Ffion Davies who stands out as her hardest opponent. She said “I have had many strong opponents during my competition life. I have fought Mackenzie Dern at purple belt, Yas Wilson and Charlotte von Baumgarten at brown belt and Ffion Davies two times last year at black belt. Just to give some examples. All of them were really tough women. The only one who I felt I didn’t have a chance was Ffion. She is amazing, strong, fast, explosive and very technical. After being beaten by her in less than 2 minutes in two competitions in a row, I invited her to teach at my school. If you can’t beat the enemy, you better join them haha”
Away from training, we asked Yagües about her background in physics as she has a pHD in the field. Not only this, but she actually quit her physics job to earn a living from BJJ full-time which was quite a leap of faith. She responded by saying “Yes, I have a PhD in physics. I was involved in High Energy Particle Physics research. If my friends thought [negatively] about quitting to do BJJ full-time, they never told me. They are mostly in the BJJ world so they found it risky. I was divorced and had two kids at the time but they supported me. I guess, many people don’t dare to do it themselves but encourage others to do haha. My family did tell me that I was crazy, still, they were supportive but they were also scared that I was giving up a safe, well-paid, and well perceived job for opening a martial arts gym.”
And it seems her gym has gone from strength to strength with quite a lot of members, she recalls “Well, we have grown! We are now at 200 members! about 140 adults and 60 kids. I am very proud of it. First of all, I must say, that not all of them come to train regularly and this is part of a gym business. If every member that signs up, comes to train, gyms will run out of space before really making any profit.
The rest of the success is a sum of many factors. A good location in a central area. A good vibe…we try to be a friendly academy with familiar character but I still run it like a business. It is hard to find the balance between both things but it is crucial to make a living out of it.The majority of the members are hobby athletes but we encourage the competitors too and offer extra training for them. We have a very extensive training plan, offer classes 7 days a week in all possible times: early birds, afternoon and evening classes. If you want to train, you will find a time that fits you in our school. We also have female coaches (me and blackbelt Lilo Asensi) which makes it easier to attract other women into this sport, which is always a difficult task. Now we have a big group of women. We run a zero politics school. If a member is a competitor, we expect them to wear our patch and register for our club. But other than that, we are ok with people training in other places, we are ok with people from other places visiting us, we don’t demand people to wear a certain gi or to attend a seminar to be graduated. There are certain ground rules and discipline yes, but we just care about the sport and not about the politics behind it.”
Another way in which she earns money from the BJJ world is through refereeing. She spoke about getting into the world of refereeing and how it came about: “For the IBJJF you don’t have to pass any exams. [You just have to] be at least a brown belt and attend their rules seminars. I don’t think that is right, since attending a seminar and being a blackbelt doesn’t mean that you are able to apply the rules and be a good referee. For NAGA, I had to attend a seminar and do a long, difficult exam. Then you are on trial and during the first couple of tournaments, the main referee will sit at the referees table while you are refereeing and correct any mistakes you may do. I think that is a more reliable way of training a person to be a referee. UAJJF is doing seminars too but so far I know there is no testing. I work with the three of them. I never did ADCC so I am not sure if they train their own referees or call the ones they know they are good.”
Expanding on her refereeing qualifications, she adds “I have always believed that knowing the rules of the sport is essential for a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor. After all, how can you be successful in a tournament without knowing the rules of the game such as how to win, lose, gain points, or be disqualified? After participating in a few tournaments, I quickly noticed a recurring problem. When disagreements and arguments occur at a competition, they often revolve around the score of the match. While on occasion the referee does make a mistake (don’t forget, they are people too and are not always perfect!), oftentimes the disagreement arises because the athletes, the public (family and friends), or sometimes even the coaches do not understand the rules! In my extensive experience as a referee, I can confirm close to half of the adult athletes (if not more!) do not know the rules of the match beyond the basics. Furthermore, the majority of the kids competing do not know even the very basics. To make things worse, the parents often know even less than the kids do! This is a problem for everyone involved. The less the parents know, the less they are able to support their kid in their Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journeys, especially at competitions. The less the parents understand what’s happening in a match, the more stress, confusion, and frustration it causes for everyone involved. My book, illustrated by Sabine Device, “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – The Rules of the Game” aims to fix this issue by providing a clear, straightforward explanation of the most important rules of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition. A better understanding of how competitions work and what positions are important in a match will hopefully make Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions more accessible and enjoyable to everyone!”
Her refereeing website can be found here: http://www.bjjtherulesofthegame.com
Yagües is also an advocate in women’s BJJ and has seen women’s participation grow rapidly. She claims this is a good thing to see and also mentions the benefits for women who train the sport, adding “The sport is increasing by all means, and in terms of women it is amazing how much BJJ has grown. As an example, when I started, there were 4 women in my weight division at white belt adults in the European Championship. Nowadays there are 50 or more in the same division. The reason is clear, this sport is amazing! haha, now seriously, this sport is very unknown, that is the problem, we don’t reach a big audience since we are still in the shadow of judo or wrestling (both amazing sports too by the way). But when a woman gets to try it, most of the time it is love at first sight. It is a sport where smaller, weaker athletes can beat big strong ones thanks to technique. [It is] one of the few sports where women can beat men at the same technical level. You may see that in judo or wrestling too but in my opinion, it will require much more training. In BJJ you see results in your performance a few months after you start. That is very motivating. And BJJ really is so varied and has endless possibilities. This implies it does not matter which size you are, strength you have, flexibility or whatever. There is a style that will suit you in BJJ. And you never run out of learning. It is like a roller coaster and that makes you an addict. And we women like addictions. Just kidding. I don’t know, but it is what it got me and why I changed my life. I couldn’t be any happier.”
Lastly, her next goal is to fight the World Masters at black belt. She states “I haven’t done it yet. It is hard to fit such a long and expensive competition trip into the family plan. This year Covid-19 has smashed my and everybody’s plans. Let’s see what 2021 has to offer.”
She finally gives a message about combining family life and training and how it can be done, saying “I want to address the BJJ community out there that tries to combine family and sport. I want to tell you that it will not be easy but it is feasible and that more and more women are doing it. You don’t have to give up on the person you are for being a good mother or father. But we can’t do it without the help of partners, teams and friends. If you are a gym owner and have the space, prepare a kids corner for the members’ kids to play while their parents are training. If you are a team partner and you see a mum (or a dad) struggling with a little child and training, offer your help, hold the baby for a round so that they can spar too. And last but not least, if you are a BJJ couple with children, train in turns, help each other. Dads out there, please support your women, help them to pursue their goals, stand by her and your kid, you are no longer only a BJJ fighter, you are also a dad. It is also your responsibility. For those parents out there struggling with parenthood and family life, take a look at our website www.bjjmums.com or follow us on IG @bjjmums If you are in Hamburg, Germany, and want to train with me and my team, you are welcome, www.nexusfa.com“
