A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending Wominar 11 in London so I just had to write a brief review for you all! For those who have never heard of a Wominar – it is essentially a Women’s only seminar ran by the fabulous Samantha Cook. Samantha was one of the guest coaches on the Female Fighters Camp and I absolutely loved her sessions. So when Wominar 11 was announced I followed up on the promise I made to myself to go down and experience a session for myself. As extra motivation Wominar 11 had a special guest instructor in the form of multiple World Champion Dominyka Obelenyte.

The session was held at Fightzone London which as expected was a top-class venue. As anticipated there was spotlessly clean mats, a small but perfectly formed women’s changing room (with shower and flattering mirror) and it was toasty warm. As its still pretty much winter, I really did appreciate having to discard my grappling socks and dig out my short sleeve rash guards.

The last Wominar had over 50 women on that mat and unsurprising this was a sell-out event with even more women attending from across the country. Despite storm Bruce stopping a few people in their tracks, there was still over 60 women on that mat.

One of the wonderful things about the session was that whilst it’s always great to meet new people it was also brilliant to catch up with old friends and grapplers. I had travelled by myself to the seminar and it was clear to see that several groups of teammates had travelled down together. But do not let that put you off! By the end of the session, I can guarantee you will have not just caught up grappler you know but have also made some new friends!

The seminar did have an extensive warm-up but don’t worry it was a lot of fun and really broke the ice for the rest of the session. Think numbers games, challenges and whacky races (which may have descended into good-humored cheating in places!). The technique element started with Dominyka with a chain from the spider guard linking sweeps, omoplatas and a brutal spiral armbar. This was followed by some more spider guard loveliness from Sam. I would give you more details but let’s be honest where would the fun of that be!

One of the things I’ve always liked about the couple of sessions I’ve done with Sam is how she includes positional sparring into the session. I love it for three reasons – firstly its exhausting fun, secondly I get to pressure test the techniques and finally I get to roll briefly with a bunch of people from white to black who I don’t normally get the chance to grab! This time was no different I especially took great pleasure in being squished by the black belts on the mat! It definitely gave me a couple of learning points to take away lol Because of the seminar overrunning slightly due to the weather I had to duck out after the positional sparring and dash. But not before grabbing a shower and a very much needed can of Nocco and a bowl of Acai (kindly provided by Sambazon).

The seminar was definitely worth the trip not just for the great instructional but also the opportunity to catch up with so many fabulous women. If you do get the chance to attend one if the future I highly recommend that you jump at the chance!

And if you do fancy catching Sam for a seminar then I have a shameless plug for you. She is coming back to the Female Fighters Camp! So if you fancy coming to Kendal 24-26th July you can catch a fabulous weekend of grappling with the lovely Sam Cook, Olympic Judoka Sophie Cox, Olympic Wrestler Olga Butkevych and UFC vet, grappler and osteopath Rosi Sexton. Plus you may catch a BJJ Minion there too lol! For more information then visit the camp’s website