· By Angela Vogel
Let's Hear It For The Girls
We just got back from Trout Lake, Stroudsburg PA — and we are still riding the high.
For three days at the start of May, 200+ women descended on a lake in the Poconos for the Alchemize East Coast Camp, organized by the absolute force that is Maya Nazareth (founder) and Suily (coordinator and saint). Three days of training, eating, laughing, and rolling with women from all over the country and beyond.
We packed up the JJCo booth, Sue Yee came up to help me sell, and we drove out to set up shop at one of the most special weekends we've ever been part of.
Quick disclosure: I tweaked my back the week before camp and couldn't actually train. Which sounds like a tragedy and was, for about an hour. Then I realized I was about to spend three days at one of the most exciting women's BJJ camps in the country with full freedom to just talk to people. No drilling or rolling to get back to. . Just conversations.
This is our recap. It's going to be long. Sorry not sorry.
Sara McMann broke my brain.
The instructional lineup was stacked, but I'm going to single out one session because I haven't stopped thinking about it: Sara McMann on sprawling.
If you've never trained with an Olympic medalist wrestler, the way she breaks down weight distribution and hip angle is genuinely re-organizing. She talks about pressure as a non-negotiable. She talks about the sprawl not as a defensive emergency but as a position you're already in, just waiting for the right moment to commit.
If she ever does that session again, drop everything and go.
The booth.
Sue and I set up early Friday morning and immediately realized we hadn't packed enough small sizes. (Note to self for next time: women's BJJ camps run small. Bring more S, M, and XS than you think you need. Then bring more again.)
The other thing we ran out of? Totes. We're already restocking.
What was flying off the table:
The Rad Roller Gi had a moment. Several women bought one on the spot after handling it — that soft sage exterior and the checkerboard interior surprise really does land in person. (We made a gi. It's rad. Turns out other people agree.)
Women's shorts in the fun colors were the surprise top seller. The bright ones especially — pink, orange, that periwinkle blue. Apparently when you put a woman in a room with 199 other women and unlimited training time, she wants to wear color. Who knew. (Everyone knew. We should have known.)
Derpy Tiger and Snorlax kids' rash guards were the surprise hit — moms picked them up left and right to bring home to their tiny grapplers. Apparently this is a known phenomenon at women's camps: a mom finally has 72 hours away from her household, and the first thing she does is shop for her kids. We respect it.
The freebies.
Every purchase came with a free pile of stuff — stickers, buttons, key chains, little bits of JJCo to take home. Some people came back to the booth twice just for the stickers. Honor.
We didn't have the mystery merch vending machine ready in time for this one — that's coming for the next round of camps, and after seeing the energy at this one, I'm even more sure it's the move. (If you have opinions on what should be inside, let me know. We're stocking it.)
The conversations.
This is the part I came home thinking about.
Because I wasn't training, I had time. So much time. I sat at the booth and women came up and told me their stories. Some had been training for a decade. Some had started six months ago. Some came alone for the first time. Some flew in from across the country to be here.
Every single conversation was good.
People showed us their gym colors. Asked about sizing for their training partners. Wanted to know who designs the graphics. (I do. The graphics get earned in real training, like everything else.) Pulled out their phones to show us photos of their dogs. Talked about competing, not competing, why they almost quit, why they came back.
I went to camp expecting to learn jiu jitsu and ended up learning something else. The mat is one way to connect. It turns out it's not the only one.
Everyone looked incredible in the merch, by the way. We have proof.
Thank yous.
To Maya Nazareth for building Alchemize and making this whole thing happen. The vision is real, the execution is flawless, and the energy you set the tone for carries through every single session.
To Suily for being the engine behind the scenes. Camp coordination is a thankless job and you did it with grace, humor, and approximately 48 simultaneous conversations.
To Sue Yee — bestie, best booth co-pilot, and the only person who could make a 14-hour vending day feel like a girls' trip.
To every woman who stopped by the booth, tried something on, told us about her gym, asked about the gi, bought stickers for her training partner, or just said hi. We saw you. We're so glad you came. Even to the guy that bought two packs of tape.
Coming up.
We've got more camps and events in the works for the rest of the year. The mystery merch vending machine is genuinely launching for the next one (lock in $5/$10/$20 tokens, every pull wins, you'll see). And we're already restocking small sizes and totes.
Until then — we made a gi, and it's rad. The Rad Roller is live on the site if you missed us at camp.
See you at the next one.
— Angie
P.S. If you took a photo of yourself in JJCo at camp, please tag us @thejiujitsucofightwear. We're collecting them!