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Emma Haci, 1st Woman in Balkans To Run a BJJ Academy

Emma Haci, 1st Woman in Balkans To Run a BJJ Academy

 

Brazilian is growing fast in the Balkans region of Europe, with many new academies emerging in  Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria etc.. Emma Haci is a blue belt that lives in Rijeka, Croatia and she runs the first and only woman run BJJ academy in the region: BJJ Rijeka.

Check out our list of successful BJJ academies run by women black belts around the world.

BJJEE caught up wit Emma and talked about various subjects.

 

Hi Emma, how did you get involved with martial arts and BJJ?

Ever since I was a little girl, I was very much interested in Martial Arts. I grew up with an older brother and we would watch action movies and later on we would practice what we watched and pretended to be just like Van Damme and others 🙂

I tried some team sports in school, but I didn’t like it very much and I wanted to train some martial art. I tried several. Kung Fu, Capoeira, Boxing, Kickboxing… I would skip classes in school in order to train but noone in my school knew I was training. I don’t know exactly why but I wanted to keep that a secret. Martial Arts came into my life right when I needed it. Especially after losing a parent. It taught me discipline, control, responsability, respect, hardwork and the most important, it kept me out of trouble.
I heard of Jiu Jitsu by watching Minotauro’s fights. He would get beaten but somehow he would do something crazy and would win by a chokehold or some armbar.
Also, while I was doing Capoeira, I met lots of Brazilians that also did Jiu Jitsu…so all that was very familiar to me but I didn’t know much about it except it was something on the ground where you fight but you’re not fighting with fists and kicks :)After going through some rough time, I decided that I needed a big change which would also include a new sport/hobby, and I was determined that I wanted to do Jiu Jitsu. That was a love at first sight! You know that feeling you get when you are searching for something and then you find it. This was pretty much how I felt after my first class.When I started, I was the only girl there. Actually, the only girl in my town that was training Jiu Jitsu. Since the gym I used to train at, also had Krav Maga lessons, few years later we had some girls coming in and out, and some actually stayed, but in the beginning, I was the only one.

At first I thought it was going to be super hard for me because all of the boys were twice as big and weighted more than me. And of course it was hard. Everything seems hard in the beginning. There were times when I felt I will never ever know anything. There were times when I was pushing myself twice as hard because I wanted to show that I am not weak, and then I would come home and cry because I thought I wasn’t good enough 🙂 But I kept going because simply, I loved it. It is still like that. Everything for me is Jiu Jitsu. I feel like I am in a relationship with it lol. Sometimes we have our disagreements, but I can’t be without it.

 

emma

 

What can you tell us about training with men?

One of my favorite Helio Gracie quotes is: “For the choke, there are not tough guys”. Jiu Jitsu is truly like an ocean. The whole spectre of Jiu Jitsu is so big. In Jiu Jitsu, everyone is equal. Anyone can win. A boy can defeat an older guy, a woman can defeat a man. Some positions might seem tricky to women, but you learn to adjust. Men work more on their technique so they learn not just to rely on the strength, so it is a Win-Win for both gendres 🙂

There are so many stuff you can do. So many positions, submissions, escapes…it never ends. I learned to work better on my technique, to improve my positioning, if the guy is too strong for an armbar I learned few tricks how to make my chokes tighter etc…

You are the only woman in the Balkans that runs a BJJ academy. Can you tell us more about BJJ Rijeka?

I am the president of the team in Rijeka called “BJJ Rijeka“.  It is still weird for me to say that I am the president, because we all work together. None of this would be possible without my amazing colleges. We train under the Lotus Club affiliation from Sao Paolo-Brazil. Our head coach is Aleksandar Matteoni. He moved back home after living and training in New York. That’s also where he got his black belt. We also have a Judo black belt coach- Dino Pašić that is helping us improve our stand up game.
The team in Rijeka is definitely growing! We train hard and we make sure to always learn and improve. Every training, every roll, every competition is another experiance. Since our coach lives in Pula, we go there and he comes here each month. The distance is only like an hour so that is not a problem. He is a great coach and the whole team in Pula is so amazing and it is always a pleasure to train together.
Each Saturday we have Open Mats where everyone is welcome to join us. Each team, each grappling discipline, everyone that loves to roll 🙂 This open mats have become very popular so we had a privilage to meet and roll with lots of people from different countries, with several black belts, awesome practitioners, amazing people, so if you find yourself in Rijeka-Croatia, make sure you visit us!

emma1

What are your goals for 2016/2017?

I definitely want our team to keep growing and improving. I am working very hard on motivating more women to join us. I wanna show them that they can do it too. I wanna break the prejudices that some women in these areas have about Jiu Jitsu (martial arts in general). I wanna help them know they can be pretty and badass too 🙂 Jiu Jitsu is such a great sport for everyone! It makes you calm on the inside and it builds your confidence.

And for my personal goals, I would definitely like to compete more and I would love it if one day I can help others reach their goals and help them as BJJ has helped me.

Who are your favourite BJJ players?

I don’t think I have a favorite BJJ player. I don’t have a favorie movie also, or favorite song lol…but I really like Buchecha, Terere and Rodolfo Viera. And for girls, I really like Bia Mesquita and Gezary Matuda. I like the new age Jiu Jitsu but I will always be a huge fan of old school BJJ. Takedowns, guard pass, smash… 🙂