Chloe Brennan is Europe’s Strongest Woman in the light-middleweight division and she recently decided to take up BJJ, so she jumped in the deep end by rolling with top BJJ black belt Vanessa English. Brennan actually filmed the training session too, providing her fans with some great insight into the effectiveness of Jiu-Jitsu when it comes to controlling an untrained opponent. There isn’t a much better test of the sport than seeing it in action against one of the strongest people on the planet, and the idea that technique beats strength is something that dates back to the earliest days of BJJ and the Gracie family.
English starts out by teaching Brennan some of the most fundamental areas of the sport, and this also serves as a nice introduction for new starters who might feel lost on where to begin too. She shows her what closed guard is first and follows that up with a standing guard-break, which is one of the simplest ways to open the guard. It’s not just simple though, it’s actually one of the most effective ways to force an opponent to abandon closed guard too and it can be seen repeatedly at the highest levels of the sport.
English then teaches Brennan a basic sweep to counter the standing guard break before moving on to back control as well. She breaks down how to do the bow and arrow choke from there and also explains some of the principles behind controlling the back that make it work. They move on to rolling together at that point and you can see the skill difference play out immediately, as English is comfortable and in control the entire time without exerting any significant amount of energy.
It’s not often you see an elite competitor in another sport try their hand at BJJ, so Europe’s Strongest Woman testing herself against a black belt is something that deserves respect. Obviously the skill difference is going to be huge and there’s plenty of examples of incredibly strong athletes being controlled by superior grapplers, but every one of these types of training sessions bring more attention to the sport. It’ll be interesting to see if Brennan chooses to continue doing BJJ as well, because someone with her athletic background could become an incredible competitor in a relatively short space of time.
The footage of Europe’s Strongest Woman Chloe Brennan rolling with BJJ black belt Vanessa English was uploaded to Brennan’s official YouTube channel:
