Mijke van Griensven

It was a Monday night in Breda at Impact sports academy. My boyfriend was teaching BJJ classes and we were way to early so we sat down beside the mat and watched a boxing class. There I saw Mijke for the first time. She patiently watched two big MMA looking guys doing boxing combo. Then she demonstrated the combo, she stood in boxing stance and moved her head from left to right and at the same time shifted her body in the same direction. After that she threw out a left and right punch. She taught the class with patience and not once did she scream or hype her students up with her voice or behavior. She simply walked around hands behind her back and gave tips to the students. I was amazed by her flawless moves and rhythm. I asked my boyfriend: who’s the teacher? He told me her name and where she teaches boxing and from that moment on I knew I wanted her to teach me the art of boxing.

Mijke was born on the 15th of February both her parents were artists. Her mom was a student painter at the art academy when she raised Mijke. Mijke remembered sitting next to her mom just drawing while her mother painted.

She attended high school (Havo) after that she was 17 years of age and applied to the famous Gerrit Rietveld art academy in Amsterdam. First time she applied she didn’t get in. She went to another art school in Arnhem but still really wanted to go to the Gerrit Rietveld. She wrote a letter why she was perfect for the academy and she got in second year.

She studied animation filming and graduated. She moved back to ‘s-Hertogenbosch and worked part time next to her art projects.She organised her own exibithions. For example in the Jan Cunen museum. Her work got noticed by a Belgian jeweler who wanted an animation film about his jewelry, She even got to travel to Japan to take pictures of the jewelry. The pictures were used in the animation movie. She started a project that ended up lasting six years. I asked why so long? “Well”, she answerd:”One second of animation takes about 8 to 12 drawings, so it takes a lot of time, but at the same time I began my boxing career and that also takes up time. Next to the boxing I learned how to paint Sumi-e style wich was perfect for me, because I could capture the image of Boxing.

Sumi-e Ink wash painting, also known as literati painting is an East Asian type of brush painting that uses black ink—the same type used in East Asian calligraphy, in various concentrations. For centuries, this most prestigious form of Chinese art was practiced by highly educated scholar gentlemen or literati. (Wikipedia)

Mijke describes Sumi-e painting as to be just like boxing, the strokes you make are very powerful. She wanted to make art that tells something with as few colours as possible.

Some of her paintings.

Mijke says: “At first when I began boxing I was fascinated by it, because in boxing your biggest opponent is yourself. I took pictures watching fights. But I wanted to experience it myself so I asked my trainer if I could fight in the ring. He said yes. I trained for about a whole year before my first fight. I lost my first fight but I continued training and fighting. People noticed me and I got the chance to be part of the Dutch national boxing team. My hobby got out of hand.” she says. “I got a job where I could work flexible hours and the rest of the time I was training for competition.”

Mijke’s biggest achievements were ,attending the world championships in 2005. Winning first place at the national championships in 2007.And second place at the national championships in 2011.

Mind you, she trained twice a day for the world championships. Mijke’s style can be defined by her technique, she is a technical fighter. I asked her if her art and drawings about boxing defined her technique, Mijke said: “No, I was already like this before boxing. I did Karate and I handled the technique the same way. She stopped competition boxing because she couldn’t grow at her level. She had only two fights a year and kept repeating the same mistakes during the fights. The technique that she learned during training didn’t show in her fights.

I asked if she was ever disappointed by the Dutch boxing world. She said: “Well boxing is a jury sport, sometimes the more aggressive fighter wins but an aggressive fighter isn´t always the most technical one. I really like it when a fighter fights so technically, that he or she dominates the fight. It is as if the most technical fighter is directing the other fighter. But I knew what I was getting myself into,so I got on and accepted it.”

Later on she discovered that her grampa was also a boxer. Boxing is in her genes.

Mijke has her own gym in Vught called Club Boks.She teaches Boxing and Power yoga.

Club Boks also has other teachers.It’s just since October 2014 she works full time running her own gym.

Club Boks also has other teachers.

Jer Soumokil: Dutch kickboxing Champion.
Gunter Baelen: European and Belgian Kickboxing Champion.

She describes Boxing as holding a mirror up and looking at yourself. You overcome your fears and you push yourself to the limit. Sparring can be exciting but every time you do it, you get better at it. You gain confidence in boxing and your confidence and achievements can be adapted in daily life, take for example work or school.

She wants her students to learn how to box with technique and just have fun she says: “Its very important that people keep on training and keep their body healthy.”

Mijke still paints.
She gets inspired by things she sees in daily life. Once she went to the theater around Christmas time and saw a big lamp and this little boy was sitting in the lamp, his head between the lights. She said: “Funny seeing the little man so I remembered the image and made a painting of it.” Her style is more refined now, less lines than before. “I like to be as powerful as can be with my paintings.”

Thank you Mijke for your time.
You are a true Jedi!

For more information about Mijke and Clubboks visit:
http://www.clubboks.nl

My dearest grandma

My grandma lived happily near the canal in a small town called Aalsmeer. Two of her sons with their families lived next to her. My grampa was a constructor, He build arcs, houses, coffins. My grandmother loved life. She had her own vegetable garden, she traveled to far away countries. She loved watching nature and spotting planes.

Grandma really looked like a grandma, her hair was silver she curled it every few weeks, the dresses she wore were of high quality. She wore these big glasses. Her favorite drink was Rooibos Tea she dipped Verkade bisquits in it. She read two news papers, Telegraaf and Trouw, she loved solving puzzles.

She was too kind for the world. She told me that once there lived a mouse in the kitchen, she hadn’t told gramps about the mouse or else the poor thing just got poisened. Instead she let him out of his hole by secretly feeding him pieces of cheese or sausage when my grampa was sitting in the living room. Grandma would go to church on Sunday morning, she sang really off key, I always had a good giggle inside.I visited my grandmother at least twice a week.

When I was a little kid the whole family got together every sunday. The elder family members were sitting in front of the house, drinking coffee talking about what happend during the week. All my nieces and nephews would sit in the back playing cards, board games, as we grew older we would play on our game boys. We would eat snacks like the famous ham and cheese crisps, sausages and cheese. Grandma cooked vegetable soup. it was a real happening every Sunday.

Me an grandma both agreed that I should stay for dinner, called my parents that I wasn’t coming home. We would watch the news and The Bold and the Beautiful together. We cooked, steak,pears and potatoes. We chatted about the news and the family. I really felt welcome and accepted. More of my nephews and nieces visited grandma during the week.

My younger years were from time to time a total nightmare. I got bullied a lot by my sister, because I didn’t fit in I. I was a fat kid, struggling with my identity. The small town where I lived didn’t give me a feeling of belonging there.Predominantly white people whom i couldn’t identify with.
There was this group of nazi skinheads who would hang in places where we ice skated during the winter for instance. The boys would skate Swastikas in the ice and wear skinhead clothes. There was this young man whenever I passed by him on my bicycle he always wore his jacket open so I could see the white power sign on his shirt. Such a strange unfriendly place. I hated every inch of it.

My grandma didn’t judge me how I looked or what I said. She was a safe haven.So that’s why I loved to visit her.

It was early in the morning, when my parents received a call from my uncle, grandma passed away while she was sleeping. My uncle lived two houses down from my grandma. He went and tried to open the back door which was locked. The back door had a combination lock but it wasn’t open so he ticked the code in and found her laying in bed. The whole family gathered in her house and we went upstairs to her bedroom. We all stood around her bed. It looked as if she was still sleeping. She layed on her side her head on the pillow. Between the pillow was a towel. My grandmother didn’t like to drool on her pillow. Her hair was silver and she had no wrinkles on her face.Right beside her on the night cabinet was a glass of strawberry lemonade. She always had a glass of lemonade beside her because when she wakes up in the night her mouth always felt a bit dry. There where no signs of struggle at all, she had gone in peace while she was sleeping. The family decided to let her stay at home until the funeral so that the whole family could be with her. it was a continuous mantra of saying goodbye and bringing up good memories.

As if she knew she was going to pass away sooner or later. She had stickered all of her Swarovski kristal animals. Every grandchild got one. I got a mouse.

One day I hope to be a grandma and be as sweet like her. Listening to my grandchildren.

The song grandma’s hands by Bill Whithers is great. The song is already old I just recently found out about the song and it really made me think of her.
Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands: http://youtu.be/qv5pagal-ls