Ana Moceyawa in training ahead of the Oceania Champs in Guam this weekend. Photo / George Novak
Ana Moceyawa in training ahead of the Oceania Champs in Guam this weekend. Photo / George Novak
Ana Moceyawa may have just become a national champ in her third code but she's also looking to gain an Oceania title this weekend.
The Tauranga woman became a New Zealand Grappling champ last weekend, adding to the accolades she already holds which include a New Zealand title each in wrestling and judo.
About a week later, Moceyawa is in Guam, competing at the Oceania wrestling championships, eyeing to secure her third title at the competition.
"I'm looking to win it because I need that for my track record and then I can qualify for worlds," Moceyawa says.
"I won the last two Oceania champs and I feel like my training's been like, really good so really trusting my training. I think that I should do good," she says.
But to prepare, the talented athlete has been working to make weight for her Under 59kg Oceania weight division, after weighing in light at the grappling event at 60kg in the 66.5kg weight division.
She says she's often asked why she switched sports "again" after competing in grappling but believes there are far more benefits to her switching.
"Don't ask me why I did it. Well, actually I went into it because I really want to help my ground game and get more mat time.
"It's not like that at all, it's like I'm just trying to get more mat time."
Moceyawa says she has wanted to do some grappling for many years but because of her Commonwealth Games commitments and just being "too busy in general" her schedule never really meshed.
This year, it did and after a few encouraging words from a close friend, she decided she would give grappling a go.
"This was no gi, which is more like wrestling which for me, helps my wrestling.
"And then there'll be ones in the future with gi, so like judo, so it actually helps both my sports, so it was kind of a decision that I made last year."
Ana Moceyawa. Photo / George Novak
Her main concern was getting hurt but believed it she played it safe, she would be fine - and she was.
"I've always wanted to do it as well because it looks like there's lots of girls that do it actually, way more than in wrestling."
Moceyawa believes cross-coding has helped each of her sports and doesn't know why more women don't do the same thing.
"I don't know why a lot of girls don't cross over. I think the training's quite hard and quite time consuming but I guess I'm just willing to do it."
"A lot of people crossover judo and Brazilian jiu jitsu, but wrestling and judo, they're both quite hard combat sports, quite high up there with the fitness and stuff."
She says no matter what kind of hard work she puts into her craft, it is paying off. She trains every morning at 5.30am for "my happiness, keeping weight down or fitness", does code-specific strength and conditioning training three times a week at the University of Waikato Adams Centre of High Performance, as well as judo three times a week and wrestling three times a week.
Cross-coding, Moceyawa says, has helped her sports, being able to do unorthodox moves that keeps her relevant.
"I guess I move differently, so when I bring my judo into wrestling I can do throws on girls that they've never seen before and then I can take my wrestling over and I can do just some unorthodox throws that the judo people have never seen.
She says New Zealand is quite small, which means opponents come up against each other regularly.
"We come up against the girls quite a lot it's good for me to do some different techniques, but I learn that from each sport."
Although Moceyawa started out in judo, she says wrestling is her current favourite discipline.
"Judo will always be my like first love but wrestling, my friends always tease me that I'm cheating on judo with wrestling.
"I feel like, not putting judo down, I feel like I can do more. My style is quite unorthodox so I can pick at legs and move my body more freely I guess, and judo there are more rules and it's a new sport so it's exciting for me - and I can use it in judo."
This weekend's Oceania champs, held today and tomorrow, is just the first step for Moceyawa, who plans to compete at the Olympics and the next Commonwealth Games if all goes to plan.
