First Tournament Results

Well,  last weekend I competed in my First tournament and I had an absolute blast despite being really nervous.I was so nervous, I thought I was going to throw up on the way to Myrtle Beach and while I was weighing in at the tournament.

I made it through the weigh ins at 213lbs, which is where I wanted to be and started looking at the competition that had signed up, only 3 people in my division. One of which was, Billy, another white belt from my school. He and I would square off against each other in the 200-225lb division and have several matches to boot.

Billy lost his first match by points, and that set me up to go against my first opponent.We squared off and slapped hands and the crowd went silent. My heart beat was echoing in my ears and my breathing was erratic. I kept trying to get the take down, and pulled a very sloppy guard. There was a back and forth exchange of positions and we ended up back on our feet. I managed to grab a leg and get the single leg take down. I tried several kimuras from the top and got swept. He left his arm in and ended up getting him in a triangle. After watching the video and getting some feedback from everyone at my school, I missed several opportunities earlier in the match to go for a triangle.

I was on an high as I rolled into gi and submitted the same guy with a triangle I had submitted in no-gi. Then Billy and I faced off, there were several reversals back and forth. He got me in an Omaplata and rolled out and got side control. Eventually I caught my friend in a key lock and won the match by submission to take 1st in Gi. Do not worry Billy got his revenge on me in the Absolute white belt

  Going into white belt absolute, I was more nervous for this division. I ended up going against a guy that was about 175lbs and who seemed to me to be the Flash, disguised as a white belt. He was all over me and I could not shake him. He had my back and racked nice cushion of lead of 9-0. I ended up trying to escape and forgot to block his leg and ended up in a triangle. Ironic, huh?

Then Billy came back, and took third place in absolute, by defeating with an arm bar submission. By this point my cardio was shot and I was tired and hungry.

I ended up with 2 first place finishes and a not so bad showing in absolute for my first time. Overall, I am proud to have finished like I did. I never would have thought that I would have ever got enough nerve and would have ever been this physically ready to do something like this. I have exceeded a goal and met my biggest fear by doing this tournament. Now, unfortunately, I have the bug and I want to compete again! Congratulations to Billy, for a great showing in his first tournament!

Things to work on before my tournament:
1) Cardio- Back to Crossfit and Rolling more
2) Game plan- Get one and use it
3) BREATH!!!!
4) Drill my escapes over and over
5)Do the best I can, and learn from what I did wrong

Any and all feedback is welcome and let me know your thoughts on my performance or any tips that you would give me to work on for my next tournament. 

No-gi Sunday!

Today was Sunday, and just like any other Sunday a couple of us got together for some No gi rolling. Now if you remember from my post I don't know what to do with my hands... , I was struggling a little bit with grips and hand placement. So today I took my camera back to the gym to get some footage of how my rolls went.

My hand placement and death grip was little better today. I also gripped behind the head and triceps a lot more. I was really shocked that I got so many arm drags, when I just added that to my drilling a couple weeks ago. I was so stunned, I almost let them regain their balance as I stood in awe at my arm drag.

I was able to get the Kimura a couple of times and I also nailed a couple of arm drags and was able to get a submission by rear naked choke. I have also been using what I call a modified De La Riva sweep, and it is pretty high percentage sweep, but I have not perfected the transition to top or side mount yet.

I also noticed I was playing the half guard a lot, I guess that is my old faithful when I get in trouble. I feel like I am getting lazy in half guard and not trying to get out of trouble.I need to try and improve my half guard sweeps to better my position and get out of trouble.

I did however get caught in a couple triangles back to back. This was because I was sleeping and was not paying attention to my arms, because I was trying to work a pass or something. I ended up in his guard and swam one arm under his leg and he immediately broke my posture and boom! Triangle City!

We ended up doing 10 rounds of sparring, 4:00 minute rounds(No one knew how to work the gym boss to reset the timer-lol). I have a lot of video to watch and I am hoping to do a breakdown of it and see where a lot of my holes are.

I enjoy doing no gi it totally changes the aspects of the game. It does make me think a lot more, and makes me try new things. How does everyone else feel about no gi? Please leave comments and feedback below, all are greatly appreciated.