First Tournament: Recap

Gracie Barra Southeast Regional Compnet held in New Orleans yesterday. My first tournament and I went in knowing that I won just by showing up because, in BJJ like many other things in life, To Play is to Win. Congrats to all my NOLA BJJ teammates for a job well done. Competitors will take a new energy and confidence into their training and will make the academy better for the experience.

I registered as a Master (30-35 yrs old) White Belt, Heavy Division (195-207.5). Weighed in at 205.2lbs. The tourney organizers put me and a Senior Heavy (36+) in the Adult Division (18-29) to make 5 total competitors, 2 of which (Henry Marrion and Cleveland Johnson) are from NOLA BJJ and I know well. We all competed Gi and No Gi. Well...No Gi sort of. For some reason they made everyone where gi pants and we were allowed to grip the pants. No clue why.

First...the results: Silver Gi and Silver No Gi. Won 3 and lost both finals to Cleveland Johnson. Cleveland's a monster of a man (~6'3" and 8-9% body fat) and one of the nicest training partners. Dominating performances. I couldn't be happier for him.

With Professor Matthias

Hardware notwithstanding, the matches weren't pretty. Frankly, I was lucky to make the finals. Made many mistakes and found myself on defense a lot. Rarely on the attack. Frequently in turtle. Friends took video, but the matches aren't very entertaining. I've posted them for posterity and so that one day when I'm much better I can look back and see how much I've improved (And how much my butt shrinks. These vids prove my arse is huge and I can easily lose another 15lbs to make Medium-Heavy by the next tourney.).

Gi match #1 vs. NOLA BJJ training partner Henry Marrion. The match was very close. Henry's strong, fast, and knows some Judo. Gameplan = pull guard. The successful guard pull was enough to settle nerves. That led to a Sweep off a Pass. Henry did an excellent job establishing guard after the sweep. That sweep usually lands me in side control. I attempted a pass that Professor Marco taught at last week's pre-tourney seminar, but Henry countered well and reversed. He pressed hard for a pass and got to half guard. A failed deep half sweep left me in turtle. Rolled from turtle to recover guard, but almost got passed. Thank goodness for half guard. Eeked out the win, 2-0.

Gi semi-final against an opponent from another school. I never got his name. 2 points on the take down Gavin taught last week. Landed in guard. Opponent had a weak guillotine but let go: (a) it was weak to begin with; and (b) for some reason White Belts weren't allowed to guillotine at this tourney. Had posture problems the entire time in his guard. Finally got the break and almost passed, but opponent recovered nicely. Finally got the pass. Video shows my hips were WAY too high for too long. Part of the reason was the attempted bait for a step over choke. But that only explains part of the problem. Opponent had a nice bridge and reversed. I bailed to turtle and he started to attack the back. I defended the hook and choke attempts to keep the points off the board. He transitioned to mount, but didn't have it long enough to get the points. I escaped to his closed guard. Posture busted...again. Geez. Made it to half guard and the time ran out. 5-0 victory.

Final against Cleveland. Cleve had a bye his first round and won his second by submission within a couple minutes. I thought maybe fatigue would be an issue, but it wasn't an issue at all. I could tell from the moment we squared off that he wanted the win...badly. I could see it in his eyes. Fierce. Before the match, Mike (Purple Belt) predicted he'd pull guard. He did. Posture problems at first, but I broke his guard. Cleve immediately switched to attempt a scissor/knee push sweep. I based out well enough and he stood up. I tried to grab a single leg, but he based out and forced me to turtle. Rolled to recover guard, but that failed. Back to turtle. Then defended arm attacks and prevented hooks. Recovered half guard. He went for arm bar. Escaped to his butterfly guard. Butterfly pass attempt failed and Cleve recovered closed guard. My defense of his kimura attempt allowed him to escape to stand up.

Ok... 2:30 seconds in score is 0-0 and we're both standing.

He pulled guard again. Posture a wreck...what's new? Broke guard and Cleve went straight to a scissor / knee push sweep attempt. I countered and almost passed, but he reversed. Hips ended up over his hips and my busted posture led to his sweep to side control. Down 0-5. He attempted a step over choke, but my back was flat and he had nothing. The attempt did force me to turn away from him, since I knew he needed me to turn into him to finish. Cleve responded with knee on my side. The ref gave another 2 pts. Is that right? Doesn't he have to have my back flat on the mat and knee on belly to earn those points? 0-7. He attempted another step over and began to transition to an arm bar. I set up for the arm bar escape and managed to reverse to half guard. Passed to side control. FINALLY some points! 3-7. Secured side control and went for knee on belly. Whoops! Didn't have a chance. Reversed to side control. 3-9. Cleveland wanted to finish! Attacked a kimura from side control. Fortunately my right arm is fairly flexible. I wasn't really threatened and I almost reversed out when the table called time. Congrats Cleveland.

I am so glad I signed up for No Gi at the last minute. After 15 minutes of competition, I wasn't done. With only a single one-hour No Gi class, I didn't know what to expect. I put on my gi shorts only to find out they were making us wear gi pants and our belts. Huh? Seriously? Ok... I was worried that I'd get DQ'd because I'd reflexively grab my opponent's gi pants. Found out only moments before we started that grabbing/holding gi pants was ok. Huh?

I got a bye the first round so I faced PJ Clement, one of Shawn Gayton's students, in the semi-final. Shawn's a NOLA BJJ Purple Belt and MMA fighter who recently started a Gracie Barra academy in Mandeville, LA. After the match, Shawn told me PJ's only been training a couple months. Wow! He did great. Almost caught me in a gator roll choke on my take down attempt. I started gurgling and began to ask myself, "At what point do I need to tap?" Calm down...think... I realized that if I moved to my left it would create a lot of pressure on the right side of my neck but allow blood flow on my left carotid. Once sure I was completely safe I let him continue to crank knowing he had to be expending far more energy attacking than I was defending. He eventually let go. Must have earned an advantage.

I missed an opportunity to cross face and get him flat on his back. You can hear Professor Doc Eddie on the video yelling "Cross face, cross face, cross face!" Of course, I couldn't hear any of that. Shouldn't have needed to though. Somehow managed to force PJ to turtle and the ref (Professor Marco) had us reset. I transitioned to take his back and briefly sunk both hooks. Marco gave me 4 pts. I don't know...did I really have both hooks secured long enough? PJ escaped and next thing I know I'm fighting from my side in open guard, almost half guard-ish. Forced to turtle. Worked out but got rolled into guard. Closed guard and worked to break his posture. PJ eventually broke my guard and stood up. Then...the most awesome move ever. I instinctively transition to spider guard. Almost ended up in disaster. Time called. Ugly 4-0 victory. Had it not been for those two hooks, I probably would have lost by advantage. Perhaps the greatest quote ever caught on camera from a victor's corner - Professor Doc Eddie: "Ok, Rick. No spider guard in No Gi." Hilarious.

Faced Cleveland in the final (again). He forced me to turtle turned my botched single leg takedown attempt. He forced me over and almost took side control, but left full guard recovery wide open. I'll take that, thank you! He reached back for a guard break and all I could think was, "Triangle? Triangle?" I released and shot right as he stacked me over. Rolled to turtle, rolled a bit more, and Cleve sunk a deep RNC. I wasn't choking, but he was so freaking strong my spine cracked from neck to tail bone. I felt paralyzed. I had a free hand but I couldn't tap. I started to panic. Marco was looking right into my eyes and I was saying, "I can't tap, I can't tap." Huh? Although I couldn't get my brain to tell my hand to tap. And rather than yelling tap, I was freaking out because I couldn't physically tap. Finally Marco called it off. Whew. That sucked. Never felt anything like that before. Never want to again. My neck was stiff the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening. Feels just as sore as the rest of my body today though, so I don't think I have a serious injury. Double Whew.

Lessons Learned:

#1. Just have fun. It's about the experience. No matter the outcome.

#2. Although I competed and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I'm not a competitor. Cleveland wanted the wins much more than I did. I saw it in his pre-match prep and could see it in his eyes before we squared off. Although I know his jiu jitsu is better than mine, I lost those matches before we started. Cleveland is a true competitor. If I ever want to be a true competitor, I'll need to change my entire approach and get much more serious.

#3. No gi is a different world. I need to visit this world more so it doesn't feel so foreign.

#4. My cardio and conditioning ain't half bad for an old guy. I had no problem with the 22 minutes of competition. My grips were fine too. No issues whatsover. Had it not been for the RNC, I probably could have fought many more matches before failing from fatigue.

#5. My game is much more limited than thought. So much of the game I imagined I had in me did not show up for the tournament.