So...I lost. My opponent was very tough...toughest I've ever fought (sorry Nemeis), but beatable. I had the bye so I had the (mis)fortune(??) of watching him DESTROY his first opponent by bow and arrow choke after being up 10-0. Here's my recap of our fight:
Within 30secs or so I executed my game plan. I fed him my left collar and stepped forward slightly with my left foot. When he gripped my left collar I cross-gripped with my left hand and defended against his left grip. Stepped right, stepped left, then drop...seoi nage. It felt perfect. Hmmm... But he based out and resisted the throw. A friend watching fom the stands said folks around him yelled "woah" and couldn't believe he didn't go over. I think I know what happened. I didn't drop to my toes like Master Saulo shows in his DVD. I dropped flat on my ankles and, as a result, lost leverage to finish the take down. But...whenever I try to drop to my toes I get cramps or worse (stubbed toes). Besides...dropping to ankles always worked before. Well, this is Pans and my opponent had game. My guess he has a rassling background 'cause his base was ace.
He recovered well and I found myself on my side, modified turtle. Advantage him. Fortunately I'm VERY comfortable defending from that position. I worked my way back to open guard then began to execute my bottom game. Not sure why, but I was a bit surprised how long it took me to sink my spider guard and begin sweep/attack attempts. Finally set the left leg spider/bicep after three attempts I got the sweep off a pass (my bread and butter). I almost swept him twice and thought for sure I'd got an advantage, but alas, no. After the sweep I was up 2-0 and down an advantage.
Around here my memory got blurry. I recall being in his open guard and knowing exactly what to do to pass, but thinking, "that would take too much effort... burn too much energy." So I sat there waiting for him to make a move. YES... I was that guy. Up on points and stalling. He closed his guard. I sat in closed guard for what seemeed like forever...yup...still stalling. I stood up in an attempt to open his guard and he attempted a muscle sweep. Nope... I fell, but stuffed it.
Twice I remember being in guard and/or half-guard and knowing what to do to pass but not having the mental prowess to do anything about it. I felt like I almost passed guard twice, but didn't have the chutzpah to finish.
At some point he opened his guard and stood up. I half-heartedly defended and could have put him back on his arse, but i chose the lazy route...I reverted to my training. I'm comfortable on my back so I went with it. I laid back and played guard.
WRONG MOVE. Not only did he get 2pts for the "sweep" he got me in heavy top half with 30-45secs remaining. Down an advantage I knew I'd lost. I had no mojo to fight from bottom before the Ref called time. I lost.
Twice during the match I recall mentally telling myself: "you don't want this enough...you don't deserve it.". So, yes, I could have won. But didn't. Because I didn't want it bad enough.
The End (for Now?)
2 days ago
every division but black seems to be full of winners whose bjj is a belt level above what they wear. ive fought purples who had to buy a new belt due to theirs being sooooo old and worn out. nice.....
ReplyDeletesorry you had a tough match mentally. it will get better.
Nemesis here, just wanted to say this match sounds epic! The lessons one takes from competition are ultimately pretty personal, but from reading your description, this result seems to validate your jiujitsu quite a bit. Recovering full guard and avoiding hooks from turtle is tricky (for me), and getting a sweep from open is huge. And having been on the receiving end of your drop seoi nage, I can verify that this guy had excellent base/ superhuman scramble if he didn't go straight over.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think no can fault you for conserving energy in the guy's guard when you potentially had 2 more hard matches ahead of you. It's his job to keep things moving if he's behind, you know?
Anyway, thanks for posting this, stuff like this is so fun to read. I can't believe how much you remember from your match, as mine tend to be big blurs where all I remember is panicking/ not panicking. Now go get 'em in Phoenix!
Sorry the formatting was all jacked with typos. I wrote that on my i-pad as I was halfway falling asleep and I didn't know the paragraph breaks didn't turn out.
ReplyDelete@Rowdy: The two guys who made finals were really good. Both had old looking belts and one with four stripes. But they weren't scary good. So I'm looking forward to next year when I'll be the salty old Blue vet with a 2.5yr old belt. Maybe I'll buy me a shiny new one before comp time. ;-)
@Nemesis: Thanks for catching the post. When did I catch you with a drop seoi nage? Hmm... I recall botching it in our division fight about a year ago. I too am surprised how much I remember from the fight. It was quite a blur, but just because I remember something doesn't mean it really went down that way. :-) (e.g., the aforementioned fight a year ago when I thought I remembered getting two points for a half guard sweep and I had no idea you got two points on my botched drop seoi nage.)
Fellow NOLABJJ blue-belted, 40-suthn diaspora here, homie.
ReplyDelete"I recall being in his open guard and knowing exactly what to do to pass, but thinking, "that would take too much effort... burn too much energy." So I sat there waiting for him to make a move. YES... I was that guy."
^ I think I know that guy too well...his name is..."fellow NOLABJJ...diaspora."
I had the same problem in my match at CF, i.e. playing too much like in the gym, being half-committed competitively. My thought about it is that next time, closer to tournament time, I need to train a little less like an older guy protecting myself from injury and a little more like an older guy going a faster speed and finding my spots to be a little more high intensity. At least you don't seem to have the same problem as me, as far as your game not being geared to a tournament format. Cool thing is, after you compete, you know what to change (e.g., in my case, I need to change the type of half-guard I play completely -- probably you noticed that). I learned more from losing when I should have won that I likely would have if I'd won.
"I learned more from losing when I should have won that I likely would have if I'd won." Exactly. That's why I firmly believe that "To Play is to Win." Those of us who put it on the line are better for the experience. Thanks for the encouragement Paulo.
ReplyDelete