“David Greer. Ring 12.”
I put on my gi and made my way from the
hot and stuffy bracketing room into the not-so-stuffy, but still hot,
gymnasium. Ring 12 was at the far side of the gym where the
Caveirinha Jiu-Jitsu Family (CJJF) had settled in the bleachers.
Good, I could get my water from my bag and have a drink before my
match.
My division (age 30-39, 160-169.9 lbs)
had 9 people in it, way more than I was expecting. Since there was an
odd number of people, my first match would decide who would face the
odd guy out of the bracket. I was first up. I had been thinking of
this match all week. Debated with myself if I should pull guard or go
for a take down at the onset. The way I figured it, I'm more
comfortable fighting from the bottom with my opponent in my full
guard. But, lately I've been getting my guard passed a lot in
training and I really struggle recovering once my guard gets passed.
So what to go for? I decided that I would go for the take down and
fight for top position because if I get the take down I'll get some
points.
There I stood in the middle of the ring
waiting for my opponent to be called. I could hear friends and
teammates cheer me on. Clinton's and Kim's voices stood out. Grateful
to to have some supporters, I took some deep breaths, feebly tried to
calm my nerves, and focus on the fight.
My opponent came out. He was about the
same size as me, a little shorter. I quickly noticed that his gi was
on a little loose. Perfect for a collar-drag take down. We shook
hands and the match began. I pawed at his collar once but couldn't
get a good grip on it. He batted my hand away but not before I
loosened his gi just a little bit more. He tried to grab at me but I
swatted his hand away. I reached for his collar again and this time I
had a good grip. I immediately went for the collar-drag and nailed
it. When I grabbed the single-leg my opponent was already on his
back. I quickly pounced on him to keep him on his back. Only thing is
that I didn't clear the leg I was holding so I ended up in my
opponent's half-guard. But I scored 2 points for the take down.
I put as much pressure on the guy as I
could hoping that he'd open his guard a little and give me room to
move around him. But it didn't happen. When his guard was open, he
had a grip on my ankle and I couldn't move. As soon as he let it go I
made a move but he was ready for it and scrambled away. I tried to
bull-fight but couldn't quite get the grips I needed to really press
his legs into the ground. I also gave up too much space with my hips.
I think I even heard Clinton and Clint calling for me to get my hips
down. But every time I tried to pass the guard my opponent had enough
room to get a leg in the way and block me. I definitely gave up too
much space.
Eventually I went back down onto my
knees with double-under grips. I do pretty well with guard passing
from double-under grips but my opponent didn't stay still and scooted
back to keep me from pulling him toward me like I wanted to do. Also
I was really, really tired. The build up of nerves and the adrenaline
rush had me gasping for air. So I took a few deep breaths while
slowly adjusting my grips on his collar and the other on the back of
his leg.
When I began to move again my opponent
shifted and tried to get me off balance but I was able to post out on
a leg and keep my base. I abandoned the double-under grips, my arms
were getting tired, and stood to attempt another bull-fight pass.
Same result. I just couldn't get around his guard and my opponent
managed to get me in his full guard.
I felt gassed. More tired than I
thought I'd be. I didn't move much so my opponent began to attack my
right arm. He tried to grab it and set up an armbar attack but I
pressured down and stacked him. The attack was well defended so I
held my opponent in that spot just to make him uncomfortable. Being
balanced on your head with somebody pressing down on you isn't all
that pleasant. It wasn't long until he let my arm go.
With time winding down my opponent
started trying anything. He tried to hip bump, tried attacking my arm
again but I was able to keep my base and stay safe. At the very last
second my opponent scrambled enough to knock me off balance and I
fell to my side. But before my opponent could finish the sweep and
try to control the position, time expired. I won by a score of 2-0.
I couldn't believe how tired I was.
Gasping for air, dry throat, and sore arms. My grip strength was
gone. I got some water and tried to shake out my arms. I got a 15
minute break and then it was time to get back on the mat for my
second fight.
When my second opponent stepped on the
mat one thing struck me: this dude was built like a tank. Shorter
than me but he looked like he could bench press a car. The strength
advantage was undoubtedly his. Usually I rely on my conditioning to
overcome stronger guys but I was already exhausted from my first
fight and my opponent was fresh, he hadn't fought yet being the odd
man out. Nothing I could do about it so we shook hands and got to it.
We battled for collar grips. I wanted
to go for an inside leg trip. When I got a hold of his collar and his
sleeve I tried to pull him toward me and step into him. But when I
pulled, he barely moved and just as I began to step forward he picked
up my leg. I hopped around on one leg and held my balance for a
little bit looking for a way to counter him. I felt that I was losing
my balance so I decided to go to my back and pull him into my full
guard before he fully dictated the take down.
The guy's strength was ridiculous. I
tried to push his arm across my chest. It didn't move. I tried to
break his posture down. He didn't move. I timed a sit up sweep when
he leaned back and barely nudged the guy. All I was able to do was
get a grip on his collar. I heard Jordan somewhere calling for me to
keep that grip so I did. With that grip and the length of my legs, I
was able to keep the guy in my full guard.
At one point I felt that his wrist was
a little loose so I pushed it between my legs and attacked a
triangle. He powered out of it with no problem (did I mention this
guy was strong?). In hindsight I should have yanked him down toward
me as soon as I shot my legs up. It might have been able to keep him
close and I may have been able to really attack the triangle. But I
didn't, and he got out.
After he escaped my left foot was on
his hip and my right foot was free so I decided to go for a quick
tripod sweep. But when I kicked him back, my opponent maintained his
balance by grabbing my pants...and as a result my pants were pulled
down. That kind of shocked me so I abandoned the sweep in order to
keep my pants from going all the way down past my knees. A short
scramble ensued and I pulled him into half-guard. Not one of my
favorite places to be.
I tried to get into deep half-guard and
get under the guy as best I could before he began setting anything
up. I wormed my way underneath the guy but he felt heavy...and
strong. I was really tired at this point. I heard Jordan call out to
grab his foot. What foot? Visibility isn't too good when your head is
buried in a guy's crotch and I couldn't see where anything was.
Anyway, I reached out to grab a foot and there it was!
While I quickly tried to set up a
sweep, my opponent kicked his foot free and spun. I grabbed onto a
leg and moved with him and transitioned into turtle position. I
stayed there for a moment expecting him to try to spin to my back. I
was thinking I'd follow him when he spun and scramble out. But he
didn't move. Fine by me. I reached for his knees, drove forward, got
my shoulder to his chest, then pulled his knees out and was able to
get my opponent on his back. I figured I just scored 2 points for the
sweep.
There was a small opening and I quickly
went to knee-on-belly. I tried to press my knee down and pull him up
into me to keep the guy down but he's really damn strong...have I
mentioned that enough? He began to scramble so I tried to sneak my
leg across and get to full mount but it didn't work. The guy was able
to catch my leg in half-guard. Feeling completely gassed again, I
feebly tried to circle around and pass his guard but I only managed
to move right into his full guard.
Out of breath, I glanced at the score.
It was 2-2. I needed to pass his guard to win. I broke my opponent's
guard open relatively easily and stood to try a bull-fight pass. But
I had very little energy and couldn't get it done. The match ended
with me back in his full guard. The score was 2-2. In these
situations the ref chooses a winner or, if he feels the match was
close, he can call for a 2 minute overtime. I was hoping he'd give me
the win since I ended the match on top but my opponent got the nod. A
fair decision. He controlled the top position for the majority of the
match. Plus he may have had an advantage point for controlling me in
a cross-faced half-guard but I'm not sure. Either way, it was a good
fight.
A quick lesson learned: Remember to
hold the position and get your points. I told myself going into the
tournament that if I found myself in a position that gets awarded
points to hold it and count to 5. You need to hold a position for 3
seconds to get points so I figured if I count to 5 the ref would
surely get to 3 and the points would be mine. Yeah, I didn't do that.
Knee-on-belly is worth 2 points, but when looking at video of my
fight I only held it for a count of 2. I missed out on the points
that could have won me the match.
Also, I didn't follow my own plan. I
like knee-on-belly. If I got there the plan was to hold it and
pressure down to tire out my opponent. Then when I did get that
position I let it go because a strong opponent began to scramble.
Maybe I was psyched out by his strength, nerves got to me, or I tried
to do too much when thinking I could sneak into full mount. Whatever
the case, I missed out on an opportunity to take control of the
fight.
I'm happy with my performance and very
grateful for the support. I could hear Clint, Jordan, and Clinton
from the side and tried to follow their advice as best I could.
Thanks to you all for the help. You got me through my first
competition at blue belt and helped me get my first win in
competition.
One thing that struck me about
competing was how utterly exhausting it was, mostly due to the
adrenaline rush. My conditioning will need to be more tailored for
explosiveness and recovery in order to cope with this. Even though my
second opponent was really damn strong, our match was still
competitive. I don't think I need to increase my strength much. I put
conditioning over strength anyways.
As for the rest of the tournament, CJJF
got kind of beat up especially in the no-gi competition. Several
knees got tweaked leaving teammates limping and one guy got his elbow
dislocated. But we had some victories too. Brandon, Steel, Chris,
Chris and Randy took gold and there were a few silver and bronze
winners.
 |
| Brandon, on his way to gold...always smiling |
A couple highlights. First is Clinton's
no-gi fight. He came up short on points but he had the most
action-packed fight I saw that day. He threatened with a triangle
choke for a good portion of the fight, escaped several good leg
attacks, and launched a few leg attacks of his own. It was a fight to
the end and congrats for putting on such a great display after just a
few short weeks back from injury. Then there's Brandon. He took gold
in the adult blue belt division...he's 16. And he had a smile on his
face the whole time. Nicely done!
CJJF was well represented at this NAGA.
There were lots of competitors and supporters alike. It was difficult
to walk 10 feet without seeing a CJJF shirt or logo. It's great to be
part of a team with such a strong sense of camaraderie to the school
and to Professor Caveirinha. Congrats to all the medal winners and
all that competed! See ya back on the mats!
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