Today was my first tournament, the South Bay Open down at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The tournament itself was great, well-run with committed competitors and organizers alike. You could tell it was a tournament put on by practitioners rather than people looking to make a buck. I look forward to competing in it next year.
As for my performance, I was disappointed. I thought I was at a certain level, but within a tournament setting it was all for not. I lost both of my matches by submission, the first by a keylock and the second by an arm bar. I would have liked to have won a match in my first tournament, but at least that's a goal that I can train for that's a bit more attainable in the short term than a podium spot.
My first match, I was paired with a guy who easily outweighed me by 25 pounds (I weighed in at 175, so he was at least 190-200) and it showed. I was in the middle weight class (more on that later), which is between 167.5 and 181.5, which I thought was appropriate given my size. I was mistaken. He basically smothered me the entire time and simply weighed too much for me to effectively push him off or compete for position. As most of you know, I'm a pretty strong dude for my size, so you know that if I couldn't get him off of me he had a pretty good size advantage. At this point, I don't have enough finesse in my game to overcome that kind of a weight difference, especially against an equally or more skilled opponent. Needless to say, I was not in a good spot from the start, and never fully recovered during the match. I have a video of the match here:
The second match I was much more evenly paired up size wise (the guy was taller than me, but I didn't feel like he had a ton of size on me), but the guy basically outrolled me. I made a mistake trying to push him off, left and arm hanging for a split second too long, and he took it. I'm cool with that, he beat me fair and square, props to him. The video I have of that match isn't quite so clear, and it's from far away, but here it is anyway:
All in all, the tournament was a great learning experience for me. It was great to finally see the kind of fighters produced by other schools; the new competition certainly highlighted some holes in my game I didn't realize I had (given the fact that all my current training partners learned the same stuff I did). A few lessons to take away from it:
1: First and foremost, this was my first and last time in the middle weight division. I will be dropping down to light (167.5), which means I need to cut weight for my next tournament in August. Not ideal, but gives me a way better chance to succeed since it would put me at the top of the weight class rather than toward the bottom.
2: I really need to work on my stand up game. I had a hard time going for take downs, which has never been a problem for me in practice. I need to really evaluate exactly why that is.
3: The tournament setting is way more nerve wracking than I anticipated. I need to calm down and treat it like just another roll. I think I got too excited, lost my focus, and that caused me to make mistakes.
4: Don't compete if I have anything important to do that day. Almost didn't make physics tutoring today because I felt like I got mugged. Need to have a total day to devote to just getting back to life; while two rolls may not seem like a lot, consider these were less like practice rolls and more like all out, winner take all, death match rolls. Fighting for the integrity of your bones and continued consciousness is very taxing.
Finally, some shout outs. First, congrats to Ian on grabbing a podium spot. Also, congrats to Jose on 4th and to Khalil on winning his first match. Our school did well today considering we only sent four guys. More good things to come out of this group. Also, thanks to our professor, Rodrigo, for driving up for Irvine at 9am to coach us and to everyone who sent me support before and during. I truly appreciate you all reaching out to me.
And now, time to ice my foot and shoulder and hit the hay.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
This week
Days till tournament: 7
This week was relatively light but yet I was still pretty busted up come the weekend. Amazing what a few bad nights of sleep can do to derail recovery. Here's how it all went down this week:
Tuesday: BJJ
Hit the advanced class and the rolling after. Pretty standard stuff, worked on a new throw in class. Nothing super spectacular about this one save for me getting completely flipped over the top of my partner's head instead of sideways like I was supposed to. Quite the surprise for me once I realized how exactly I was about to meet the ground.
Wednesday: Private BJJ and CrossFit
In the private session, we went over a variety of attacks from positions and otherwise just cleaned up/reviewed some general things worth rehashing as knowledge for the tournament. Of note, we got really into depth about the deep half guard, the open half guard, and how to really effectively break a closed guard. I am feeling a lot better about being on the bottom now, so I may start putting myself in that position rather than attack and fight for the top as I do now.
I went to CrossFit later on that night because the private lesson was more skill based than physical, so I was still fresh and ready to rock. The workout was a really cool Tabata, which is one of my favorite types of work outs. This one was programmed as a gym WOD, but it had all the stuff I try to throw in my original WODs for more BJJ specific stuff so I was happy. The workout was:
Tabata:
Balls Slams (30)
Ab Mat Sit Ups
Row (calories)
Ring Rows
DBL walking lunges(35)
Double Unders
I ended up with 403 total reps, which was in the top few finishers of the day. Overall, a solid conditioning workout.
Thursday: BJJ
For the second week in a row, I was forced to hit the rolling first then the fundamentals class. This fundamentals class was a bit more frustrating than the others I've done recently; my partner seemed careless at times and didn't seem to take much away from what I was trying to tell him about how to better execute the positions. I understand he is new, and that's just fine, but when one enters a learning environment one must be willing to learn. Sadly, I think he was looking for a knowledge hand out rather than truly trying to understand. I often am able to learn as much from training with new people as I am experienced people; the questions new people ask about positions force me to expand my knowledge and think outside the box, things that will ultimately make me better. Because this student was not inquisitive and felt like he was just going through the motions, I got very little out of training with him. This is a sad thing that I hope is just an aberration on his part. I'd hate to see him try to get deeper into this tough and demanding sport without the requisite desire to constantly improve.
As for the rest of the week, I took Friday and Saturday off. Sunday I will likely do the WOD I programmed for my Saturday CFMS class. I will post about it if I get around to doing it. Until next time!
This week was relatively light but yet I was still pretty busted up come the weekend. Amazing what a few bad nights of sleep can do to derail recovery. Here's how it all went down this week:
Tuesday: BJJ
Hit the advanced class and the rolling after. Pretty standard stuff, worked on a new throw in class. Nothing super spectacular about this one save for me getting completely flipped over the top of my partner's head instead of sideways like I was supposed to. Quite the surprise for me once I realized how exactly I was about to meet the ground.
Wednesday: Private BJJ and CrossFit
In the private session, we went over a variety of attacks from positions and otherwise just cleaned up/reviewed some general things worth rehashing as knowledge for the tournament. Of note, we got really into depth about the deep half guard, the open half guard, and how to really effectively break a closed guard. I am feeling a lot better about being on the bottom now, so I may start putting myself in that position rather than attack and fight for the top as I do now.
I went to CrossFit later on that night because the private lesson was more skill based than physical, so I was still fresh and ready to rock. The workout was a really cool Tabata, which is one of my favorite types of work outs. This one was programmed as a gym WOD, but it had all the stuff I try to throw in my original WODs for more BJJ specific stuff so I was happy. The workout was:
Tabata:
Balls Slams (30)
Ab Mat Sit Ups
Row (calories)
Ring Rows
DBL walking lunges(35)
Double Unders
I ended up with 403 total reps, which was in the top few finishers of the day. Overall, a solid conditioning workout.
Thursday: BJJ
For the second week in a row, I was forced to hit the rolling first then the fundamentals class. This fundamentals class was a bit more frustrating than the others I've done recently; my partner seemed careless at times and didn't seem to take much away from what I was trying to tell him about how to better execute the positions. I understand he is new, and that's just fine, but when one enters a learning environment one must be willing to learn. Sadly, I think he was looking for a knowledge hand out rather than truly trying to understand. I often am able to learn as much from training with new people as I am experienced people; the questions new people ask about positions force me to expand my knowledge and think outside the box, things that will ultimately make me better. Because this student was not inquisitive and felt like he was just going through the motions, I got very little out of training with him. This is a sad thing that I hope is just an aberration on his part. I'd hate to see him try to get deeper into this tough and demanding sport without the requisite desire to constantly improve.
As for the rest of the week, I took Friday and Saturday off. Sunday I will likely do the WOD I programmed for my Saturday CFMS class. I will post about it if I get around to doing it. Until next time!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Absolutely incredible and inspiring video
I'm not even going to ruin it with my own analysis. Just watch.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Cool Jon Jones video
Check this video out. My buddy Matt sent this my way, and it is definitely worth checking out. I knew Jon Jones was a beast in the octagon, but watching his preparation and what he fights for gives me a newfound respect for him. Enjoy!
The week in review
Days till tournament: 14
So the this week's training has been up and down in quality due to Tuesday's physics final, but luckily I managed to at least get the quantity I wanted. Four days in a row is not an ideal schedule for me (I prefer 5 days with mixed rest if I can get it), but since I went home for the holiday there wasn't much opportunity to do anything else. Here's how it all went down:
Monday: BJJ
Went to a fundamentals class. Since my mind on my physics test, I wasn't totally in the game and I got swept up and down the mat repeatedly. Not happy about it, but it gave me some motivation to push it for the rest of the week.
Tuesday: CrossFit
After taking care of my physics exam, I headed down to CFMS for my buddy Mark's last day coaching. He's off to be a big time Navy officer, so I wish him the best of luck on that. Being pissed off about Monday's mixed performance, I decided to do the programmed WOD instead of my own. I needed a bit of competition to really get me fired up and push me even further. The workout was run 2 laps (~1000m), do 30 muscle ups, and run another 2 laps. Managed a time of 16:26, second best of the day. Definitely happy about the result, especially considering the skill-intensiveness of the movement involved.
Wednesday: BJJ
Sadly, I was unable to do a private session this week so I went to the regular advanced class. Did pretty well, definitely seeing signs that I am improving. We did a lot of work from the mount position, which has been helpful. I have been really working on my arm bar from different positions lately, so getting some dedicated position training from the mount gave me some time to get that going. Long way to go till it's really solid, but I've been able to have success with it a few times recently so hopefully that trend continues.
Thursday: BJJ
Because I didn't get to GBMB by 6, I was unable to take the conditioning class in full. They had odd numbers so I hopped in on the last 20-25 minutes of it to even out the numbers. Proved to be an excellent warm up, which was a nice tangential benefit. I did 30 minutes of rolling and fundamentals class after. I like doing the fundamentals classes from time to time because it gives me a chance to share what I've learned with the newer members. While I am hardly even a baby in BJJ terms, it's nice to be able to help them get better by simply sharing the small number of lessons I've learned.
I hope to get in one more workout Sunday, then take Monday off for the holiday before hitting it hard again come Tuesday.
In other news, I got a new gi for competition (somehow, the idea of competing with my training gi that has my name written on the collar just doesn't sound appealing). I'm excited to wear a gi that doesn't vaguely smell like old sweat and isn't an ever darkening shade of pale yellow. Plus, I have to look fresh in the competition photos!
Until the next post, keep training hard everyone.
So the this week's training has been up and down in quality due to Tuesday's physics final, but luckily I managed to at least get the quantity I wanted. Four days in a row is not an ideal schedule for me (I prefer 5 days with mixed rest if I can get it), but since I went home for the holiday there wasn't much opportunity to do anything else. Here's how it all went down:
Monday: BJJ
Went to a fundamentals class. Since my mind on my physics test, I wasn't totally in the game and I got swept up and down the mat repeatedly. Not happy about it, but it gave me some motivation to push it for the rest of the week.
Tuesday: CrossFit
After taking care of my physics exam, I headed down to CFMS for my buddy Mark's last day coaching. He's off to be a big time Navy officer, so I wish him the best of luck on that. Being pissed off about Monday's mixed performance, I decided to do the programmed WOD instead of my own. I needed a bit of competition to really get me fired up and push me even further. The workout was run 2 laps (~1000m), do 30 muscle ups, and run another 2 laps. Managed a time of 16:26, second best of the day. Definitely happy about the result, especially considering the skill-intensiveness of the movement involved.
Wednesday: BJJ
Sadly, I was unable to do a private session this week so I went to the regular advanced class. Did pretty well, definitely seeing signs that I am improving. We did a lot of work from the mount position, which has been helpful. I have been really working on my arm bar from different positions lately, so getting some dedicated position training from the mount gave me some time to get that going. Long way to go till it's really solid, but I've been able to have success with it a few times recently so hopefully that trend continues.
Thursday: BJJ
Because I didn't get to GBMB by 6, I was unable to take the conditioning class in full. They had odd numbers so I hopped in on the last 20-25 minutes of it to even out the numbers. Proved to be an excellent warm up, which was a nice tangential benefit. I did 30 minutes of rolling and fundamentals class after. I like doing the fundamentals classes from time to time because it gives me a chance to share what I've learned with the newer members. While I am hardly even a baby in BJJ terms, it's nice to be able to help them get better by simply sharing the small number of lessons I've learned.
I hope to get in one more workout Sunday, then take Monday off for the holiday before hitting it hard again come Tuesday.
In other news, I got a new gi for competition (somehow, the idea of competing with my training gi that has my name written on the collar just doesn't sound appealing). I'm excited to wear a gi that doesn't vaguely smell like old sweat and isn't an ever darkening shade of pale yellow. Plus, I have to look fresh in the competition photos!
Until the next post, keep training hard everyone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)