"Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs." - Gloria Clemente
I found out about the Lutador Grappling Tournament on Wed 9/15/10. It is about a mile from where I work and 15 miles from my house. Usually the tournaments in the Atlanta area are at least an hour away. I haven't been training for a grappling tournament, only helping some beginners with their BJJ, I have mostly been focusing on my boxing. For some reason I decide on Thurs 9/16/10 to compete on Saturday 9/18/10.
A wrestling coach friend of mine came over to help me with take downs on Thurs and I did some rolling with my brother in law, that was all the preparation I had.
I had not competed since 2006, with a tear in my meniscus, and a broken rib limiting my training.
I have always had issues with competition, psyching myself out even after I already won...my body even finds ways to get me out of competing.
To start, I had some morning BATHROOM issues starting on Wed up until Sat. I had only been rolling for 3 min rounds for months, but the tournament rounds would be 5 mins for my division. Just thinking about it made be tired.
Despite this, I sucked it up and went to weigh in on Fri, coming in at 178lbs for the Middle Weight: 168-180.9lbs division. I ate like crazy and rehydrate on Fri night, so on Sat morning I weighed 185lbs again.
I wake up Sat @ 9AM, my wife made me 5 hard boiled eggs and a cup of noodle soup. I take a hot shower, get my stuff together and head over. My wife, my 2 kids, and my wife's brother accompany me.
We arrive at the Cobb Civic Center @ 10:30am, I check the brackets for my opponent (only 3 others in my group, yeah!), and watch some matches. At 11:30am, the masters division competitors are called to the "Bull Pen" for role call and warm ups.
I get a little running in place in and then look for the competitors in my division. I meet one of the four guys in my group and we start chatting.
After a few mins of talking about where we are from and train at, I mention that we may meet up in the finals and with he very sad and sincere look on his face, he says "Oh don't say that.". I tell him that there are only 4 of us, so there is a good chance we will meet up.
It starts getting really hot, so I excuse myself and get a drink, then role call starts. There are about 50 of us, only 20 paying attention, and only 5 that can actually hear what the teenager with the clip board is saying.
After mass chaos, a purple belt tells me my group is at ring 5. When I get there, I am told we are going to ring 1, so I find my competition and we head to the ring.
I am in the first match with a guy I didn't get to talk to. I recognize the referee from Gracie Barra and we have a brief conversation, then we are called on to the mat.
As the ref is reminding my opponent and myself of the rules, my nerves start to kick in. I feel as if everyone in the place is looking at me, but I feel totally alone. This seems like a long time, but was probably only about 1 min.
When the match starts, it sounds like I am in a tunnel or under water, I can barely hear everyone else. We start the first match by dropping our levels, circling each other while trying to get a hold of a lapel or sleeve. I grab his left lapel with my right hand and then his right sleeve with my left hand. My plan was to work on my feet to get a foot sweep or hip throw, but he had other plans. He did a hard down block with his left forearm on my right arm as we were moving towards each other and bent my wrist backwards. I start to feel pins and needles in my forearm and my grip gets week. A bit of panic sets in, so I change my plan, put my left foot on his hip and pull guard. When I get down on the mat and pull him down, he steps forward with his right leg and grabs my pants at the knees. I grab his right foot with my left hand, grab his right sleeve with my right hand, put my right foot on his right hip and use a Tomahawk sweep to take him down. It worked! I control his right leg and move to his right side, he blocks, so I quick pass to the other side. All that happened in the first min because as I settle down in side control and look up, my brother in law smiles and say 4 mins left. I curse to myself as I am already tired and my right forearm is throbbing. I spend the rest of the match on his side, moving to knee on belly once, and going for chokes, Americanas, and Kamuras. I had a hard time grabbing him with my right hand and he was very strong, so I did enough to stay busy but could not submit him. During the match I say out loud, "This is the longest 5 mins ever." and he says "No kidding" and then the ref says, "I was just thinking the same thing", so we all have a chuckle. I have this moment in a pic that I will post. The match finally ends and I win 10-0. Phew, it's over.
I watch the second match and the guy that I thought would win lost by submission to the first guy I spoke with. They both seemed to go 100 mph and use a lot of strength. Neither of which I could do at the moment. So the guy that didn't want us to face each other won.
There is a 5 min break, then the match for third place starts behind the guy that just lost and the guy I beat. The guy I beat loses by arm bar in another full throttle wrestling match, I get more tired just watching. I feel bad for the guy that lost, he drove from AL, a couple hours away and now he leaves empty handed. Hopefully he has learned something from his experience. We get 2 mins, then the final match takes place.
I am trying not to look tired or show that I can barely make a fist with my right hand. We are called to the center of the ring/mat for the match. Starts of the same way as the first, trying to get a hand hold. Crap, he gets the first grab and does a good job preventing my grab. I final get a hold of him and we start to dance. I decide to give him a couple tugs on his gi, which turns out to be a bad idea because he pulls me harder. I figure out quickly that I am soo out of shape, so I pull guard again. This time it doesn't work out as well as I can't hold on to his gi with my right hand. He passed my guard standing and tries to get knee on belly, but I bring my knees in, so his knee lands next to me chest. He stands behind me with his hands on my knees while I am blocking his knee and holding his leg with my other hand. He tried to move, trips and we scramble with me coming up and him on his back. This is my chance, I go to pass his guard with the same technique, but he throws his other leg over my back which feels like a ton. This stops me for a sec in which time he gets closed guard, darn. He attempts a couple of arm bars and triangle choke, but I defend well. I decide to use the old Judo choke for the guard to get out, but I am really hoping he taps. I doesn't tap, but opens his guard to give me another try at passing. I have a pic of this that I will post. It tuns in to a scramble with me on my back and him in my open guard. There is a min left and neither of us have scored, but he has 1 advantage. I have his sleeves and he has my pants, but he makes a mistake puts both of his feet near my but. I grab both of his ankle and try to sweep him. He tried to defend and I have to lift him with my legs and finally put him on his back. The problem was that he didn't pull me with him and I was too tired to sit up to establish position, so I didn't get any points. He goes for an ankle, we scramble, he ends up on his back, I am am in his guard, and get stuck in a arm bar. He didn't have a hold of my wrist, he was pulling on my bicep, so I was able to defend, but my gi was wrapped around my head covering my face and I couldn't breath. I take the chance of using my free hand to move my gi while he is giving the arm bar hell. I remember thinking "I can't wait for this to be over" and then it was. I stand up first even though I am exhausted and the ref hold up the hand of the other guy. The score was 0-0 with each of us have 1 advantage. The ref explains that he gave the match to the other guy because he had more submission attempts than I did, but said I was so close to getting points had I got up on that sweep. Salt on the wound.
All in all it was a great experience and motivated me to get back to competing. I was a little disappointed that I lost, but more disappointed that I got gassed so bad. Still, it was my technique that saved me from getting submitted or even scored on. The bigger positive is that I over came my fear of competing and didn't let any excuses stop me. I have been working on my open guard and was very happy that it paid off and I didn't have to close my guard at all.
Until next tournament....have a safe journey!
