There and Back

In the basement of a small yoga studio, there were six people ready to fight each other. There were mats taped on the wall and different coloured mats on the floor all patched together to create a feeling of a (literal) underground martial arts tournament.

My wife came with me. She was a great coach, manager, and cheerleader.

I won one match my walk-over (which means my opponent didn’t show up so it’s basically a participation win) and lost four matches by submission; an arm bar, a rear naked choke, a straight ankle lock, and a D’Arce choke.

Put your hand up if you want to see some pictures of me getting submitted?

Wow that’s a lot of hands. OK the people have spoken, here you go:

It’s cool to see people, sharing photos of their wins, having their hands raised, and having the medals around their neck, standing in the middle of the podium.

But more people should show pictures of themselves getting submitted. It shows a side of BJJ that people need to see. The struggle. The growth. The journey. Not to mention it’s also kind of funny.

So what did I learn from this submission only tournament?

I learned I need better cardio. I felt better after the second and third and fourth match. But the first one as soon as I touched the guy I knew it was gonna be a tough match. He felt stronger and I felt gassed really soon into the match.

I learned I need to work on standing hand-fighting and pummeling. I was out matched when it came to hand-fighting and trying to get under hooks or over hooks. My head got pushed around a lot.

I learned I need to just make a move. I was hesitant on trying to do a takedown, although I had many opportunities to do a double leg and finish a single leg, but for some reason I gave up too soon. Perhaps my fear of injury had something to do with it. Basically, I need to learn to attack more often and just go for it.

Overall it was a good experience. Looking to do another comp in October in my city. Better start training now.