|
|
|
Came home from England today after a great weekend of fun with the guys and lots of good experiences both on and off the mats. We were a total of 13 guys from the team going and had rented a big house with pool and the works. Only thing lacking was the weather, but what can you expect from London in the fall :D
My goal with participating in this competition was to be able to go through the four weeks of preparations and the matches without making my injuries worse. Especially my lower back has been really bad, keeping me off the mats for half a year since I got my black belt in April.
I have been focusing a lot on rehab training and listening to my body, since I started training for the competition, and apart from a slight soreness in my left knee, I felt really good this weekend, when I stepped on the mat.
As it usually is with these competitions, it took a handful of hours of waiting (six to be precise), from I arrived in the hall, till my matches were up. First one was against a very experienced guy, who looked really sharp in his first match. I was almost falling asleep sitting next to the mat and waiting for my turn to have a go at him, but woke up when we clapped hands and the match was on.
It seems like my mind just caught up from where I left before the injury - I felt confident and excited to be competing again, there were zero nerves and I was on my toes from the first minute. Competing as a black belt is something I have imagined how would be for more than a decade of training. It was exciting to feel like the underdog, the white belt, bottom of the food chain, trying to beat a bigger fish with nothing to lose. I looked at my opponent and knew, that he was also just a human being like me - two arms and two legs. There was nothing he could do, that I couldn't learn as well.
Unfortunately, that first match ended way too soon, as we tried for a takedown and hurt his knee. Apparently, he had a knee injury two weeks earlier and it was a bit dodgy. He must have gotten caught in the moment and gone for that takedown anyways. Really a shame - I hope I'll have the chance to compete against him another time.
Second match was against a guy I knew a bit, since we stayed in the same house, when I was traveling in Brazil last year. Apart from being a cool dude, I also remembered him as a tough grappler, which he had just proven by beating two Brazilian black belts on his way to the final.
I felt really good in the match, both physically and mentally and ended up 11-0 and submitting by cross choke from mount. Not much to say about it really, but I was happy that everything came together with my back injury, the preparations and the long break away from the mat.
Sunday was the Nogi European Open, and I was really excited to get on the mat again. Unfortunately, I injured my right knee (the good one!) a little bit in the match on Saturday and it took me a LONG discussion inside of my head, before I finally decided, that it was the wisest decision to not compete. In the situation it was difficult to make the decision, but looking back, it was obvious, that I did the right thing. I am tired of injury breaks away from training and I don't want another one now.
Repeating myself from most other competition blogposts over the last few years, I am still a bit sad that I am not more emotional in winning or losing. It was my first competition as a black belt and - albeit with a bit of "luck" along the way in the division - I took the gold medal in a major IBJJF event. Still, I didn't bother a bit about it.
What I do bother about, though, is to keep my mind and body healthy and strong. For that, competition is one amazing tool and it excites me to see myself develop both physically and mentally along the journey of confronting fears on the mat, I have set for myself.
Next stop is hopefully Swedish Open next month, but will have to see how my knee feels. Right now, I am putting my health above everything else and aims for the big one - the European Championships in Portugal in January.
So far, so good! I've managed to keep training pretty hard, although I only rolled three days last week to recover little injuries I am getting from training. Friday, I did over two hours of sparring and some really high intensity rounds in between, which cost me the weekend off. Fingers, shoulder, knee, toes - everything seems to hurt a little bit, but it is nothing serious. I can't wait to be on the mats in London, where adrenaline will make sure, that I won't feel any of it.
Just a few trainings left, and then it is off to England! I haven't really looked at my division yet. No matter who I get to compete against, it is going to be a tough match anyways, and thinking about it, is not gonna change anything.
My preparations has been as good as they could be under the circumstances, now the rest is up to the enormous equation that is a Jiu Jitsu match. Excited to see how it goes and hoping that I'll have some cool matches and experiences in the backpack, when the weekend is over.
Another week has passed and the competition in London is closing in. Training has been great this week and my back seems to feel better and better. I managed to do five days of sparring, which felt like a good amount, balanced out with my restitution over the week.
I took my kids to the first competition of this autumn, and as I expected, they did really well. It is such an honor to be able to have an influence these kids and be able to give them some good experiences. Swedish Open is coming up next month, the biggest competition in Scandinavia, and I plan to take them all there to compete.
I've been spending a lot of time this week trying to get in touch with the IBJJF in order to register myself as a black belt as well as registering my academy, so my students can sign up for the competition in London. It was more than two weeks, since I sent the signed forms, but they still haven't really done anything about it. The deadline for athlete and academy registration was two days ago, so I really, really hope I can get to compete there.
Six months off the mat and I am hungry to get back, so cross your fingers for the IBJJF to get themselves together and get my registration done :-/
My body felt really tired from the first week of training, but I did also start out with six days of rolling in one week, so maybe it was my own fault. This week, I have been training five days and sitting here on Sunday, relaxing at home, I feel surprisingly well. I have experimented a bit with different sleeping positions, since I usually have a lot of pain in my back in the mornings and I think it has made a difference for me.
Thursday, I jumped in on the MMA competition class and rolled with the guys there for the first time in years. Competing in the No-gi Europeans in November, I miss a little of the raw, wrestling based pressure I get more there than in my regular gi-training. It was fun to grapple with strikes again and I will definitely try and do it regularly again, just to broaden my training a bit.
Saturday, I taught a seminar in Odense, a city about an hour and a half away from where I live. There was around 25 people there and afterwards, we had a three hour long open mat sparring session, so I really got to roll with lots of different people, which was great.
All in all, my back feels good and I have felt no pain down my leg this week, which is a good sign. Still doing my daily physiotherapy as well, so hopefully I will be fit for fight in London next month :)
Last week I was my first "real" comeback on the mat after being out for close to six months with my back injury. I must have done well with the rehab, because I actually managed to train six days out of seven, only resting on sundays. My back feels pretty strong and I am optimistic about the next four weeks of preparations.
Last time I competed was at the Europeans in January, so with the long lay-off without training and competition, I don't have high expectations for the results. My goal so far is to complete the five weeks of preparation and be able to step on the mat with as healthy a body as possible. It will also be my debut in the black belt division, but I am not really thinking much about that. There will be guys I can beat and guys I definitely cannot beat, so I can do nothing but to just lean back, enjoy the ride and see what will happen.
Yet another weekend have been spent in a noisy sportshall, shouting instructions to my students on the mats. This time it was the annual Danish Open BJJ, which is a really nice and well organized event, that we like to attend each year.
I had a total of 41 guys from the team compete this time, and we ended up taking home nine gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals. I think everyone did really well, and it was pleasing to see them pull off stuff we have worked in the gym.
For many of the first-timers, it was nice to see them try to do the right moves, even though they still lacked the experience, timing and feeling to make them work. I think one of the biggest difficulties to overcome in order to be successful in competition as a beginner, is to stop "guessing" techniques along the way. Everyone looked disciplined in trying the right things, and it is only a matter of time and more competition experience, before they will start to create results.
Since my "old" juniors are now an integrate part of the adult team, I have started over with a completely new team of vicious kids training to become the champions of the future (meaning this years competitions, I am ambitious for them ;)). With the fantastic young athletes that came out of the last "season", it is really exciting for me to try and create a new team from scratch. They all looked really good, and I believe there is a lot of talent and potential amongst them. In the 10-12 year category, they took gold in every single division they participated in. Future, here we come! ;)
Here is a little video, I put together from my trip to the Europeans in Portugal :)
I got back home from Portugal last night, and what an action-packed trip it was :)
Our little team performed really well and we took home three medals, one of each kind. The goal was to get a medal, so I am very satisfied with the result. It was a huge event over four days with a swarm of people filling up the sports hall. I met lots of people, who were reading this or my other blog, and many of my friends I trained and lived with on my trip around the world were there too. It was nice to see so many of them again.
For myself, it went pretty well, in fact a bit better than I had expected. I didn't really have any ambitions for myself, but ended up getting to the final in the master middle weight division, losing on points to the guy who also won the absolute.
I had three matches on the day, and it was nice to compete in master, where the time limit is six minutes instead of eight. It suited me really well, and my energy level was fine. Especially considering, that I haven't been able to do any real cardio or strength training since august.
Let's get straight to the matches :)
First up was a german guy, who had already won his first match. I was seeded one round, so I got the chance to check him out before I met him on the mat. His game looked pretty good and I noticed, that he used his left leg as lead in guard top, which puzzled me a little bit about my tactics. I can do all my moves to both left and right side, but with most people leading with their right leg, that is where I have most experience.
Anyways, I pulled guard right away and for some reason, I got my left leg over his arm right from the start. He was in the wrench, and I was not going to let him out. Broke posture, then locked in a reverse triangle to stabilize while he tried to pull his head out. As he paused, I switched it over to regular and finished when he stood up to escape.
A short first match, that didn't really even get me warm as I hoped for. But it was nice to be able to save some energy for the next ones.
Second match was against a guy I have known from the danish BJJ community for something like ten years now. It was a pleasure to compete against him, and we had a good time before and after the match. I knew his guardpassing style suited my guard really bad, and he also has a tight closed guard. So I couldn't really decided where to play the game, but I eventually picked his guard. From the moment he pulled it, it was survival mode for the rest of the match. I had a decent attempt at passing, but I was mostly defending his sweep and submission attempts. My hope was, that there would be scored no points or advantages, so I would get the referee's decision for being on top. It was a tactic with a tiny margin for winning, and it worked. It could easily have gone either way, but I pulled home the smallest possible win and advanced to next round.
We'll have a rematch another day, where I'll promise to play less boring tactics :D
My opponent in the finale was exceptionally strong. I just couldn't move any of his limbs at all, and when I tried to sweep him, it felt like he was bolted to the floor. My technique and cardio felt good, but he was just physically too big of a handful for me. Usually I try to handle the big guys by taking the pace out of the match in the guard, but eventually he passed using a grip from hell on my ankle.
I managed to keep calm, recover my guard and sweep via deep half, but it was too late and I lost 5-2.
All in all, I am very satisfied with the result. I don't think I made any big mistakes in my matches, really. Of course, that is not always enough to win, but over all I am pleased with my own performance.
Apart from the competition, we had a great time in Lisbon. I wanted to focus on doing other things than just sitting in the sports hall for ten hours a day, so I had arranged for the team to go on a Segways race around town thursday. We did it last year, and it was still just as fun racing up and down those steep, narrow streets of the old town. Walking with my legs seem like such a waste of time after having tried a Segway :D The guys renting them out are super cool and one of them even does BJJ. I highly recommend dropping by GoCars Lisbon if you are there for the tournament next year and - like me - are getting tired of sitting indoors all the time in the noise.
The last day, we went surfing before heading to the airport. It was really nice to be back in the water, and despite difficult conditions, we had a great time there. I got to try my new camera on a surfboard for the first time and got some cool footage out of it.
Good things:
- Silver medal at major IBJJF tournament
- Cardio and endurance felt ok
- Nice to work on guard top defense
- No nervousness really
Bad things:
- I need to fix my shoulder to get back to weight training
- Deep half needs some polishing and experience
Tomorrow afternoon, I am heading to beautiful Lisbon in Portugal, to compete at the European Open.
Last year, I set a team with the goal of getting a medal at the tournament after six months of preparations, and we succeeded. This year, I did the same, but we have had a lot of unfortunate injuries and sickness, which means that we will be a smaller group going. I am still very satisfied with being able to take seven competitors from our small gym (eight with visitor, Mario :)), all the way to Portugal to compete at the biggest event in Europe.
I think we have a very good chance of taking home a few medals, and I know everyone will do perform really well and have a good experience.
Personally, I am having my debut in the masters division for brown belts. I have absolutely no idea, how it will go, but will just go on the mat and see what happens. There are some tough guys there, and it is hard to focus on myself, when I am so emotionally involved in my students matches. We'll see! :) No matter what, it will be cool to once again have the opportunity to compete at this level, in one of the world's biggest competitions.
After the competition, I have planned for us to rent segways for sightseeing around town and sunday I will take the whole team to the beach for surfing lessons before we go straight to the airport :)
It's been almost five months since I got some shoulder problems from surfing and weight lifting. It still comes and goes and bothers me a lot. Since it happened, I have been forced to cut down on my weekly training schedule in periods and since I was in Moldova, it has gotten a lot worse.
A full weekend of hard sparring with big guys, many of them beginners who were trying to rip my limbs off with all their power, was definitely not good for me. Add to that, that finding icepacks in Moldova is basically impossible. No one seems to use them, and they don't sell them in pharmacies. Result is, that the inflammation has gotten much worse, and I haven't been able to spar since I got back home. Probably the worst pain in 3-4 months at this moment.
Wednesday, I am flying to Portugal to compete at the Europeans. I know I won't feel anything during the match, but it still is annoying that it has affected my preparations so much. I have done zero upper body weight lifting since august and only been able to do half the amount of weekly sparring than usual.
But whatever, injuries are a part of the game, and the preparations are what they are. I have come to the conclusion, that I will never be 100% ready and fit, so just have to accept it. Worst thing I can do, would be to not step on the mat and compete. There are no excuses, and I need the experience in my BJJ backpack. It can always go good or bad, no matter how prepared I am.
More thoughts about the competition next week before I leave :)
I had planned to write this before New Years, but couldn't find the time, so here it goes, a little delayed :)
2011 was a year, that changed me tremendously both as a person and Jiu Jitsu practitioner. I kickstarted it by competing at the European Open in Portugal for the first time. Lost my first match, but it was a great experience and marked the end of my 2010 competition team project.
Shortly after, I packed my backpack and ventured east for five months of the most intense and life-changing experience I've ever had. Carried by the hands of Jiu Jitsu, I managed to travel 57.920 kilometers all the way around the globe. On the way, I did 90 classes in 56 gyms, visited 43 cities in 24 countries and flew in 35 airplanes. Not to mention, that I made countless of new friends and connections, that will impact the rest of my life.
Needless to say, that trip has become something special to me. I could keep talking about it, but I am currently writing a book on it, where I will put it all in instead. There are just too many good stories and experiences to tell about, that I can't allow not to write it all down.
It was nice to be home in the summer. I had missed everyone here, and I could pick up on the physical training again, something I hadn't been able to do on the trip.
2011 was also an intense year of competition for me. I had originally planned to compete a lot on my trip, but it proved too difficult to practically work out with my busy travel schedule. I managed to do the Worlds in California though, which was a great experience, despite being in horrible shape for it.
When I got home, I felt more confident in my game than ever, and I used that to aim for an ambitious end of the season, competition-wise. In just two months, I did five major competitions around Europe, going to Switzerland, England, Scotland, Paris and Sweden. I took medals in all of them, a few from losing first match, but also a handful of golds from actually winning some matches :)
All in all, my 2011 competition season summed up to seven tournaments and a record of 8 wins and 6 losses. In total, it was four gold, one silver and two bronze for me. For the whole team, we managed to get 67 medals in two months. I can't complain about that :)
Competition is a great indicator, for what one needs to work on, and my experiences this year has been no exception to that rule. Even though competition doesn't really interest me as in I don't hold any ambitions to win, I find it very interesting, when I just see it as a part of my job and development in the sport. Stepping on the mat is just a part of what I do, and really has nothing to do with proving myself or trying to win something. I have learned a ton from competing this year, and all of it, I have taken back to my gym and let my students and training partners benefit from.
I have always known, that I don't have a "competitive spirit". For many years, I used this as a reason to not compete. Now, I still don't have it, but I see the enormous value of competing anyways, and will keep doing it for other reasons, than to try and reach a certain result. A longer blog post about my thoughts on competing is on it's way, as well as being written in the book to come.
I have only spent a little over half a year in the gym at home this season, but it has been an amazing time. The team seems to be at an all time high, with all the classes being full of enthusiastic and fantastic people. Beginners and experienced guys and girls work together and the development of everybody's games are skyrocketing. I recently promoted a lot of guys on the team, which is always something that makes me really proud.
Since I got home, I have had a lot of visits from around the world, which has been really great. Some of them had followed my blog and some of them, I had visited on my trip. We had Martin Aedma from Estonia over for a few weeks during the summer. Robson Barbosa dropped by as usual, a guy from Finland and an american traveller had both read my blog and came, two Scottish BJJers dropped by, a guy from Paris trained with us for a week, Fernando I visited in Costa Rica taught for two months and two days ago, the guy I stayed with in the Galapagos Islands just arrived to train with us for the Europeans. Coming home from Portugal, the man behind Kauai Kimonos and another one of my travel partners from the trip, will be here for a few weeks. This is Jiu Jitsu networking at it's best ;)
So what does 2012 hold? In three weeks, I will compete at the European Open in Portugal. I have also gotten a handful of invitations for seminars, and so far I will be going teaching in Moldova this coming weekend and Moscow, Russia, in the beginning of February. I am also planning a two week trip to Thailand in March, but probably won't be training much there. As far as the rest of the year, I don't know yet, but I will do my best to make it as awesome as 2011!
Now I gotta run, the gym and the world is waiting! :)
I've made a ton of highlight videos and on a boring sunday like today, I thought I would try and change the style a little bit. Also, I just watched Drive and loved it in case you think I got some inspiration from there ;)
This weekend, I went to the last competition of the year and the seventh in eight weeks for me. I had already decided to not compete myself, since my body is pretty worn down from all the competitions lately. Also, I was coaching a ton of kids and adults on my team, so I thought I had deserved a day off the mats myself this time.
The competition was Swedish Open, where we have gone every year for the last four years. The event is getting bigger and better for each year and this was no exception. It is probably one of the most well organized and well run tournaments I have ever been to and will highly recommend anyone in the area to check it out.
We had a total of 40-something people on our team this time in every sex and age group. Every single one of them did really well, and we ended up with some great results, taking home eight gold-, six silver and three bronze medals. Even better, we finally took the first place in the junior team competition, beating the swedish club, who has won every year for the last five years. It was actually a draw for the first place with another great academy, but we had more gold medals, and they were gentlemen, so they gave the trophy to us. I have put a lot of work into my junior team over the last six years and finally I am starting to see some serious results coming out of it. A new generation is coming up, and the "old" ones - consisting of one brutally good teenager after the other - is on the verge of switching over to the adult team.
Another result of the weekend, that I am really proud of is, that we ended up being the second best adult academy of the tournament. With about 600 competitors, I think that was quite a good result.
All in all, it has been a crazy fall of competitions for me and my guys, girls and boys. I managed to compete in five tournaments myself over just two months, Taking four gold, a silver and two bronze medals in those, I conclude that it went pretty alright. I still have lots to learn about competing and there are still hundreds and more brown belts out there who can kick my ass, but it has been a really valuable experience and I have learned a lot from it (<-- hang on for the blogpost on this :D).
In total, we have won 67 medals in the last two months with the team. I am super proud of everyone on the team, and super honored, that they chose to train with me.
Now it is time to go back to the lab and fine tune the technique before the European Open in end of January. It will also be nice to have some time to heal my body and get back to the physical training. I am still having problems with my shoulder, but working hard on the rehab and can hopefully lift some weights again soon.
In the weekend, I competed for the last time this year and for the last time in the adult age division (I will be 30 next year). NAGA was holding a tournament in Paris for the second time and we went a team of fifteen guys there to compete. All in all, it went really well and we took home a total of thirteen medals.
I had initially decided to only do the gi division, but when we got there, I signed up for the no-gi as well. It was a long day of waiting before I was on, and there seemed to be a bit more adrenaline than usual, I don't know why. I managed to channel it into concentration and focus of stepping on the mat and performing.
First up was the expert no-gi middle weight division. My opponent was a french black belt and judging from his first match, it was going to be an extremely difficult task for me to beat him. He was superbly athletic and played a very aggressive and powerful game. I decided my only chance - as it usually is against bigger, stronger guys - was to try and take the explosive factor out of the match and utilize my guard to stress him. I pulled guard right away to avoid his wrestling and managed to keep him from passing for the entire match. It was 0-0 by the end and I had to try something, so I set up a bodylock sweep and found myself suddenly playing his game of explosive wrestling. He immediately judo tossed me and I knew I had to just get back to my guard to survive. After 2 minutes over time, the referee gave me the decision. I don't know if I agreed with him, but I didn't mind winning :D Sometimes, the marginals fall to my side, sometimes to the opponents - that's just how the game is.
The final was against a guy who had won his first two to get there. I had one less match, so I was hoping I had more energy than him. Unfortunately, he was also really strong and keeping him in my guard required a lot of leg strength. Luckily, I didn't had to work from there for the full match, since he tried to jump over my guard, which allowed me to set up a nice heelhook to which he tapped immediately as I locked it in. I like to compete with heel hooks, it is really an equalizer for the smaller guy and it suits my game perfectly. I think at the expert level, people are good enough to know the danger and when to tap anyways.
The gi division was black and brown belts together. I had really hoped to compete against a black belt, but instead I got another interesting challenge in meeting the guy I lost to in London a month earlier. I had been working hard in the gym on closing the holes in my game that he exploited last time, and it was exciting to test it out and see if I could beat him this time.
Everything worked pretty well and I managed to defend the moves he caught me with last time. The match was only six minutes so I had to take some chances to try and score, and at one point I try to pass to halfguard to get an advantage, but he manages to flip me over. It was a little stupid that I lost my balance there on that sweep, it shouldn't had happened. Wasn't too bad though, as I swept him back a few seconds after for the final score of 2-2. This time he got the referee's decision and I was pleased to confirm, that I had evolved and improved my game since I fought him last time.
It was a really good tournament and very well organized. NAGA definitely knows what they are doing in terms of organizing events and it was a breath of fresh air to compete there after some really badly organized tournaments lately. Also, I liked the rules very much - I could wear my rip stop gi and cup as well as reap the knee and do any submission I wanted. Nice! I took home a giant belt for winning the expert adult division and it looks cool hanging on my surfboard in the gym now :D
Quick conclusion on NAGA Paris:
Good things:
- Won expert division, pretty nice!
- Guard worked great, not passed for ten consecutive matches now.
- Relaxed and cardio felt good
- My students did awesome
- Improvements in my game against same opponent
- Held my own against bigger guys who had weighed in the day before
Bad things:
- Got swept where I shouldn't have been
- Not much else, really :)
Paris was awesome, what a beautiful city it is in the fall with the yellow leaves all over the old streets. We had some great days there, walking around town and checking it out. It was nice to be back to a place that has almost symbolic value to me, since it was the first destination on my around the world trip earlier this year.
This was my last competition this year. I have decided to skip Swedish Open next week, first of all because I simply just need a break after five competitions around Europe in six weeks and second because I will be coaching my team of more than 40 guys and girls fighting there. It has been some great experiences and I will do a write up on it all some time next week :)
I had actually decided not to compete at Scandinavian Open this weekend, since I am also competing the next two weekends in Paris and Sweden. However, on the last day of registration, I saw that there was only one guy in my division, coming all the way from Finland. I thought it was a shame for him to not get a match in his own weight, and since I live less than 30 minutes away from the venue in Sweden, I signed up.
With all the small injuries and pain during training recently, I have found, that competition is the only place, where I can really relax and roll without thinking about parts of my body that hurts. It is kind of interesting how, in this period at least, the matches I have are much easier and more enjoyable, than rolling in the gym. A slight adrenaline dump takes care of all the little bruises, sprained fingers and sore muscles, it is great :)
It was a pretty long wait for my match today and the hall was cold. I decided to just do a light warm up and not try to work as much to get the pulse up, as I usually do. I had no nervousness at all. When my division was called up, I recognized a small adrenaline release and my sprained fingers and sore body welcomed it with open arms.
Match itself went well, I think. I pulled guard and he was aggressively trying to pass right away. He almost got it, but I managed to get to my knees and stand up with the single leg to take him down. I was a little confused, why I didn't get two points for that, but with the very undefined rules of our sport, it can always go either way. I still had lots of time to score, so I didn't worry about it too much. Was more worried about my balls, that he (unintentionally) kicked really hard when I stood up, grabbing his leg (0:45 in the video). Actually they are still a bit sore this evening, must have been a solid Steven Seagal front kick. Thank you, adrenaline!
He was working very well on a variation of the reverse de La Riva spin, that I had not encountered before. I decided to stick to good old base and posture and see if my chance to pass showed itself. He had a few good attempts, but I was very pleased with my success in defending them and get back on top. In London I was swept with a similar move, where the opponent is going to the back, but this time, I had improved and defended it the right way. I had an attempt at a japanese necktie, but his head slipped out. At one point, I lost focus for a second and he managed to set up an x-guard sweep, stand up and finish it. Now, this is the third tournament where I have been swept with this move, and I still haven't improved on it. If this is not the indicator I need to go home and close that hole in my game, I must be really retarded :D
Being back in my guard, I think I was working pretty well, but he was strong and I couldn't get the sweep or positions I wanted. I shot a triangle and closed it in. His hand was in, so it was a bet if I could finish it with power or not. I took the chance and pulled it for a good while, before I eventually decided that he was not tapping and I had to try and score two points before time ran out. It did run out and I lost 0-2 with 2-2 in advantages.
Great match and good experience. He was also a cool guy on top of that, so all in all a good day at the office. Next up NAGA in Paris in six days.
Conclusion time!
Good things:
- Posture in guard top worked well
- Triangle setup successful again
- Attempted japanese necktie
- Seventh consecutive match without guard passed
- Sidecontrol defense is still working, yaaay!
- Very relaxed, cardio was really good
Bad things:
- MUST. DEFEND. X-GUARD.
- Got kicked in the balls
Just got home from a bit of an intense trip to Scotland, packing in a really busy program in just five days. It was great to experience a little high pace BJJ globetrotter-style traveling again, and I even ended up taking home a few medals.
Due to a school holiday this week, the tickets for the relative short flight of just 90 minutes, were really expensive. Most of the guys on the team decided to pass on the trip and save the money for other tournaments in the upcoming weekends. Never letting down an opportunity to see the world, I decided to go anyways. Two of my training partners, Kasper and Ben, went along and I met up with my scottish friend and fellow BJJ globetrotter, Dan, who I traveled with in Taiwan, New York and Estonia during my trip.
First stop was Aberdeen on wednesday, a city that is all gray from the granite blocks that has been used for basically all the buildings. A small group of guys are running a Jiu Jitsu gym, where I was teaching for two nights. They were mostly beginners, but there were some quite skilled blue belts in between. We also managed to do a bit of sight seeing in Aberdeen, going mountain biking in the highlands and visiting an awesome castle on a cliff.
Early (!!) saturday morning, we drove down to Glasgow for the competition. It was held in a big sports hall and there was quite a few competitors. Mostly lower level belts though - me and my opponent in the gi division were the only two brown belts signed up.
I had a loooong wait before my matches would start, so I spent the most of the day coaching the guys I had trained with. I love coaching at competitions, and they were all doing a really good job, most of them taking medals in their divisions.
I wasn't nervous about competing, as in I didn't have any particular thoughts in my head about it doing the day. Despite that, I could observe, that my heart was beating a bit faster, and I had to go take a piss about ten times during the day. Definitely a slight adrenaline release activated for all those hours. I was mostly worried about getting dehydrated during the wait, so I made sure to drink a lot of water.
First up was my no-gi division. It had been a long time since I had competed in no-gi, so I was excited to play that game a little bit again, and also had a chance to sport my sweet Kim Jong-Il "livelifelikeaBOSS" t-shirt from my recent apparel project Roll Eat Sleep Repeat ;)
There was no-one in my weight category (-79 kg) in the advanced division, so I was moved up to -85 kg with the big guys. First opponent was a swedish guy, who I had just seen win his first match with a pretty solid game. I decided to play a bit safe in the match and try and beat him with my guard. He felt very strong, so when I had the opportunity, I pulled butterfly guard. Standing up with double underhooks to try and take him down did no good, so I pulled guard again. At one point he tried to pass my scissor guard by putting his hand through my legs and I had an attempt at a spinning triangle counter. He postured up at the right time and defended it. I knew he would be difficult to sweep as his base was really good, so I went for a guillotine to try and get an advantage. Tapping him out with it would be hard, so I just held on long enough to convince the referee to give me an advantage. As soon as it was on the scoring board, it was just a question about not getting passed for the rest of the time. The whole day, I hadn't seen any referees give warnings for stalling, so I just happily stalled away in my closed guard until time ran out. At one point, I looked at the camera and made a silly face at it. Don't know why I chose to do that, in fact I think it was probably a bit douchy and overconfident, but I have pretty much never been able to take anything seriously in life.
Second match was the final against an MMA guy, who seemed to be in good shape, bigger and stronger than me. I had really missed the wrestling aspect of competition for a loooong time since I hurt my knee last year. It is something I really enjoy in training and since my knee has gotten much better, I decided to wrestle him for a while just to try it out in competition as well. I had attempts at my armdrag single leg and fireman's carry, both of them with no luck. A little bit maybe, since I got an advantage for the fireman's carry attempt. Eventually he ducked under for a nice double leg, and don't know why I am being so lazy in defending it, but I for some reason just sits down and accepts it. Getting back up, I decide to just pull guard from there on.
Being behind by two points to one advantage, I knew I just had to get one sweep then hold on to win. I went for the deep butterfly halfguard and pulled his foot across for the calfcruncher submission (with which I unfortunately popped both mine and my opponents knee in this match). I felt him rolling, so I decided to ditch the sub and go for the sweep instead. With a bit of scrambling and wrest-jitsu, I got him on his back. During a guardpass attempt, he stood back up and I pulled guard once more. He tried an ancle lock in the last seconds, but I was having none of it, and wrestled him down for the sweep and the last two points, ending the match 4-2 in my favor.
I was supposed to compete in the open weigh advanced division as well, but it started right after my two long matches with the big guys and I was feeling pretty tired. I only had one opponent with the gi, who had been driving three hours to get to the competition, so I prioritized giving him a good match instead of trying out the same guys I just fought.
The gi match was a "superfight", since we were the only two competitors over purple belt. My opponent was in -88 kg, but I accepted the challenge. He was a really nice guy and we had a good chat before the match. I had decided to pull guard and play from there, since he looked to be much heavier and stronger than myself. Initially, I was trying to set up a sweep, that I was succesful with in the open weight final of Swiss Open, but he either knew it already or had read my blog and prepared for it, because he was posturing perfectly to defend it. Since the referee didn't mention anything about my fingers being inside the opponents pants, and thereby giving me a nice solid grip, I decided to stay there and give it a few more tries, before I eventually had to change tactics and switch to spider guard. An opportunity for a triangle choke presented itself and I took it, getting the tap out.
Quick conclusion on competition experience:
- No nervousness, despite slight adrenaline release during day
- Cardio felt good for three matches
- Wrestling was fun, will try more of that
- Has build up a good amount of competition confidence recently
- Change of mindset to try and win instead of trying not to lose
- Competing against bigger guys was an interesting tactical challenge
I will be competing again in Paris on November 5 at the NAGA Europe.
The day after the competition, we went to Edinburgh, where I taught a class. I was ridiculously tired from the competition, night out and lack of sleep, so I sparring with the guys was horrible. I normally never ever go out the night before I am teaching, but we had to celebrate a little bit. A solid group of guys there, I wish I could have enjoyed the rolls more, but I will definitely be back one day. I promoted one of the guys to blue belt, who was doing really well in the competition the day before and was tough to roll with.
All in all, some eventful five days in Scotland with lots of cool experiences and new friends!
Last weekend, it was time for the first IBJJF London Open in England. It is a short flight from Denmark and we went a team of about 11 guys. Two had to cancel last minute, but it was still a good team.
Sometimes, the little things just doesn't go your way, and we had a handful of frustrating losses this time. Few important matches were lost on advantages and one of our guys were way ahead on points, but got disqualified for having a small scratch on his nose that was bleeding. Anyways, we ended with two gold, one silver and a bronze, and I was very pleased with the performance of everyone.
My own division had four guys and looked tough. I knew the guy I was facing from Swiss Open, where he did really well against the guy I lost to. As usual, I didn't feel nervous at all before the match. This time, I had time to warm up well, compared to last tournament.
The match was pretty straight forward. We had a strikingly similar game, using basically the same postures and techniques in guard. He had a very strong grip, that I managed to break in the beginning of the match, but later on it was getting more and more difficult. Once again, I got swept with the x-guard, so it is obviously a big hole in my game. I could really use some more power to open up my opponent, when he has a strong posture and doesn't make many mistakes. In the very end of the match, I finally managed to lift him up for the x-guard, but the time ran out and I didn't get a chance to try and finish. It was really nice weather that weekend and the sports hall was really warm, which I think affected my cardio a little bit. When the match was over, I was boiling hot and sweating like a pig.
I was pretty pleased with the match and think there were some good elements as well as some stuff I need more work on. Losing doesn't bother me, it is all just steps on the way and a part of progressing.
When we were done, we hurried outside to enjoy the nice weather. Walked around the city a bit, took a nap in the park and ended the evening with a cold beer by the Thames river. Went home with a bronze medal, a t-shirt and a tan, what else could I ask for! Awesome weekend with awesome friends, gotta love the Jiu Jitsu life :)
I'll be back on the mat in two weeks for the Glasgow Open in Scotland on October 15th.
This weekend, I went with some of the guys from the team (haven't yet decided if we are "Team Madness" or "Team Teabaggers" this year) to Switzerland to attend the first competition of our busy fall. Everyone performed really well, and we ended up with a total of three gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
I feel like talking a bit about the event first... Switzerland is a beautiful place, and I had been looking forward to check out some alpes, maybe even walk up to the top of something. According to the time schedule of the tournament, it looked like we would finish already around 12-13 both days, which would leave us plenty of time to go check out lederhosen-land. Unfortunately, the tournament looked good, but was poorly organized.
GOOD
- Cool medals
- Nice venue with six mats
- Big screens with scoreboards
BAD
- Really difficult to get information from organizers on email or facebook before event
- Price was high for registration: 60/80/100 euros
- Start was about 3 hours delayed both days
- Only one registration table for hundreds of people in line in the mornings
- Everything was super delayed but no-one seemed to hurry
- Usually only 1-3 of six mats were in use - don't think I ever saw all used at same time
- Food options were very limited
- Very few staff members spoke english
- Information papers, brackets etc were in french
Most of all, we were just annoyed with the delays. We got up really early every day to be there well before the 9 am scheduled start, but the first matches didn't get going till around noon. And even then, only a handful of matches were running at the same time, while the rest of the referees and staff were just hanging around waiting for something to do, and the competitors were getting frustrated and wanted to get on the mats. Definitely not very positive about coming back next year :-/
And now to the matches themselves!
[Bla bla bla usual stuff about lots of injuries goes here bla bla bla]
First match was against a french guy in the middleweight division. I didn't feel any nerves or anything before the fight. Only had a few minutes from my division was called to the match was on, so didn't really got to warm up. He pulled guard and I was happy to play top a little until he caught me a few seconds later with a nice x-guard sweep. He had trouble passing my guard (succeeded once), but I had even more trouble sweeping him, so he ended up winning 5-0. He scored with x-guard from bottom and passed when I tried x-guard. I thought that was one of my strong moves, but apparently not LOL Pretty nice moves he caught me with though, I will steal them right away for my own game. Physically, he was far superior and I felt like his base was too good and he didn't make any mistakes, that I could take advantage of. Very strong opponent, that went on to win the division. He would probably beat me 10 out of 10 times that day. I got a bronze medal for my amazing performance.
Second match was in the open weight division against the winner of the -70 kg division. I had seen him compete early and he looked skilled. He was wearing a polish judo jacket, so I decided to pull guard pretty quickly. This time, I had a size advantage and I also felt I was a step ahead technically. Was pleased to do a good attempt on a guillotine from halfguard top, that I have been working a lot on. He was really difficult to put on his back and hold down, but I eventually managed to finish him with one of my favorite chokes from the back.
Third match was the final in the open weight division against the winner of the -88 kg division. He was a nice guy I had a good chat with before the match. Big, heavy and strong, but I felt like my cardio was better than his. He fell for the same sweep a few times and I scored a bit with that. It was a good, tough back-and-forth match and I didn't feel like the victory was safe at any point, even though I was slightly ahead on the scoreboard. Had a few attempts on guillotines and loop chokes that were really tight, but lacked leg-position due to his base and weight. At one point I have a tight guillotine that I decided to give up sweep and guardpass for, but end up releasing to save grip energy. I caught a triangle choke from a guard recovery and got the tap.
Another good/bad analysis - this time of my own performance:
GOOD
- Won a few matches
- Cardio felt ok
- Hit some good a-games moves
- Headhunting project, looking for guillotines and loop chokes is improving.
- Escaped sidecontrol several times ( that used to suck)
- Stood up to open guard without getting swept like at the Europeans
- No nerves
BAD
- Need more strength for middleweight division
- Must improve x-guard defense
- Warmup sucked / were non-existing
I will be on the competition mats again in two weeks for the London International Open in (surprise...) London, England :)
|
|
|
|
|
Posts
