Here's my one and only gi fight. Not to spoil the ever so exciting ending, but I lose. ;) The girl I fought had 8 months experience in BJJ and several years experience in kick boxing, though I'm not sure if that gave her any further advantage in this competition. She was a really nice girl. Hope to run into her again at the next tournament.
Here was my first no-gi fight. The girl had over a year experience and had come to this same tournament last year. Man, watching these videos shows me how horrible my take downs are. All I did was pull guard in every fight!
Here's my second no-gi fight. This girl weighed over 200 lbs. And she said she'd been taking BJJ for 2 years.
My last fight was against Tanya again, the girl I fought in gi. It's pretty boring. She passes my guard and I get her in half guard and we literally sit there until the very end of the fight when I finally get tired and she passes to side control. No submissions. I was really disappointed because I had learned all those half guard sweeps and then couldn't pull off a single one. In my defense, I had three fights in a row with only a few minutes break between and I was completely gassed. Still, I should have been able to pull off a sweep. Oh well! Keep training for next time! Coaches are going to be focusing on a lot of sweeps over the next few weeks. Hopefully I can actually execute them in grapples.
Things are really, really bad.
2 months ago
9 comments:
Nothing wrong with pulling guard. My first tournament, I grabbed handfuls of gi and yanked them down on top of me. :P
And my purple/brown belts tell stories of their first tournaments -- slap hands and sit. They didn't even know how to pull guard. Zero takedowns.
I didn't actually manage to pull off a takedown until my 3rd tournament. And even then, I really don't care how we get down; I just want this fight on the ground. Ground, I understand. Standing up, I don't.
Some of the best players in the world pull guard. There is nothing wrong with that - in fact, once you get your sweeps going, you'll WANT to pull guard.
For just a couple months training, you look very composed and very much in control. Don't beat yourself up for not executing everything you've ever been exposed to - that's not what happens in tournaments. The experience comes when you recognize the one situation/opportunity to execute one move. That's it.
Don't spread your training too thin - work one or two sweeps and get them REALLY good. Then you can worry about getting crazy.
Congrats again!
Thanks guys! That definitely makes me feel better about working guard. I was happy because last night at class, while I was really focusing on it, I was able to use a few of the half guard sweeps I'd learned. I guess during the tournament my mind just went blank.
Fabio showed us a really crazy mount sweep last night that ends in a rolling uma plata. I think that one falls under the to-be-used-at-an-as-yet-undetermined-date-in-the-future move. lol
There's a reason the "white belt" chapter in Saulo's book is titled "Survival." Rolling omoplatas and upside-down reverse Russian pinky-locks are all fine and good, but as a white belt you need to focus on control from positions, and work toward sweeps and passes. "position before submission." Just my $.02. :)
Lol, reverse Russion pinkie locks. That is going to be my specialty submission from now on. But it's very true! I do feel like I'm just trying to survive a lot of times when I roll with higher belts! Especially for tournaments, our coaches have been encouraging us to really focus on position and control. Run up the points and then start going for submissions, if you see them. I'll have to work on calming down and just working methodically when I grapple and not being so concerned with getting someone to tap.
Good for you for having the stuff to go in the first place. The more you do it, the more relaxed you will be and the more you can actually think while competing.
Thanks, Jo!!
You showed some really good moves and I liked how you were always on the attack. I agree with Dev, "For just a couple months training, you look very composed and very much in control." Keep up the training. Nice job.
Thanks, Conan! I'm glad I was able to at least appear like I was in control. I definitely didn't feel like it! lol.
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