First BJJ tournament for a stand up stylist

[ShoriKid]

Okay, most of you guys on here know that I'm primarily a stand up guy, have been for nearly two decades now. However, I have always loved grappling. I wrestled in high school, right after the waters dropped and Noah pulled his singlet out of storage. We integrated grappling as part of our core requirements within the Makotokan dojo. Pittbulljudoka brings up good BJJ from Shield Systems in Knoxville and for the past 8 weeks we've been prepping for the TN state BJJ tournament.

So, off we go to compete today. Weight was good, hit 174 dressed, got told there were no masters division competitors under 230 that I could roll with so I was bounced down to adult division. Which I had signed up for in the first place. White belts start getting called at 1:30. I don't hit the mats until almost 4:00 as the last weight class called. 7 competitors in our group, 4 of them multi-stripe whites. A couple Pittbull says are about to hit blue belt soon the way they roll.

I got the buy in the first round. First match I get I draw a 4 stripe that had a really good match. Hesitated on the take down and lost out when he grabbed my ankles after I shucked him down to the mats. Some transitioning and working back and forth and I give up a position, escape and scramble. I end up in his guard, screw up my pass, which PittbullJudoka almost smacks me for after the match. My opponent gives up guard and tries to take my back. I defend, get side control and try to move to mount. I'm swept and get to guard, threaten a collar choke and go for an arm bar. Didn't extend my hips so he defends and time runs out. I lost on points, but scored a few and felt good. My opponent was pretty cool, complimented the pace I set, the scrambles and how close the arm bar was.

Second match is for 3rd in the division. Another 4 stripe. More time is spent on our feet and again I hesitate on the take down having pulled him in with the belt but didn't pick up the leg for the trip take down to follow up. We hit the mats and I work, but I'm not having as much luck here. Transitions are a bit slower coming and I get under in half guard, lock down and get collar handles to start to work up. Lose half guard and re-establish a couple of times before he gets mount and gets heavy, setting in top side hooks and shutting down my attempts to sweep. Tried to rock him and switch sides up, but nothing. He's on me tight and I'm having to work to keep my arms in and working, trying to get space to get on a hip. He presses me in, trying to smother a bit as he set up an Ezekial choke (I found this out later). I'm still trying to get my hips moving to get guard back and then that head pressure turns into the choke and it's tight. Real, vision blurring, tight. I hang in as long as I can, trying to make space, get to an elbow, anything. And as the world gets fuzzy and narrow I tap. Again, the guy was cool, compliments me on the work I made him do. I compliment him on his top game and heck of a choke.

Mentally I'm already going over the matches and had near involuntary muscle twitches as I thought of the little changes I could have made to maybe have done better(made the drive home interesting). Setting the hips in a little more and giving one last pull to get the elbow past on the arm bar. Not hesitating to pick up the leg in the second match. A different grip on the collars from half guard that might have made him move or a better set to work back to guard. Pittbull got it all on tape so I'll be watching it over and over and we'll be working on things. Lot of extra work on positional escapes and re-establishing guard.

So, I went and competed against guys I had a decade of life on, but countless hours less experience on the ground. It was fun. I wish I'd gotten to hit the mats earlier, but that's how things go. PittbullJudoka stuck around to coach me, and I hope I listened better than I think I did. I get a little tunnel vision on the mats.

PittbullJudoka had a good day. Brought home a medal against some stiff, and stubborn competition. He can tell his story himself if he wants, though I'll brag on him if forced. He may also have to correct what I mis-remember from the matches with that mat/tunnel vision. All in all it was a great experience. I'm not a big competition guy, but I've always loved it when I get to test my mettle. I recommend to the stand up guys that dabble, get on the mats at least once to see how things go. It's a good experience.

Sorry to have rambled a bit, but couldn't help but share with you guys here. Kind of like telling my extended martial arts family.

[Drew]

Thats sounds like it was a great experience, nothing like some healthy competition!

By the way, I got the sense from your whole narrative that you weren't being very aggressive in your matches, is that right? Perhaps more aggression would be to your benefit?

[ShoriKid]

Not in the stand up portion for sure. Once I hit the mats I worked to improve position before getting into much offense. Didn't want to over commit and make a mistake. It could have been a mistake in not getting more aggressive, that's true. Part of 1st time jitters, knowing I was over matched so I played it conservative. Hind sight being what it is, being more aggressive might have helped. That's why we have tape though.

[pittbullJudoka]

He done great for first on the mats of a bjj tourney. His opponents were probably getting one last tournament in before getting their blue belts. Couple of mistakes but that's how we learn we're improvement is needed.

[tallgeese]

Great job guys!

[darksoul]

Great job indeed! I really enjoyed the videos!

[ShoriKid]

I've watched the video several times on both matches now. No matter how much I yell at the screen the out come doesn't change and the mistakes are still there. I even paused it a few times to let myself get into a better position, but nothing happened.

On the serious side, I'm disappointed with some of the very basic mistakes I made. A couple of them were just really basic stuff. Stepping up close when standing over my opponent on the mat and basically letting him pick my ankles. Not framing and hipping in aggressively to get to guard. Getting a little too greedy and going for mount straight off from a side control.

The second match, much more of the same. Only worse. Not pressuring the head after I lot the leg to the single. Could have gotten a better position from the start there I think. PittbullJudoka pointed out the bad set up on the sweep I tried when he got mount. I didn't slide down with my half guard like I normally do to start my sweep/pass work.

Thing is I can see a lot of the mistakes. Something I likely couldn't have done as well a year ago. That's totally Pittbull's fault. Had to grab one of the guys and throw him in a gi jacket to work on things tonight or I was going to explode thinking about it all. Basically I think it boiled down to a bad case of competition jitters. It had been 5 or 6 years since the last time I grappled in competition. Back to the drawing board for next year.

[pittbullJudoka]

We'll get things ironed out before the next tourney. Still did well over all. Just got to get you down to Shield Systems a few times and let you roll with the guys that kick the crap put of me every week.