One match, one loss

So, here's the results...my first jiu jitsu tournament ever.... I had an awesome time even though I didn't win. I learned a lot (I'll go into that in a bit.) I got paired up with a four stripe white belt (i'm no stripe white) who'd been training for a little over two years (i'm at about 8 months training).

We squared off, he got a gi hold (he grabbed my shirt) of me-sit-down backwards-roll me over takedown. We scrambled, he ended up in side control (on top of me to my side). I got half guard (one leg of his trapped between my legs), he passes (my hold) and gets side control again. We scramble a while, he's trying to get position and I'm trying to listen to my instructor (and not doing what he says to do) he gets my arm eventually and gets an americana lock (bends it up and back making my shoulder hurt...REAL bad). I fight it off for a while, straightening my arm out, then thinking better of a straight arm, I pull it back and he tightened the hold and cranked pretty hard. I tapped out (cried uncle) at about 2 1/2 minutes to an americana hold. My shoulder was wrenched pretty hard (still hurts) but g-damn!! that was a great experience.

Here's a video (sorry, I'm not a video editor it's about 13 megs and has a little at the end that is me talking to my kids and my instructor.) I'm almost embarrased to put this up, it really shows off my inexperience and doesn't put me in the best light, but what the hell, I did it and none of my friends did, hehe.

Zip of my first tournament movie

Things that I learned:
1. Cutting Weight - This was the first time I've ever tried cutting weight for anything. I normally weigh anywhere from 206 to 212. I eat like a horse (good food, just a LOT of it) but for the week prior to this tournament I watched what I ate and changed my diet dramatically. I pretty much ate yogurt, fruit and canned chicken. I cut my normally large intake of water to (what I would consider) miniscule amounts at a sitting. I continued to eat many meals throughout the day, I just ate very small portions. I weighed in at 8 a.m. at 201.2 lbs (had to be under 202 lbs) and my matches were to start at 10:30 a.m. For the match (and prior to) which actually started closer to 11:30 a.m., I felt "ok", but I could tell that there was a distinct difference, which I'm sure was that I was dehydrated since I drank about 2 gallons of water throughout the course of the day Saturday after the match (and peed very little).

2. Tournament is different than class - In class there is somewhat of a comraderie between me and my sparring partner, in tournament there seemed to be a friendliness, but the object is drastically different. I learned that there is a reason for the warmups in class as I didn't apply those learnings in this tournament, in fact, I went into the match fairly cold (from sitting and watching the previous matches) and regretted it immediately as I ended up on my back in fairly short order. Tournament rules have a judge standing there awarding points (class is just you-me-and rolling) which was somewhat distracting as I hadn't ever done points before, just timed matches and me and my partner working each other. This time, my opponent didn't have my 'learning how to roll' on his mind, he was trying to get past me (in the tourney) quick. This was the main thing that I took from it I think, that 'submit the guy quick' mentality.

3. Family & Kids - I brought my wife and three kids (ages 3, 1 1/2, and 6 months) to the tournament last time I do that and they sat right on the mat as I competed. Right before the match started my son (3 yrs old) got loose from my wife and ran through the mat area looking for me (as we're all dressed the same, he couldn't find me and was yelling for me), we had to stop, get him out and get going again. The entire time I was rolling I could hear my oldest two yelling for me, my son yelling "I WANT TO FIGHT WITH DADDY!!!!" and my daughter screaming "LET ME GOOOOOOOOO!!", after the initial shock of hearing them, I tuned them out. But as soon as the match was over I went over and hugged them. They were both crying and had to have hugs.

4. Spectators, Noise, Expectations - I must say, as I had never competed before, the crowd-spectators-judges-the whole spectacle of it all, was a bit... I'm not sure of the right words, 'nerve wracking' maybe? As soon as the ref started talking to us, I didn't hear anything but him and my kids, as soon as the match started I only heard my instructor yelling out instructions (of which I failed to do - miserably). This was surprising to me, my ability to drown everything out and totally concentrate on what I was doing...an odd feeling that was. I did have a couple of interesting moments during the match where when rolling, I would kind of scan the stands, which were all a blur, and notice one person watching me, and for what seemed a long moment, lock eyes with that person and then move on back to the blur of the stands. This happend two or three times during the match which is odd for me to think about and remember.

All in all, a great experience, I'll definately be doing more competitions. I had a good time, the other students were a great help and I'm totally glad I finally did it(you can see me breathing a huge sigh of relief as the ref raised the winners hand - that was me thinking to myself "HOLY CRAP, I did it".