TheMightyMcClaw
25-Mar-2007, 03:19 PM
Hey guys,
I had another BJJ tournament, the Great Lakes Brazilian Jiu-jitsu championship. I ended up fighting seven matches (two gi, three no-gi, and one each in the gi and no-gi absolutes). My gi division only had three people in it, so we ended up doing a round robin :p.
Highlights include:
-Taking silver in gi.
-Choking one of my teammates unconscious during our gi match. Though I didn't know it at the time, he told me after the fight that he blacked out for several seconds when I had him in a triangle choke.
-Getting crushed to death in my gi absolutes. I was fighting a 200+ pound fifty year old wrestler. I am, once again, in awe of the ability of wrestlers to make my face uncomfortable. If he had been wearing a coarser gi, I would be missing a cheek right now.
-Nearly getting my arm broken in the no-gi absolutes. I had, somehow, managed to come up against someone from my own weight division (as a welterweight, that's not terribly common). This did not stop him from applying a keylock waaaay to fast (though I am generally quite flexible, my shoulders are exempt from this), and me hearing someone pop in my elbow. I signaled my submission with the ever-dignified "scream in pain" tap. He was very apologetic after the fight, and said that in future matches, he'd be more careful with that lock.
Also, I learned the following lessons:
-I NEED to get better at defending single leg takedowns. In at least half of my matches I got single-legged, and found myself incapable of defense.
-Rubber guard is working out well for me. I initially started playing around with it because I'm flexible and I think the "Gogoplata" is an awesome name for a submission, but I'm really liking it now. I also like the way one can "blitz package" submissions from rubber guard - omonplata-gogoplata/triangle, etc. I managed to keep solid control of my first no-gi opponent in my rubber guard, and nearly got him in an omonplata before switching to a triangle.
I had another BJJ tournament, the Great Lakes Brazilian Jiu-jitsu championship. I ended up fighting seven matches (two gi, three no-gi, and one each in the gi and no-gi absolutes). My gi division only had three people in it, so we ended up doing a round robin :p.
Highlights include:
-Taking silver in gi.
-Choking one of my teammates unconscious during our gi match. Though I didn't know it at the time, he told me after the fight that he blacked out for several seconds when I had him in a triangle choke.
-Getting crushed to death in my gi absolutes. I was fighting a 200+ pound fifty year old wrestler. I am, once again, in awe of the ability of wrestlers to make my face uncomfortable. If he had been wearing a coarser gi, I would be missing a cheek right now.
-Nearly getting my arm broken in the no-gi absolutes. I had, somehow, managed to come up against someone from my own weight division (as a welterweight, that's not terribly common). This did not stop him from applying a keylock waaaay to fast (though I am generally quite flexible, my shoulders are exempt from this), and me hearing someone pop in my elbow. I signaled my submission with the ever-dignified "scream in pain" tap. He was very apologetic after the fight, and said that in future matches, he'd be more careful with that lock.
Also, I learned the following lessons:
-I NEED to get better at defending single leg takedowns. In at least half of my matches I got single-legged, and found myself incapable of defense.
-Rubber guard is working out well for me. I initially started playing around with it because I'm flexible and I think the "Gogoplata" is an awesome name for a submission, but I'm really liking it now. I also like the way one can "blitz package" submissions from rubber guard - omonplata-gogoplata/triangle, etc. I managed to keep solid control of my first no-gi opponent in my rubber guard, and nearly got him in an omonplata before switching to a triangle.