6th American International BJJ Tournament Update

That's one more my personal history books...

This past Saturday brought the much anticipated American International. I was told by other competitors this is a great tournament that is run pretty well for the most part. As expected the turn out of competitors was thick but the overall management was sufficient but it seemed the time pressures to vacate Long Beach City College’s basketball courts by 5pm was a little to close for comfort. Much of the day was a bit uncoordinated overall and last minute matches took place as the very mats were being ran out the door.

So here’s how my matches went. Oh ya this was my first No Gi tournament and I was excited to finally get out of my Gi and get loose on the mat. I competed in both Gi and No Gi divisions.

In my Gi weight division the folks at OTM decided to open my usual 160 to 173 weight division to 160-180 weights. CRAPPY idea in my opinion. It was obvious once our group was called Executive (usually referred as Masters normally men aged 30 to 39 roughly) Men, White Belt 160-180 I was on the low end of the weight class at 160. I weighed in at 169.2 Friday before the tournament. The other guys in my division had height and weight advantage on me in a big way, at higher levels I’m sure this matters far less than when dealing with less experienced white belts but to me it seemed a poor choice on the part of the management of the tournament to allow such a large weight discrepancy in a low level division like this.

My first match was interesting but I was pointed out 16-2 I think. The other guy had noticeably more training then I but I handled his attack well for a novice. I figure I’ve spent most of my time defending at this point and I think I managed well being a less trained competitor. My cardio training held up well but I needed to focus a lot more on basics as well as my own attack instead of defending.

I was focused on getting the takedown in this tournament like my last couple and I did manage to score points in this match thanks to a good take down. The rest of my game needs work but it’s to be expected at this level of course.

This tournament was double elimination so even though I lost on points in my first match I had a chance at the losers bracket and I did wind up fighting for the bronze metal after all.

This was my final Gi fight for the day and I went in focused on giving up as few points as possible, getting take downs and earning the bronze at least. The competitor I faced felt like he had roughly the same amount of training I had 5 months or so but he was taller and a bit thicker. I shot in and shot in but he was able to post an although I put 110% into sucking up the single I snatched easily time and time again I couldn’t seem to find the angle to get both legs gathered up and dumped. After reviewing my general performance in my minds eye and discussing it with some of my teammates I learned I was probably not driving straight up during my takedown. Lesson learned, you need to focus on elevation straight up instead of shooting in and linearly through your opponent. “Think elevation and not shooting through.” You figured as a competitive freestyle wrestler I would have done this instinctively but it’s been a long time since my last camp or competition so there it is. Back to the basics as always.

So on with the match… We burned through six minutes of regular time and also the first two-minute overtime plus extra time (the ref didn’t restart us after two minutes he merely stated we had now entered our second two minute sudden death overtime). When the dust cleared well over two minutes (my coash figured we had gone a fulle 12 miutes before the fight ended) the ref gave the other a guy a takedown which is funny because my opponent never shot in and he ended up in my half guard with me on my side. In my mind this was no takedown but the match had to end sometime. I lost this one 2-0. Bummed but I still had No Gi to go so I was focused on winning a medal there no matter what. I’ll be focusing on my ground attack, takedowns and bottom/top control as well. I’ve got lots of holes to plug up in my Gi game plan before next season.

So No Gi took forever to reach us old guys but at around 4:30 they finally called my division, Executives, Men, 160-169, Novice. Most of the guys I spoke with have told me guys hang around the Novice divisions for a while even after there first year of training, it sounded like this was typical in most of the divisions. Either way I was stoked to get on the mat without a Gi and go to work. I figured my freestyle training and basic knowledge of no Gi BJJ would hang in there.

My first match was against a guy who only had one prior No Gi experience, he was taller and looked to be a slightly thicker than me; but overall we seemed fairly closely matched. My overall goals were to obtain the takedown, gain superior position and work to submission or full mount within 6 minutes.

I shot pretty quickly after sizing up his foot pattern a bit. I got the take down but he had a pretty good guard and it took me sometime to maneuver around it. I believe (without reviewing my fight tape), I escaped his guard originally and he staye don his back with legs defending me, I faded right and jumped over his right knee to side mount. Once I saw the refs hand go up for my points I focused on maintaining top control, managing my opponents ability to sweep and attempting knee on stomach or full mount. At one point I got the knee on the stomach (1 to 2 seconds only) but he shrimped to the side and I had to adjust back down to side mount. I didn’t stall and the match continued to finish at 5-0. I was satisfied but wanted to earn more points if possible in the next match.

At this point in my tournament I learned why some competitors tape up the tops of their feet and in rare cases wear wrestling shoes (yes, one of the guys in my Gi division in fact wore a pair with his Gi). My left and right tops of feet were raw and torn up, it looked like I had dropped hot grease all over the tops of my feet and the blisters had been pulled off (STING). It was gross but I knew it was just going to get worse in my next fight so oh well.

After a ten minute rest and a killer purple belt match cleared our mat I was back at it in the gold medal round with a guy named Will. He did well against his first competitor and I figured we would have a good time in our match, it didn’t disappoint. My focus remained to obtain the takedown and accumulate points. As it turned out Will had the same game plan. He ended up shooting very quickly into the match and he wound up in my guard and I had a pretty deep guillotine choke on him. My right wrist was hung up in the lower part of his chin (he had a braided goatee that may have saved him from a deeper choke). I spent a good minute squeezing the crap out of Will and working the hell out of the choke. He later told me he thought his jaw was going to snap and I almost had him submitted but as luck would have it he finally found a way to get my elbow over his head and he came out of it with a huge labored breath.

This is when I found out just what a rookie I was. I established a right arm (his right) under hook and maintained head control pretty well the entire time Will was in my guard. He was being told to posture up and he was trying hard to keep my hips low, establish his knee in my spine and also elbow pressure inside my thighs.

At one point I had excellent control of his right arm and Ming (a guy I train with over at Dave Hopkins KFSS Riverside – open mat No Gi workouts) yelled KEY LOCK Ken. Which I later learned meant the same thing as Kamura (sorry for spelling this wrong I’m sure – it means two on one, two hand on one to be specific) his right arm behind him. This was a major failure point in my game, I realized I had not prepared sufficiently to submit from the guard and even though I knew I had advantage, position and sufficient control and movement of my guard I could not for the life of me figure out how to get the job done. So we ended our first and second overtimes tied at 0-0. In sudden death I made yet another careless error and turned away from Will after falling hard to my left shoulder and popping/tearing a few small muscles somewhere in my left shoulder (not a match stopper but I knew I screwed something up). He ended up getting his hooks in and earning his four points for the back. It was a good fight and he definitely earned his points. But again I was dejected at not performing at the level I knew I could have given better technical preparation on my part.

I took silver in my first No Gi competition. I was happy to have earned a medal but still left with a feeling I was prepared to do better given better focus on my overall game plan and attack/submission strategies. But hey what’s a five month old white belt suppose to do.

I should mention this now as well. For the first three months of my training I trained independently under a few good teachers but not an actual BJJ school. Mitch over at Dave Hopkins was a huge help in my No Gi preparation (sorry Mitch for not getting the gold when you know I could have), Master Jeff Frater (United Fighting Systems) he was a great help/coach overall in my Gi game plan and also lots of No Gi rolling around as well and of course Master Lari Beebe who offers 37+ years of grappling experience and probably more martial arts training than any human on the planet. Master Lari holds black belts in seven martial arts and has belts in Judo, Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

My team affiliation only took place a month and half ago, when I officially signed up with John Munoz and his kick ass Team USA BJJ in Norco, CA (www.teamusabjj.com). John is a Brazilian trained BJJ Black Belt and golden gloves boxer. His focus on winning, core cardio and technical BJJ training have allowed his tournament team to place extremely well year after year in all of their tournaments. I’ve now had two tournament experiences under John Munoz and love going to work with our team each week. You couldn’t ask for a better coach or better guys to train with. Their focus on winning is intense.

Well that’s number three tournament for me thus far in 2006 as a newbie to BJJ. I’ve got to head to the doctor tomorrow and find out just how bad my shoulder really is. It feels solid for the most part but I have a couple of range of motion spots that need a good looking at. We shall see.

I’m going to sit out for Grappler’s Quest (Las Vegas) this year, I promised my wife I would focus on family and fun instead of the next tournament for the holidays but I’ll be in Las Vegas in 2007 for sure.

I’ll be posting more after my next tournament in early 2007 of course. Stay tuned for more info then.

Train Hard and Win!

KK