A Story of Personal Triumph...
Yesterday was a good day for me and for Pinnacle Jiu Jitsu. I began training in BJJ just over two years ago on Father’s Day. And the California Classic was my first tournament I ever competed in for John Kvenbo Munoz and Pinnacle Jiu Jitsu (AKA: Team USA BJJ). Sunday was my third experience at this Rommel Dunbar hosted event and over the years it has been a challenging and rewarding event for our school and for me personally, but this year was something special for me.
As an older competitor but still new to this sport every event is a new learning experience and every match is challenging. As a still young Blue Belt it has been a humbling and enormously rewarding experience to train, learn and compete in this incredibly complex martial art. And it is nice to feel my progression through my tournament experience.
Tournament day is when the training stops and the application of knowledge begins. After running hundreds of miles, suffering a diet and weight cutting process that denies me life’s simple pleasures and hundreds of training days on the mat you are either ready or you stay home. Sunday I was ready!
I found out yesterday how wonderfully exhilarating and personally rewarding something as unique as a tournament experience can become. Here’s the story…
In my first year at the California Classic I had won my first round and made it into the gold medal round to face one of my own teammates. As a three stripe white belt John (Moo Ya Do) as we call him handled me easily to win by points. But as a young white belt to win one victory and take a loss to a teammate I felt I had competed as best I could. So taking home a silver medal was pretty neat.
My second year I had high hopes as a senior white belt on his way to his Blue Belt I felt I knew enough basics to get through each match and I had a pretty good plan to earn points and take a submission if an opportunity presented itself. But then I had to face Justin Snodgrass in the first round and I got stopped cold. Justin likes the guard game and he is expert at pulling guard and controlling his opponent. He was a very tough match for me and he ended up sweeping me to take the victory. I was bummed to have lost my first match and to be out of the tournament. That year their was an excellent turn out for the Master’s division so moving on would have been a great challenge and experience. There is nothing worse than being denied when so much personal expectations are set in your mind. But even the greatest BJJ champions have tasted bitter defeat at one point in their career.
So this brings us to this Sunday. California Classic changed it’s format to be in line with other traditional Brazilian rules championships. So we all had to weigh in the day of our matches in gi. This makes weight cutting all the more challenging as now you must weigh the difficulty of dehydration (if your diet wasn’t in check) with having enough energy to compete effectively and avoid cramping up. But everyone was in the same boat for the most part and I believe this strategy does help to avoid some bracket crashers from dehydrating and then bloating up to smash their competition on tournament day.
I had come to this tournament fresh off a US Open Championship and a second place finish at the American National. Not bad for a baby Blue Belt old guy. ;-) I had one thing set in my mind, gold or nothing! I shared this goal with my wife, son and daughter. I wanted them to know what this tournament meant to me. They were there my first year when I took home the silver as well. And they knew I had gotten stopped in 2007.
As luck would have it Justin was back as was I. His team mate Carlos was there as well. Once you hit a few tournaments the faces become all to familiar and we had the usual guys show up for California Classic this year. United BJJ always comes in force as their instructor owns and runs this well attended tournament.
In the brackets I had to get by Carlos to get through to either a second round semi-final or perhaps the gold medal round. So my focus was firmly set at making points and applying my game plan to take home the win in the first round. In the initial moments in our match I went for a quick takedown but made a tiny mistake and had to scramble in spider guard to stay in control and then pop back to my feet. Carlos has a very tough posture to break down on his feet and numerous leg sweeps were thwarted and he was very eager to snatch a single leg every time my leg left the mat. We were stuck in a take down dance for a while (I hate that) but in the end I got my take down and passed his guard (one of my team mates stated… “Once you hit the mat you passed his guard like butter and then just ran up the points’). One of my goals in this tournament was to control the point board form the first seconds of the match and run up a lead and stay ahead. This is simply one tactic I had not truly embraced in previous outings.
Carlos and I had a good match, I was gassed even after running four to five days per week and spending plenty of time in a weighted vest running wind sprints up hill and on the beach along with rolling four to five days per week. I must be getting old. ;-)
All that mattered after this first match was the fact I had made it into the next round and I was hoping Justin and I would have a chance to fight once again. I had to get by his guard.
Justin had a bi so he was waiting for another competitor who had just won his first round before Carlos and I took the mat. This meant that if Justin won his first round, he I would face of in the gold medal match. And as luck would have it that’s exactly what happened.
So after a ten minute rest I was facing off with the guy that had taken me out of contention in 2007 as white belts. Now we faced off as one stripe blue belts once again. Justin is a great competitor and he is a class act. I knew he was in this match for a victory but I had other plans. As we slapped hands and began our match I knew Justin’s primary goal was grips than pull guard. I simply wanted to land in open guard or put him on his back. When he committed and pulled guard I stepped in and we landed with my knee splitting his legs (I haven’t got a video of this match but I think I went for the pass and snaked and pulled me back to his closed guard). From that moment on my only goal was to posture, open his guard and pass and avoid his choke, triangle, arm bar and sweep attempts. In the end I reversed him once, and passed his guard once. He tried every submission he could to the point of gassing his arms out. It seemed like a ten minute match toward the end.
When it was all over I was up on points and he had scored none. It was a great experience to not only come out of this fun tournament with the championship but to have faced the one guy who had spoiled my 2007 experience was an even better feeling.
This tournament and others like it are why I train in Brazilian Jiu Jistu. As a Masters competitor it is often hard to find a decent bracket outside of Pan Ams and World’s. these well attended regional tournaments bring together many well known competitors and schools. And creating little challenges and friendly rivalries is what competition is all about.
I’ll close by simply saying without great competitors there is no competition and I greatly appreciate being challenged by some of the best competitors in California. I look forward to defending my title next year and I know Romell and his team will be all the more ready to crush the competition as well.
I should add this tournament brought the unveiling of Pinnacle Jiu Jistu. It was our first tournament as a team and I am very happy to report our team members performed exceedingly well. Our team members occupied the top honors in many categories through out the days event and in the end we took top honors (1st place team) in this wonderful tournament. I know through this introduction of Pinnacle Jiu Jistu Inland Empire jiu jitsu students and schools will find stronger competition among rival schools and better attended tournaments across the board. As we improve as individuals all Inland Empire schools also benefit.
Congratulations to John Munoz Jr. for his World Championship Gold Medal! The kid is good and we can’t wait to see him fight as an adult! Congratulations to all youth and adult competitors form all Pinnacle Jiu Jistu schools. We did a tremendous job representing our instructors.
See you all next year.
Kenneth Knapp
Blue Belt
Under John Kvenbo Munoz, Black Belt, 2nd Degree
Pinnacle Jiu Jistu – Norco School
(AKA: Team USA BJJ)
