Although this is my second grappling tournament, it’s my first pure BJJ tournament (having now trained BJJ for four months after 3 years of JJJ). And what better way to start than with a wild card entry into the nationals.
Unfortunately didn’t get any video this time, will endeavour to get some in the next one.
Received a default bronze in the nogi due to coming third out of three (there were a few late withdrawals/scratchings).
There were 9 in the gi bracket, my opponent in this first match went on to get a bronze in the open weight gi later that day.
Second match was against the eventual gold medallist. This shot is right before I gave up an easy armbar. Still a bit annoyed with myself on that one but something to drive some improvement ahead of future comps.
So, got knocked out of the first round at the weekend. Was up 7-0 by about the halfway mark when I ditched the (until then winning) gameplan and went sub-hunting. Yep.
Also, the first minute or so is missing from the video as my support crew were busy taking photos. To fill in the gap, about 30 secs of grip fighting (including his attempt at an osoto-gari which I defended) until he pulled guard, I tried to pass it on the way down (nearly did) but he recovered guard and we went out of bounds. Got reset in the middle and I was passing his guard which is where to vid kicks in:
(n.b. apologies for crappy soudtrack as did this with youtube video edit. Also for the longshot, it is in HD if you need to zoom in)
So, here is my first foray into the blue belt division at the South East Queensland BJJ Championship on the 16th of Feb. Was quite scrappy and as always I have a lot to work on from it but I did better than I was expecting so was happy with that (and the silver).
So, don’t have much in the way of pics or vids from this one. Long and short of it though, picked up a Bronze at 85kg blue gi and a silver in the open blue gi.
Here is a highlight vid from the day, unfortunately my who’s the boss choke sub didn’t make the cut:
So will keep this short and sweet, competed in three division in the Qld State championships yesterday. Picked up a gold in the Medium Heavy (85kg/187lbs) Blue Belt Gi and a silver in the Medium Heavy Blue Belt No-Gi. Got knocked out of the second round of the blue belt open gi by the 91kg champion, going down 6-3.
0:18 Hmm, need to work on selling that feint leg sweep.
0:34 Not sure why I didn’t just take the back here, just kinda sat there and let him get up.
0:37 and straight into a single leg.
1:07 Should’ve been working for that deep half from 0:59 when he came up on that knee.
1:28-42 Side control take one. 14 seconds of resting - need to do something with this.
1:44 And looks like I need to work on guillotines as well.
2:12 LOL! Inverted!
2:20
2:33 That looks more like something I would do.
2:47 Side control take 2. Still did nothing with it, although at least I was attempting to get a lapel or something.
3:06 aaaand reversed by a single leg again.
3:40 So thought I was going to pull off that cheeky sweep. Nope. Just about gave up my back instead.
4:04 Bail and a reunion with my old friend, half guard.
4:22 I’ll have to find out the name of this sweep. pulled it off two more times in the comp and it will serve me a lot better in the future when knee-bars are on the table.
4:31 oh look, side control again! Maybe we should do something with it this time.
4:53 How about a knee-ride, haven’t tried one of those yet.
5:00 ooh, ooh, arm-bar…
5:21 done. Luckily he was as gassed as I was by this stage.
So, for my first attempt at a purple belt comp it didn’t go too badly. Four divisions, five close losses and four consolation medals. Most importantly though, i gained in confidence as I was able to hang with the predominantly 3 stripe purple belts.
Lost the first match by and advantage (0-0 on points, 1-2 advantages). Thought I’d scored a pass off one of my triangle escapes but my idea of three seconds and the refs were different I guess.
Lost the second match to the same guy by 3 points, after he caught me in a sweep. Also a reminder that I need to work on my fitness as these 7 minute rounds are brutal.
Lost the next one by 2 points (think it was 4-6, not sure though). Had a Kimura grip locked up from bottom side control but couldn’t complete the sweep or the sub to steal the match.
Lost the next one 0-2 against a guy 2 weight divisions higher than me. I had shot a double but he reversed me on the ground to snake my points.
Last one I lost by 2 points again. Again, had a deep guillotine from closed guard locked in with a minute to go but just couldn’t complete or sweep to jag a win.
So went three divisions on this one ending up with two silver and a bronze. Two good matches in my weight division, going down 7-0 in Gi and 6-4 in no-gi.
And just for shits and giggles, here’s a reminder for my future self to respect the lapel controls of my opponents:
