BJJ Tournament Results
I went up to West Seattle today to compete in a BJJ tournament. The Revolution tournaments are a series put together by Jeff, one of the guys who trains at our gym (a purple belt and amateur MMA fighter). This tournament was much bigger than any I've previously been to.
The brackets were divided by weight and belt. I competed in the Welterweight division (170 to 184.9 lbs) as a white belt along with two other guys from my school, Mike and Jeremy. My division had the most competitors in it by far, with 24 (if my inner city educated math skills aren't letting me down). I had three matches and won all three, as did both Jeremy and Mike, which created a bit of a dilemma. Our instructor's philosophy is that there's nothing to be gained by competing against your teammates. The idea being that we compete to learn about what we're doing right and where we need to focus to shore up holes in our training. Jeremy insisted on taking 3rd place, as he was competing no-gi, so Mike and I did rock/paper/scissors for 1st and 2nd. I went paper and lost to scissors. I found out
from my daughter afterward that you NEVER start with paper. If only I had known. :)
I feel like I did a lot of things really well, but there are some glaring holes in my game that I can see, too. This is especially true after watching the video of my matches. In the second match, I was able to set up and execute the sweep that I've been working on. I pulled it off twice in the match, but both times failed to control the arm. As a result, I got no points for the sweep because my opponent was able to roll to his knees.
The third match was another 0-0 match which I won in overtime with 3 points for passing guard. Frankly, I'm not sure why I wasn't awarded points at different times in the match, but it's all good. In this match, I was very tired. I was surprised at how gassed I became. I've heard many people talk about how it's different in competition, but feeling it firsthand is an eye opening experience. I felt like I maintained good position in this match. I passed guard, but he kept controlling my head. The first time he did this, early in the match, I was able to get a good grip on his lapel, and was content to work slowly, cinching it in. It's not visible on the tape, but definitely helped me, I think. During the brief break between the match and overtime, I got some timely advice from Coach Foster, and then Trevin told me to move my leg over his head and take his arm if he traps my head like that again. Sure enough, he did, so I moved to step over. Wisely (I guess) he let go of my head right away. Thanks, Trevin! Controlling his bottom leg was the key, I think, to keeping him from rolling, however briefly, to his knees, giving me 3 points for the win.
I learned a lot of things from this competition, both positive and negative:
- I have a decent open guard game. It seemed to give my opponents some trouble. They had a lot of difficulty passing, and when they did, I was often able to get/keep a knee in to keep them from scoring points. In match two, I think it made all the difference. When he pulled guard, I was having trouble. I felt a lot more comfortable from the bottom.
- My half guard game is still weak, but much, much better than it was even one month ago.
- I'm very happy that I tried some new things. In match 1, the take down is one we just learned a few weeks ago. I did it in slow motion, which probably didn't help my chances of succeeding with it. But I did try it, and I'm happy about that.
- The rolling reversal/sweep works very well for me, but I need to focus on control following the reversal. I set it up twice, but failed to get points, and more importantly, if I can do it and stay tight, I'll set up my kimura.
- My armbar attempt from guard (in match 3) needs work. I need to concentrate on staying tight.
- I move slow. I feel like in all three matches, I was moving in slow motion. This is neither good nor bad. It just is. I actually kind of like the sweeps where it looks like my opponent should easily be able to counter... but doesn't.
- I really need to work on finishing. These wars of attrition are tiring! Better to finish fast, get the submission and rest.
- I should also work on improving my cardio, just in case number 7 doesn't work out.
- Positionally, I'm going to spend much more time working to counter a turtled up opponent.
- And clearly, after match two, I need to spend some time working against a strong closed guard. Most of my teammates work an active, open guard game, which I'm comfortable against. In my second match, I had a terrible time cracking his guard open to set up a pass.
