Gold

2/2 NW BJJ Regional Championship

Traveled to Portland, Oregon for the tournament with the team. First travel with this team and had an absolute blast. Left on Friday, arrived in the evening. I think we had 6 people in a 2 bedroom hotel suite on Friday night and 6 people in a single on Saturday night. We travel cozy (and inexpensive).

Food was an issue, primarily b/c I didn't give much thought to it until I was hungry and not in a position to obtain nutrients. I brought a light lunch/dinner for Friday and that was it. I wasn't trying to cut weight, but just making sure that I could maintain safely at several pounds under. I thought we'd all go out to breakfast on Saturday morning, but a bunch of teammates were cutting and we were cutting it close with scheduling, so some instant oatmeal and banana was it. For 12hrs.

Also didn't handle water very well, in that I probably drank half a glass of water all weekend.

That said, we got to the tournament and I ended up with one person in my bracket that was a weight class above me. She was also a white belt. Gar. Of course, I find this out before the rest of my bracket is even called to the bullpen, and I was not ready nor warmed up. I got called up, they explained what was going on, and then we were hitting the mat. Best two out of three matches wins the bracket. I don't think she was much heavier than I was...20lb, if that. We had talked game plans the day before on the drive over, and mine was this: pull guard, work submissions, sweep, mount, submit. So I executed my plan...I pulled guard, I worked a triangle which I couldn't finish (gaaaaaaaarrrr), then transitioned to an arm-bar which I was able to finish. I felt pretty happy with the arm-bar b/c the way we were positioned, I couldn't really see what I had but it felt legit, so I went for it (gently).

Second match, she comes out and pulls guard right away (it's called coaching adjustments, and she had a good coach) and went for a collar choke. She did a great job of breaking my posture. The collar choke got very tight, and had I been in class I would have tapped. However, I let ego get in the way and really did not want to tap to a white belt in competition. So I rode it out, and eventually I think her grip got tired and I was able to survive. Finally got posture, passed her guard, got to side control, then mount, then finished with a fog choke. I don't remember many of the details, I hope someone got it on video.

Gold.

I'm happy for it, but don't really feel like I deserve it. I'm not knocking my opponent in any way...she almost got me with the collar choke and was a good match. Just want to feel like I really earned a gold at the blue belt level, and I don't.

In any case, I missed the call for absolutes, so my chance to roll with other blue belts was wasted. Pretty sad about that.

The team celebrated that night by going out and (eventually) finding a place to eat. Had a little food and a lot of drinks, then went to Voodoo Donuts to get some really funky pastries.

Woke up with a hangover for the first time in probably a year, walked down to Powell's books in flip flops (I left my shoes at the gym where the tournament was held, and still don't have them back) and spent part of a paycheck buying awesome books. Drove home, and ate like a pig and slept like a baby.