Night Before

It's the night before a regional tournament, and I'm feeling pretty good. Long drive, but good companions. Settled in the hotel, everyone else is out eating. I brought my lunch and dinner for the day, and lucky for me the room had a microwave so I didn't have to eat my meatloaf and sweet potato cold.

Earlier today I went to class with the instructor and one other person (someone else joined halfway through) and we went over random techniques. No warm-ups, more of a discussion with some show-and-practice but very light. Learned a new wrinkle on the arm-bar and triangle. Hips up on the arm-bar earlier to keep them from stacking you. If they posture in the middle of your triangle, drop your legs around their torso and trapped hand, break their posture toward you by holding the back of their head, get your shoulders back, foot on hip and ankle in FRONT of the knee, then knee over the ankle.

Feeling strangely empty about tomorrow...maybe empty isn't the right word. I'm not too focused on stressing out, I guess would be more apt. I had to move from senior to adult b/c there weren't enough competitors, and I think there are either 3 total or 4 total in my weight class at adult. That's all I know, and that's plenty. On the ride over we talked game plans a bit... mine is to pull guard, attempt subs, if that doesn't work, sweep, pass, mount, submit. I don't think I'm nervous, although I typically don't get too bent out of shape the night before. I think traveling with other competitors really helps in this regard. Most everyone is fairly calm about everything except food. Every billboard along the way that touted food was brief torture. Even the McDonald's 40 nuggets. I wouldn't eat at McD's for any reason, but when you are trying to make a weight class, every damn bad thing sounds good. Speaking of weight, I'm 2lb under fully dressed, and weight is w/o gi, so I should be in excellent shape.

So we'll see what tomorrow brings!