No Gi Worlds

This was the super secret squirrel plan. Don't tell anyone beforehand that we're going down to no gi Worlds and see what happens.

What happened is that Rachael beat the only other woman in her division and took gold. She went 2-1 in absolute for bronze. I lost to the only other woman in my division, went 2-1 in absolute and picked up another silver. By a quirk in their bracketing, she had an extra elimination fight in absolute, which is why one of us got silver and one got bronze for the same number of matches.

My division match was against a woman that I met a couple of years ago at Pans when we were blue belts. We didn't end up competing against one another, but figured it'd happen sooner or later. She pretty much kicked my ass. I pulled a godawful guard, which gave her an immediate and deep knee slice pass attempt. Not sure what happened after that, other than I had a body triangle from bottom (I don't even know) that I desperately and in vain tried to turn into a sweep. She had a very tight choke at one point that left me feeling not so hot after the match. Lost on points, don't know the total.

Felt like crap after that, more emotionally than physically. Was perked up a bit when Rachael won, but couldn't shake my disappointment. Went into absolute with some attitude. 

Controlled my first absolute match from the outset, taking the back and working from there for awhile before transitioning to mount and then an arm-bar submission.

Second match was much, much more difficult. I was up on points with a sweep, got greedy with a pass and gave the points right back. Really kicked myself at the time for giving up the points. Had a very tight triangle applied at one point but couldn't finish because the elbow wasn't out quite far enough. I must have got another pass or sweep, b/c I won on points not advantages. It was a very close affair though, and I was physically wrecked after 6min of pretty much non-stop going.

I had a 12min break before the final. I didn't think it would be enough b/c I was gasping for air like crazy. After about 10min though I felt ready to go, so luckily the time worked out just right. I went against the woman that knocked Rachael out. I knew she was going to be very good, and she was. I pulled a desperation guard, and she immediately went on the attack with a choke as a way to free up a pass. The choke was very, very tight. I seriously considered tapping, and thought it was possible that I might pass out before tapping. I stuck with it though, gave myself just enough space to breathe and eventually her arms tired enough that I popped my head out. I may have gotten a sweep at some point. I went for a pass and HAD IT but couldn't hold for 3sec before she regained guard. She locked up a kimura from bottom and while I respected it, I didn't respect it enough. She ripped out and used it to reverse position. I rolled and tried to get out of it but she got it to the point that I was out of options and had to tap.

I was really down on myself for getting so close to making it a close fight and losing the discipline of submission defense. I was very tired by the end (my first match was around 1pm, my last match at 6:30pm). We'd been there since 10am to see Walter compete in his final. Happy to have it over with though, and happy to share the podium for the first time with my bestie.

The next day I got some perspective and felt a bit better about everything. First, I never train no gi. Second, I'm probably close to a decade older than many of the other competitors. Third, the whole point to put yourself out there and compete as hard as you can to find your strengths and weaknesses. I found some major weaknesses in my game, namely choke defense from bottom half, pulling no gi guard, being aggressive, kimura defense from the top and passing half guard. 

Even though I'm not happy with the results, I did try my best in every match and never gave up when I was in a bad spot. I went down there and stepped on the mat, so at the very least I have to be content with that.