Pans 2016

The good:

James, Nader and Walter performing very well

Acai bowls

Cookie bar

Laying around in 80F temps for an afternoon

Rachael's logistical planning
Winning a match at brown

Having Hannette and Mackenzie recognize and chat with me

The meh:

Losing by dubious reffing in absolute

Having a 3hr delay in Oakland on the way home

The bad:

Team drama

Getting beat by Nika AGAIN (she's 3-0 against me)

My "takedowns"

Feeling completely fatigued in absolute

Got in on Wed early afternoon, didn't compete until Friday night. Wednesday was a super chill, relaxed day. 

Thursday we went to watch Nader compete. He did really well, taking silver in adult purple.

Sleep and everything was fine on Thursday into Friday. I thought I was only a couple of pounds under, so didn't eat much Friday. Big mistake. I was at least 7lb under (with gi). Had one of the bbqs but should have had about three.

Rachael went an hour or so before I did. She got a very tough Brazilian that seemed most interested in ripping her gi top off with a weird takedown grip. Rachael slipped on a puddle of water on the mat, her opponent was awarded takedown points and it went downhill from there.

I was feeling pretty good by match time. Wasn't quite as warm as I would like. Made the mistake of not using the warm-up mats. Went out there intending to fake a guard pull to ankle pick, did a shitty job, got taken down and again, downhill from there. Don't remember much about the match other than most of it was spent with her passing my guard.

Didn't feel like I belonged at brown after that, was pretty displeased with myself in general. Signed up for absolute anyway. Should have ran upstairs and had bbq and acai, but didn't. Dumb. No energy for absolute. Won my first match by points. No idea what happened or what the score was. Wanted to quit after that match I was so out of energy. Second match was brutal in that there was lots of movement. I almost tapped to fatigue. Very even match. Lost on points, again, I don't know the score. I was told by several teammates/coaches that I wasn't awarded points that I should have been. Whatever. I was happy to at least have a couple of competitive matches.

The team drama unfolded on Friday and was very bad. I had nothing to do with it, but was in the middle of it based on proximity. It continued for the rest of the weekend, which was unfortunate.

Didn't get to enjoy near the number of black belt matches that I wanted b/c of team commitments, drama, poor seating choices and no one else being especially interested in watching them. We had to be at the airport at 3pm on Sunday, so we missed all of the finals. 

All in all, despite the sour taste of the non jiu jitsu related crap, I'm glad I went. It was great to see teammates/coaches succeed. I had two competitive matches at brown, so I need to cut myself a bit of slack as far as skills are concerned. I still feel like I was promoted waaaaaaaay too early, but whatever.