Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Purples
Monday night back at class. Lots of congratulations, and the entire team seemed to be hyped about our weekend. Biiiiiiiiiiiiiig class.
We did take-downs, but my head wasn't really in it. I was working in a group of 3...everyone was b/c of the class size. I think I provided good advice, but my own tries were pretty poo poo.
KOTH, rolled with Rachel B and let her win after transitioning through a number of positions. Rolled with Jesse awhile later. Knew I couldn't let him get on top...but sure enough, he got on top. Finished with an arm-bar. Back in line, then had Chaz, who I could tell was just kindof toying with me, not really going very hard. Time was called.
We lined up, James starting talking about Worlds and what it meant him. He mentioned that I escaped belt testing again b/c I won my division with at least two fights in a major tournament, so I won't have to test for my brown if/when the time comes. He then called up Jamie and Rachael for them to get their fourth stripes. He handed Rachael the tape b/c he was struggling with getting it undone...and then pulled out two purple belts from inside his gi. They were both overwhelmed and the room went nuts. I think pretty much everyone knew it was going to happen except for them (and me). I was so incredibly happy for them, as they both deserve it. Both of their families were there.
Wed Morning
I'm back to mornings after finagling my schedule a bit. Went in this morning and was really happy to see that James was covering baseball bat chokes, loop chokes and his dive choke. I've never been formally taught the BB choke, and I picked up a lot of very useful details that I've been missing. Felt decent with the rest of them.
Rolling was with Sol, Jason S., Dennis and Russ. Got pretty well worked over by all of them except Russ, who was doing a weird knee cut pass where he gave me the underhook twice, which I promptly used to take his back. Either he was trying something new or he was just giving it to me.
Wed Night
Energy was good, warm-ups were no problem. Guard passes tonight, mostly starting from butterfly. Did ok on them, not great. Rolled with Rachael, then Rachel B and a bunch of white belts. Rachael got top control and pretty well dominated the match. The rest of the rolls were pretty easy.
My energy level is good, but my spirit is off. I think it's partially due to hormones. I'm going through a phase with my body that isn't super uncomfortable but at times pretty annoying. I'm also emotionally wiped out from last weekend, and feel like I haven't had a full day/night to myself to rest up. I'm also a little skittish about all of the attention. I don't like having a lot of attention on me, even if it's good.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Master World
Unbelievable weekend. I cannot believe that 3 out of 4 from my school took home gold, winning two or more matches each to do it. I was hoping that one of us would get to the top of the podium but never would have guessed that all three of us that competed on Friday would do it.
Vegas is...Vegas. I'm not a big fan of the city, at least the Strip. Too many people, too loud, too much alcohol, too much extreme behavior, etc., etc. Regardless, that's where we stayed. We flew in Thursday evening, and after checking into the hotel Rachael wanted to walk around a bit. We wandered around and ended up at NYNY. They have a rollercoaster on top of the hotel, and I was more or less coerced into riding it. I would never choose that for myself a night before a big tournament, but I figured it would be a good way to blow off some pent-up energy. It did that for sure. I was trying to control my breathing but it looked in the pictures like I was trying to vomit.
Friday morning we get to the venue around 11:30am b/c Jamie's first match was scheduled for 12:30pm. It was nerve-wracking trying to find Walter so that he could coach Jamie, get space next to the mat to yell/spectate and keep track of the match times. Jamie did awesome, being patient and working for take-downs in all of his matches. I think he was on the bottom once or twice, but otherwise he dominated from top positions. He worked hard on take-downs in class leading up to this and it was gratifying to see his hard work pay off.
The nervous energy inside the building was outrageous. Rachael was scheduled to start around 2:30pm and I was supposed to start around 4:30pm. There were numerous computer/network problems which kept putting everything back. Rachael was pushed back by a half hour or so and I don't think my first match started until 6pm. Again with the trying to track down Walter (he was coaching a lot of people yesterday) and make sure I knew the start times for Rachael's matches. She went out and dominated both the first and second match, getting the second gold. I was so happy for my best friend and teammate.
In my first match my opponent pulled guard. I managed to stay out of the closed guard and quickly passed, taking a top position and worked from mount and the back for the majority of the match. I eventually got an arm-bar to finish.
It was a three person bracket, so she went against the person who had the initial bye. They were pretty evenly matched for a bit, but the other woman eventually passed, got to mount and finished with an armbar. Watching their match I felt like there's no reason why I couldn't beat the third woman. I didn't want to get overconfident, but I wanted to go into the match believing that I could win.
After waiting for what seemed like a very long time (~40min?), I stepped out for the final. I wanted to get the takedown, and did a godawful job of it. I ended up in guard, but at least she didn't get the takedown points. I swept and instead of really focusing on staying on top, I tried to take the back and ended up getting swept. However, somewhere along the way I was awarded an advantage, so as long as she didn't score any other points or advantages I'd win. I was able to close my guard and that was that. I was actively looking for sweeps and submissions, but wasn't able to get anything going. Once I realized I was up an advantage, I kept my guard mostly closed. Less than a minute later, gold.
Happy for myself, but more than that, thrilled for my teammates. Both of them put a lot of work and emotional energy into the tournament. Words can't describe how awesome it was.
Vegas is...Vegas. I'm not a big fan of the city, at least the Strip. Too many people, too loud, too much alcohol, too much extreme behavior, etc., etc. Regardless, that's where we stayed. We flew in Thursday evening, and after checking into the hotel Rachael wanted to walk around a bit. We wandered around and ended up at NYNY. They have a rollercoaster on top of the hotel, and I was more or less coerced into riding it. I would never choose that for myself a night before a big tournament, but I figured it would be a good way to blow off some pent-up energy. It did that for sure. I was trying to control my breathing but it looked in the pictures like I was trying to vomit.
Friday morning we get to the venue around 11:30am b/c Jamie's first match was scheduled for 12:30pm. It was nerve-wracking trying to find Walter so that he could coach Jamie, get space next to the mat to yell/spectate and keep track of the match times. Jamie did awesome, being patient and working for take-downs in all of his matches. I think he was on the bottom once or twice, but otherwise he dominated from top positions. He worked hard on take-downs in class leading up to this and it was gratifying to see his hard work pay off.
The nervous energy inside the building was outrageous. Rachael was scheduled to start around 2:30pm and I was supposed to start around 4:30pm. There were numerous computer/network problems which kept putting everything back. Rachael was pushed back by a half hour or so and I don't think my first match started until 6pm. Again with the trying to track down Walter (he was coaching a lot of people yesterday) and make sure I knew the start times for Rachael's matches. She went out and dominated both the first and second match, getting the second gold. I was so happy for my best friend and teammate.
In my first match my opponent pulled guard. I managed to stay out of the closed guard and quickly passed, taking a top position and worked from mount and the back for the majority of the match. I eventually got an arm-bar to finish.
It was a three person bracket, so she went against the person who had the initial bye. They were pretty evenly matched for a bit, but the other woman eventually passed, got to mount and finished with an armbar. Watching their match I felt like there's no reason why I couldn't beat the third woman. I didn't want to get overconfident, but I wanted to go into the match believing that I could win.
After waiting for what seemed like a very long time (~40min?), I stepped out for the final. I wanted to get the takedown, and did a godawful job of it. I ended up in guard, but at least she didn't get the takedown points. I swept and instead of really focusing on staying on top, I tried to take the back and ended up getting swept. However, somewhere along the way I was awarded an advantage, so as long as she didn't score any other points or advantages I'd win. I was able to close my guard and that was that. I was actively looking for sweeps and submissions, but wasn't able to get anything going. Once I realized I was up an advantage, I kept my guard mostly closed. Less than a minute later, gold.
Happy for myself, but more than that, thrilled for my teammates. Both of them put a lot of work and emotional energy into the tournament. Words can't describe how awesome it was.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Master Worlds Prep
I debated going to advanced class on Sunday, and I should have gone with my gut and stayed home. Just killed my confidence to get rolled up by everyone.
Monday night didn't go much better, as Rachael got me several times. In the later rounds I recovered and had good transitions, but I was starting to question why I compete, why I do jiu jitsu, etc ad nauseum. I've rarely felt like that lately, but the week prior to comps can be a whole lot of not fun.
Going to flow roll Wed night and leave it at that.
It's supposed to be 100F in Vegas this weekend. HOT.
Company completed the move to different city over the weekend. Nice office space, but definitely not a fan of open office environments. It's also going to make training in the mornings tricky b/c of the added commute.
Monday night didn't go much better, as Rachael got me several times. In the later rounds I recovered and had good transitions, but I was starting to question why I compete, why I do jiu jitsu, etc ad nauseum. I've rarely felt like that lately, but the week prior to comps can be a whole lot of not fun.
Going to flow roll Wed night and leave it at that.
It's supposed to be 100F in Vegas this weekend. HOT.
Company completed the move to different city over the weekend. Nice office space, but definitely not a fan of open office environments. It's also going to make training in the mornings tricky b/c of the added commute.
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