I lost my fight at NAGA on Saturday. Here's the shaky-cam footage:
The main lesson that we learned from the tournament is that none of the guys had good stand-up skills or knew proper takedown defense. My coaches come from a wrestling and Judo background and have emphasized training 50% stand-up and 50% ground fighting. After the tournament, we switched back to training stand-up stuff in preparation for NAGA.
At Redline, my schedule lately has been beginner + advanced grappling classes on Monday with Mark and Vic, MMA on Wednesday with Paul, grappling on Saturday with Mark, and some ground work on Sunday with Eric's class (or anyone who happens to be at the gym). Sometimes I throw in some kickboxing conditioning classes, but I've kind of phased out the kickboxing because I haven't been motivated to put in the time to progress at it. Even though the MMA class offers a chance to work on takedowns and submissions, I'm not very excited about it because the grappling technique sort of goes out the window when you add distracting punches.
I talked to Mark about not having enough mat time during the week, and he suggested going to the gym that he attends, Tohoku Judo Club. I tried it out tonight and think that it'll really help — doing Judo seems to build up hand and forearm strength much more than our usual no-gi grappling. And working so much on the throws will definitely be an advantage in a grappling tournament. The gi will take some getting used to; I almost passed out from a collar choke because I'd never encountered one (for the record, the effect works very quickly!). I was a little nervous because I hardly know any Judo and thought I might get slammed, but in fact, everyone was helpful, and none of my limbs broke.
Now that I'm sold on Judo, I bought a cheap gi (why were my Jiu-Jitsu pants more expensive than a whole Judo uniform?) and plan on going to Tohoku on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That leaves Friday off for all of the wild, drunken parties that I love to attend (or more likely, much-needed weight training). Hmm, this is getting serious.
I competed in the NE Grappling Challenge today and took home a silver "metal" after beating this girl in the beginner 145lbs division. Here's the exciting fight in its entirety:
The second fight (that I lost) and the rest of the fights from my fellow Redline Fight Sports teammates are already on youtube.
My first tournament was a great experience. I'm looking forward to the next one in June and improving my stand-up skills in the meantime.
Thank you to everyone who made the hike to Bridgewater to sit in a smelly gym for hours and cheer me on!
I'm planning on competing in two upcoming grappling tournaments:
I didn't think I'd be ready for a tournament, but my instructor, Mark, convinced me by saying, "nobody is ever ready for a tournament." It didn't take much convincing. My game plan is to distract my opponents with my vale tudo shorts and then try for o soto gari or maybe even seoi nage. Once on the ground, I'll rely on my excessive sweatiness to evade submission...
In other news, Tabblo passed the 2 year anniversary of the official acquisition date (and our time in Marlborough). I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it's a notable event.
It's also getting close to the time when I have to decide whether to renew my lease here or move somewhere else. Since I just applied for a passport, my options will be more open! Got any wild suggestions?