“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” – Ulysses S. Grant
I cant remember where I first saw this quote, but, considering the subject at hand, it seemed wholly appropriate. For those of you who aren’t on Facebook, or don’t follow along there regularly, I competed in my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament this weekend. I competed in the American Grappling Challenge Submission Only Tournament at Pickerington Central High School.
For the uninitiated, Submission Only tournaments are a very different breed than your standard run of the mill grappling tournament. As the name states, matches end by submission only. There are no time limits, and no score is kept. You fight until one man quits. I will be honest here as well. The fact that there were no time limits, in a tournament format, had me pretty nervous. I will delve into that in a bit though.
Saturday morning, Jessica and I got up, got everything for the day put together, and headed out to the tournament. After a stop at Starbucks for “The biggest Iced Americano you have” we were on our way. The drive wasnt too bad, considering that it was literally on the opposite side of Columbus from where I live. Traffic, for whatever reason, was only mildly retarded, and I managed to not lose my temper, as is usually the case with driving here. Its been three years now, and the fact the cumulative driving IQ of the residents of the Buckeye State remain in the toilet still boggles the mind. The phrases “yield” and “right of way” have no bearing here, but I digress.
We got to the tournament with plenty of time to spare. As we walked in, there was a check-in booth that was pulling double duty as a ticket booth, as well as an AGC merchandise stand in the cafeteria, outside the gym. There were also a few vendors setup in the common area, selling T-shirts and various MMA and jiujitsu gear. This is a welcome change from what I am used to with powerlifting, where you usually find absolutely zero vendors offering anything, aside from over priced hotdogs and overcooked “pulled pork” sandwiches. Once I signed my waiver, and got Jessicas spectator fee (ONLY 5 BUCKS!) paid, we went into the gym. As we walked in, the bleachers were pulled out on one side, and mats were laid out across the playing area. The other side of the gym had the bleachers up tight against the wall so the athletes had room to warmup. We stopped along the way to watch some of the kids and teenagers compete, and made our way to the locker room to weigh in. I stepped onto the scale at a slim and trim fighting weight of 282.6. I am fortunate, or unfortunate, depending on your perspective, that in jiu jitsu, the maximum allowable weight before the unlimited division is 224.9 pounds. Makes it nice when I have to fight smaller guys, but also means that I could be giving up 50+ pounds at some point in my journey. After weighins, we put our stuff down, and hung out to watch some matches finish up, and then watch the superfights that were scheduled. There were 6 total, 4 fights in the gi, and 2 no gi matches. I will spare the details, but there were some very good matches, and, at least to me, a couple of surprising victories.
After the superfights, I just kind of hung out. Being a white belt, my matches are always some of the last ones to start. Tournaments are done in descending belt rank, so I had some time. Eventually, they got close to where I was going to compete, and I started warming up. I use the term warming up loosely, as I have no idea what a “proper” warmup for jiujitsu is supposed to be like. I just stick to what I know; get some blood flowing, break a light sweat, and stretch out my legs and hips well. This takes me about 15-20 minutes. After that, I was good to go.
There were three guys competing in my division. Rather than standard bracketing, it would be cone in a round-robin format, with each competitor facing the other two. The first guy I fought was Duke Grant. He was fighting out of West Virginia. He is a 3-stripe white belt from Saulo Ribiero Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’m not sure where that’s at in West Virginia, only that is indeed in the state. Rather than try to give the play-by-play, I will let the video do the talking for me, and give you the short version. He submitted about 4 minutes in to shoulder pressure. The second guy in the bracket I fought is named Mike (I think?) Frazee. He was fighting for Team Jorge Gurgel Brazilian Jiu Jitsu out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Much the same as in the first fight, I defeated him by a straight arm lock. You will see it in the video. After the match, I was 2-0, and had won my division.
After having watched the video a few times, I am still happy that I won, but see a ton of mental mistakes and holes on my part. There are a few glaring ones that, after having let the euphoria of victory pass, piss me the fuck off. Ive only been at this 4 months, so its to be expected, but at the same time, they shouldn’t be there, and will cost me dearly should I repeat them when I compete again in August. I have a solid plan for improvement before then, so I am not worried, but disappointed in myself for losing focus. I will chalk it up to newness and first tournament excitement, but they still happened. I’m going to get it fixed though. I am fortunate to have a great team to train with, and instructors who want to see their students win and dominate, sometimes seemingly more so than the students themselves do.
In closing, I want to take a second to thank some people. Professors Jorge Gurgel, John Stutzman, and Dustin Ware have all put in a lot of time and effort with me in class to make sure I was set up to do what I needed to do to win. Rich Ryu, Kelly Toole, Eric York, and the rest of the guys at the Ohio Combat Sports Academy that I train with, day in and day out. I mention those three guys by name as it seems that I constantly heard them coaching me from the side through both of my matches Saturday, and very often during training as well. Thanks guys. Finally to Jessica. She spent a long time helping me get my mind right Friday night before the tournament, filmed the matches, got some awesome pictures, grabbed stuff for me when I needed it, and hung out all day watching the guys on the team compete. Thanks baby. I love you. You definitely helped me get where I needed to be. I also want to say thanks to Paul, Brandon, my brother, and everyone who called, texted, and busted my balls on Facebook and twitter. I appreciate the support.
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