What Was I Thinking?

Last Saturday (August 8,2015) I competed in Grappling Industries’ round robin BJJ tournament at Ryerson University. It was literally a last minute decision to come out of retirement. Now that it’s over, I can safely say, “What was I thinking?”

I performed horribly. First off, I had to lose a couple pounds. I signed up for Masters>blue belt>171lbs-190lbs. The last time I competed, I was near the bottom of the weight class. This time I had to lose a bit to make it.  Secondly, I hadn’t trained that much. Work, family obligations, and just life had limited the amount to times I could make it to the mats. Thirdly, as I’ve stated several times, I suck at Jiu Jitsu. All those things combined should have made me not even think twice about registering.

Match 1:

First of all, there was a bit of fuckery before I hit the mats.  My division got called to mat 3 about an hour before the scheduled time.  I wasn’t even in my gi yet.  I rushed to put it on and ran to the mat.  I was not warmed up at all.  I’d been sitting there for 15 min when the organizer came over and said that we would have to wait.  Mat 1 was way behind schedule and he was moving matches to mat 3.  No problem.  I went and started a slow warm up.  I’d been warming up for 90 min when I said decided that the schedule was fucked and I’d just relax until my division was given notice.  So I lay down and listened to music.  About 45 minutes later, a man (who would turn out to be my first opponent), came running up to me and shouted, “What’s your name?”  I answered and he replied, “C’mon! We’re up!  Let’s go fight!”  Again no proper warm up…

I started out ok.  I got a good trip and landed in top half.  2 points.  He worked his way back to full guard.  I dropped for an ankle lock but he blocked and came up on top.  2 points for him.  After a scramble, I shot for a double and he tried to guillotine.  No dice.  I blocked and stepped around his legs.  Side control, 3 points.  I moved to mount.  4 points.  Now it’s 9-2.  I held mount for a bit trying to pin an arm.  He bumped and rolled.  I went for a really shitty arm bar and he came on top.  3 points.  He passed, 3 points.  We ended up standing again and I went for a modified Tomoe Nage.  Didn’t work.  There was a scramble and he ended on my back with 1 hook…  That’s where it ended 9-8 for me.

Match 2:

What a snooze fest.  He held me down and I couldn’t get up.

Match 3:

Even more of a snooze fest.  I took his back in the last 30 seconds to squeak ahead.  I went for a lapel choke but couldn’t get it.

Match 4:

My specialty.  DQ from a leg reap!  Whoo hoo!

Match 5: – Tie break

So after all those shitty matches, I was tied for second place.  We had a tie break.  It was a super boring match. A lot of standup.  He finally got a late take down and that’s how it ended.  On the plus side, you get to see all my flab flopping around as my gi really comes open.

I ended up 3rd out of 5.  What a poor showing  Barely any submission attempts.  Stuck on my back.  Just shitty all around.  Does it look like I am almost a purple belt?  lol  Give me a break, right?  Anyways, if you watched all those, sorry.

I had signed up for nogi as well.  I was going to pull out but Gregg King convinced me to remain.  I really didn’t want to keep embarrassing myself.  Luckily there was only 1 other man registered in my divisions.  Turns out he got injured and pulled out!  Great.  No further embarrassment.

The end