Bam! Crunch! Sniff!
And then it was done.
This past Sunday was the inaugural Kyushu Team BJJ Championship at the Kasuya Dome.
There was a reasonable turnout with most schools and organisations in the area well represented save Axis, who have their own tournaments to attend to now.
I entered my category (up to 70kg, Pena or Featherweight) and the absolute, both with the gi. There was a small no-gi tournament held aswell.
My friend Patrick was competing, you can read his write-up, as well as some great tournament tips, over at the lovely Murasaki BJJ.
Well let me just some up the two best parts of the day, in order of importance. First, I got a silver medal. Second, the team I am a part of, Paraestra Hakata, took home the first place plaque in the Team Championships.
The biggest thing I took away from this tournament is what I learned about my mindset. This was the first time I had ever competed feeling truly relaxed. I have to say a big thank you to Caleb (and Chris Moriarty) at the Fightworks Podcast for the excellent episodes on handling pre-competition nerves.
The night before the comp, I was about a kilo overweight. I had a light lunch and a light dinner and went for a jog. It was the best jog I have ever been on. There was a chill in the air, so I wrapped up warm. I chose some inspirational songs on my ipod and started pounding the pavement. I went quite far, to places around my area that I have never been to. It was dark, with the quiet suburban streets illuminated in pools of light thrown down by the occasional lamp-post. I circled a big lake that I had never been around before, and each time my foot hit the pavement I reinforced some ideas to myself.
I convinced myself that I was a legitimate BJJ blue belt with a chance to win as long as I showed my best game. I had a kind of mantra going around in my head:
I have the skill.
I have the experience.
I have the stamina.
I have enough strength.
I have the support.
I wasn’t pumping myself up to be some kind of superman, I was just convincing myself that I deserved to be there like everyone else and if I did my best then I could get a good result.
I got home drenched in sweat but feeling great and hopped on the scales almost a kilo under the allowed weight, which made me feel even better. I slept like a baby.
Approaching the venue the next morning I felt the usual trepidation but it was not that bad at all. I met up with the other members of Paraestra Hakata which gave me a big boost.
Remembering Moriarty’s advice, I tried my best to be relaxed even if I didn’t feel it, and in fact faking it made it much easier to actually relax.
There was a minor hiccup though… my pleasant surprise at seeing Mitsuyoshi Hayakawa with a referee uniform on sharply transformed into underwear-filling worry as he look at my gi pants and told me, in an infuriatingly casual way, that they were illegal and I couldn’t compete in them. Luckily someone from the dojo was on hand to lend me his magic pants and save the day.
Warming up for my first fight I concentrated on what was happening on the mats to take my mind off things, cheering on my team mates and generally having a good time. I didn’t warm up particularly extensively this time and it worked out better for me, I felt fresh and explosive when the fight came rather than soft and warm. I seem to have a problem where I almost feel sleepy before my fights so I gave myself a good slapping all over my body to wake myself up and that really worked, too.
My judo training has paid off and although I am not likely to chuck anyone on their head anytime soon, I felt comfortable enough standing not to be afraid of anything they could throw at me, and I think it showed.
The first fight went better than I could have hoped. I couldn’t secure a grip on his arm or lapel so I shot weakly for his leg, pulled a kind of guard, then noticed immediately that his balance wasn’t set. I surprised myself by pulling off a kind of spinning sweep to get to half guard. I worked for the pass, almost got that, noticed that his collar was nice and loose and my arm was all the way around his head so I sunk in one of my favourite chokes. It was deep as he started to sweep me, so I allowed him to do it and locked my legs over his head. To his credit he held on a long time with the choke fully on. He gurgled a bit and I worried about how long my fingers could hold his collar, but eventually he tapped (just the once) before kind of sagging a bit. I looked at the ref to check and he called the fight.
I slapped the mat in triumph and felt a huge pressure lifted from my shoulders… My parents had come over from England and were there, my wife and baby were there, my friends were there… I had started well.
In the finals I went up against a guy with a crazy shaved mullet. I knew instantly that I was in trouble. Anybody with a haircut that bad has to be tough. Sure enough he kind of flopped to the ground and managed to suck me into a triangle. I think I defended well, and managed to pop my head out but left my arm flapping and he took it and bent it the wrong way. At that moment, I was very pleased to be a blue belt. He secured my hand, raised his hips, I had barely tapped once and he let go. My hat is off to him. If we were white belts that probably would have ended with me being able to touch my left elbow with my cold, limp left hand about now.
I knew I had bagged the silver and I honestly wasn’t that disappointed. I could feel that he was much, much stronger than me, and though I would have liked to see how the match would have gone had I escaped the submission properly, I think he would have won.
Next up was the absolute match, and I was matched up against one of the bad guys from a Bruce Lee movie. He was short and stocky with a bald head and a sinister goatee. This was probably my best performance in a competition ever and definitely my most enjoyable match. My plan was to sit down and work my open or de la riva guard because I didn’t really want to tangle with someone heavier than me standing. I pulled the de la riva but he just kicked my legs away, repeatedly, which surprised me. Nobody has ever used that tactic on me in the dojo. Eventually I sat up for a takedown which he defended but I followed up with a butterfly sweep to get two points. From then on it was smooth sailing as I basically passed his guard, mounted him and took knee on belly at will. I couldn’t quite believe what was going on. I forgot to check the points at the end but there were sixes, fours, threes, and twos all over the shop. It was superb.
In the next round of the open weight I took on a very small and unassuming guy. I looked at him before our fight and he just stood there, not really moving, eyes down, almost half my size. I thought, I’m either going to destroy him or be destroyed.
I came up with the idea to flying triangle him, as you do. I planned to get a deep grip over his back with my long arms, secure and arm, then hop over it into the triangle.
I got quite a long grip and then he ninja’d the fuck out of me, jumping and spinning into the most perfect flying armbar I had ever seen. It was deeeeeeep, right up to my shoulder, and instantly I was in pain. I defended for a while but he left me absolutely nowhere to go except down, and as I fell on my face I tapped, just in time for my shoulder and elbow to make a delightful crunching sound.
I had been destroyed but I still had a smile on my face. The little guy gave me hope for the future… I want to be able to beat bigger people, just like he did.
So I had mixed feelings as the day wore on. Relief, happiness, some mild disappointment at not proceeding further in the tournament, but overall, satisfaction. Then I heard the announcement over the loudspeaker just in time… Paraestra Hakata, my team, had come in first overall at this, the inaugural Kyushu Team Championships. A cheer pealed forth from all of us, louder and more emotional than I expected, and Tomari-san accepted the plaque beaming with pride. It felt absolutely amazing to have given something back to our instructor who always gives us so much. He is at the corner for every one of our fights, always swapping with another referee so he can coach us, and it is his voice that cuts through all the others to tell us what to do, what to grip, to keep calm, not to give up…
We took home loads of medals in the white and blue divisions and in the no-gi, too. Even thinking about it now I get a little tingle of excitement when I think that we won as a team, and that we did Tomari-san proud. We threw him up in the air and he gave us a little speech, gave out a couple of blue belts to the white belts (two of whom met each other in the final of their category), then we staggered home.
Video in coming days!
Filed under: BJJ, Japan, Martial arts, jiu jitsu, kyushu tournament, paraestra hakata | 9 Comments »
