Friday, June 12th, the day before the tournament... time to pack everything up and make the drive from Victoria to the Abbotsford center on the mainland. I booked the day off work in order to sleep in and have extra time to make the journey. A few hours before picking up my friend, who was also competing and splitting the cost of the road trip, I decided to have my car washed and pick up a few last minutes things I may have needed. As I was leaving the Langford area I rolled down my driver's side window and noticed the smell of gas. Not long after I pulled into a nearby Canadian Tire with the intention of buying a cheap mouthguard in case I needed one for the tournament when I noticed gas leaking heavily from the underside of my car. FUCK! Just what I needed before making a road trip to Abbotsford for the weekend... luckily it didn't cost my left nut to fix and was repaired in a couple of hours. I finished packing everything, filled up on gas (ha ha), picked up my friend, and hit the highway to the ferry terminal. We lucked out and caught the first one upon getting there. We decided it would be best to book a hotel for the weekend so we didn't have to rush to get back and forth after our competitions and I'm glad we did. It had a swimming pool and hot tub which were the perfect way to relax both before and after the tournament.
A lot of thoughts had been going through my head that night on how I would perform, which attacks I might use, how I would warm up, stretch, what I needed to bring, eat, etc. At some point throughout the trip my friend asked me "So what's your game plan for tomorrow?". Jokingly, yet serious, I answered "...win!". Up until that point I hadn't even thought about a "game plan" or how I might of even achieved that goal, but I knew that it was possible. The best way I can describe how I've felt about any kind of game plan in my Jiu Jitsu so far is summarized in a quote by Nic Gregoriades in "The Spirit of Jiu Jitsu" video which I've referenced several times already: "I've never really been a strategist, I just like to see what happens." I've always found myself to be much like this as well. I like to see what my opponent will do, where I will wind up being, and what I can do from that position, whether it be an attack, to defend, or to escape. That's a large part of the fun of it to me.
Afte spending almost an hour between the pool and the hot tub it was time to wind down for the night and get some rest for the tournament. I don't think I slept at all that night though, I was way too excited! After having a very light breakfast we headed off to the Abbotsford center to get through weigh ins and meet up with some of the other guys competing. After resting for four days and letting my nutrition slide a little I was nervous about making weight for the lightweight division, but I made it at 166.5lbs! I was set and could finally have something more significant than a bowl of raisin bran and some yogurt to eat! My division was scheduled to compete three hours later so I had plenty of time to relax and get some good videos of the other guys matches. While doing so however, I didn't hear the call for my division to go to the bullpen to warm up and they had to call my name twice. Whoops! I made it just in time though, and got in line to head into the competition area. I quickly taped up my ankle and started warming up.
The competition area (6 matches were held at once)
After a couple of the other guys in my division had competed, it was finally my turn. My heart was racing the entire time leading up to this moment and I couldn't get it to go down no matter how much I tried. A few minutes before I stepped onto the mats I closed my eyes and told myself "You can do this" over, and over, and over again. My first opponent was aggressive and got the take down, but I held my own. As the match went on he caught me in a triangle choke. He had it on tight, and I couldn't see a damn thing. I started seeing black and thought I was done for... but, being the crafty bastard that I am, I relaxed, calmed my breathing, and fought my way out of it. I took side control for a moment, then took mount. As I was controlling my opponent in the mount position I saw an opportunity for an arm bar and went for it... I had it in deep and could SWEAR I heard my opponent tap out. "WOOHOO!" I thought, thinking I had just won my first match, not knowing that the "tap out" sound I thought I heard was only the sound of my opponent's feet flopping over onto the mat. We both stood up and the referee looked at me confused... my opponent said "I never tapped!" I laughed for a moment, then we went back it. That mistake lead to my opponent winning the match 14 - 11. I felt like a complete BONEHEAD at that point, but couldn't help but laugh at the same time. Looking back on it now still bothers me a little, but I can laugh about it, and know that I could have submitted him.
My second opponent and myself before going to the ground
This weekend has been many firsts for me. It was my first time "cutting" weight per say, first time competing in the light weight devision, first IBJJF style tournament, first time submitting an opponent in a tournament, and my first medal! Reflecting back on my training over the past month, I couldn't help but ask myself if I should have done anything differently. My answer is no. I'm proud of how I chose to prepare for this tournament and the results.
The other question is where to go from here. So far the plan is continue doing what I've been doing to prepare for the next tournament and see where my weight naturally winds up being. I'll keep doing the conditioning drills, and weight training I've mentioned in my previous post, and dialing in my nutrition. There are always more tournaments around the corner, and goals to be achieved, the next major one of course is to finally obtain my blue belt in BJJ, and Yellow belt in JJJ.
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