Fierce Fight Competition Results

Today was the first competition I've done in almost 16 months, and my first time competing at the blue belt level. Needless to say I was a little more nervous this time around because of that. The blue belt level opens up a whole new world of attacks (leg locks, toe holds, heel hooks, knee bars) and I'm not very familiar with many of them. As soon as my gi was on and my belt was tied my heart started pounding out of my chest and didn't stop until the entire tournament was over. I've felt this before in previous competitions so I knew what to expect and just accepted that it was happening rather than trying to fight it. I thought it would play a factor in my first match but I managed to keep calm and paced myself. In previous competitions I found it difficult to listen to my coach because of the adrenaline rush, but I remained calm and focused this time, and listened to everything he told me to do. I maintained several dominant positions, landed a couple of take downs, and won by points after the match time had expired.

I went into my second match pretty tired and my mouth was dry, but I did well. I lost to a toe hold submission after 3 minutes, but took second place which I was more than happy with. I was impressed with how well I managed to keep calm and pulled off some great counter attacks.

I also entered into the absolute division, which is an open weight category. I was still pretty tired from my first two matches but carried on, my heart rate still through the roof. Going into this match my corner coach said "Be more aggressive, don't be afraid to pull the trigger." Having a lack of aggression is often how I would lose matches in the past so I took his advice. After a couple of minutes I saw an opportunity to get back up to my feet and went in for a throw. I was down by two points and all I could hear Geoff yelling was "Take him down, take him down, get points for the take down!" Then BOOM, I landed an O-Soto-Guruma throw and finished my opponent with an arm bar. I lost my next match to a belly down arm bar so I was out of the competition after that. (It was single elimination)

I was impressed with how well I did today and how much I learned about myself. It was tough, but that's what I love about competing; challenging yourself and overcoming obstacles. I'm looking forward to the next one now! Stay tuned friends.