Bodies

Haven’t been around lately have I? I was prepping for my first tournament. It was yesterday. I had two matches one no-gui and one gui. I lost both matches too the same opponent, who seemed like a stand-up guy and didn’t appear to outweigh me by much. Surprisingly, I did better in the no-gui than the gui. I went the distance: single 4 minute round plus one round OT. In the gui he caught me in a triangle. I held out as long as I could but when he rolled me I knew I was fucked. I reluctantly brought my hand up to tap, was then surprised by how weakly I tapped, then went into convulsions. I was conscious of this. Normally, if this happens to someone they pass out FIRST. I remember being calm and realizing what was happening to me I took a deep yoga breath and regained bodily control

If there are any white belts reading this or MMA guys let me tell you what I learned from the experience:

1. If one cannot pass guard in the span of a yoga breath, then you don’t know how to pass guard.
2. Do not think of passing guard as merely a transition, it is an offense maneuver that allows you to establish dominance.
3. My instructor taught me to fight for superior position, don’t just say fuck it and go to guard. However, there are plenty of white belts who do this and even from the stand up phase, call it the “flying guard” if you will. Do not let them get away with this. Find a way to pass guard before you hit the ground, submitthem if you know how.

4. My triangle defense sucks, my takedowns need work too.
5. No-gui can move at break neck pace, proper conditioning requires sprint work as well as running a hard mile.

6. Even though my logic behind entering this tournament was sound, try to space out your competitive events more than a few weeks, 2-3 in a four month span, with about a month between each, and even that is pushing it.

Also, I think the massive number of strawberry burns may be indicative of poor form on my part (no one else seems to get them), but I don’t know what exactly I’m doing wrong.

I’ll try to be better about posting this week.