I was definitely a little more nervous leading up to my tournament than I expected to be. The nerves also hit in waves as you progress through different stages of the tournament. Right out of the gate it was a little nerve racking to just get my bearings and figure out the weigh in progress and where I needed to be. The next wave of nerves was the lead up to my first match.
My first gi match was adrenaline filled and I managed to take him down and stay on top of him for most of the match. I was really trying to gift wrap him and take his back from side control/mount but was not able to make anything happen. I ended up winning via point 8-0 which felt really good to get a win right out of the gate. My next match I actually won by walk over because the guy didn’t show.
My third match started with me getting take down and I was just not able to make much happen after that. I found myself able to get into half guard pretty consistently but was not able to progress from there. Every time I made a move to try and get myself out of bottom half guard I wound up getting passed into mount which resulted in me losing 0-9.
My forth match unfortunately went similarly to my third match and I was taken down at the start of the match and was unable to really progress out of half guard. It is tough when you just get stuck on bottom and are unable to get any sort of office going. I was surviving and able to get into half guard really well but unable to get beyond that. I also ended up losing this match 0-9.
My two wins was enough to earn me a bronze metal which felt pretty good for my first tournament. I am proud of what I did and now am getting a pretty clear signal that I need to work on progressing out of half guard to get myself into more offensive cycles.
The nerves set in again while I was waiting for my no gi matches to start but I went out there and did it. My first match started once again with me getting taken down and this was a hard one that had me seeing some stars. I was really trying to progress out of half guard but kept doing so in a way that resulted in them scoring on me and then I would regain half guard and do the same thing again. This resulted in me losing this match 0-23 (a real nail biter lol).
My second match started with me somehow being down by four points I think I was taken down and swept but am honestly not remembering for sure. I was able to find an opportunity to sweep him and make my way to mount. I once again was looking for the back take but did not find the opportunity. I also tried my hand at a kimura but wasn’t able to get anywhere with it and ended up winning the match 6-4.
My third match was actually really back and forth and a tough fight the whole way through. I was able to get a lead fairly early on with a sweep that I got with a guillotine attempt and a back take. I was not able to lock him down very well and lost the back much sooner than I should have (I was pretty gassed and did not get a long break after my last match). We had a scramble that resulted in me landing in De La Riva which we had just went through in class this week but I totally biffed it and he was able to back step and pass my guard. After which I think he mounted me but I don’t remember for sure. I ended up losing 8-4 but felt like this was a match that in retrospect I know a number of things I could have done differently to pull out the victory.
My one win in no gi was enough to get me another bronze medal in my first tournament which I feel really good about. I feel like I got some really good data on what to work on going forward and am excited about my next tournament.