I know the Pan championships are old news now, but I finally got my videos uploaded (had someone else with the right cable download and transfer to me)! It’s late, I know, but as my first competition ever it’s still fresh in my mind.

I have to say, watching myself fight is an interesting and very educational experience. I went to the tournament with the singular goal of winning my first fight. I told myself anything beyond that would be nice, but at bare minimum I was going to win one.

Stepping into the bull-pen, I noticed that most guys were at least as nervous as I was. This was reassuring in a way. It helped me to calm down and relax a little more. There were a couple of guys who were really talkative. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know how to act. I had let my beard grow out for a few days in the hope that it would make me look a little tougher and more intimidating. It seems completely silly in retrospect.

Hindsight tells me I should have relaxed just a little more. I wasn’t trying to be cool and tough, I was just cautions, I guess, returning greetings with a friendly hello and small talk, but never really engaging in any conversation beyond that.

The first guy I was fighting was a guy named Josh Gunther. He looked very Scandanavian, as his name suggested. I could tell he was at least as nervous as me. He was also about my same build, which was something new, since I’m taller than most guys at my academy.

I ended up with the green and yellow belt. I told myself it was the Brazilian belt of power. ☺

Stepping on the mat, I tried to remain loose and casual, but I told myself that no matter what, I was going to go hard for the takedown and be aggressive in my standup game. Literally the only standup training I’ve had came in the form of one or two classes scattered throughout our training camp, and some special attention from Ica Medina the last week of training. I have to say, I’m proud of myself for doing exactly what Ica told me to do: get the gi control, then immediately take a couple of steps back and jerk down on the gi to establish dominance, then go for the trip. It worked like a charm, even though I wasn’t that graceful.

Except for the minor detail of me landing with arm in for a triangle. I seriously thought he had me for a second. He winched that down, but luckily I had an elbow in and the iron determination that there was no way I was going to be submitted that quickly. I was able to get a leg over and work his grip open, and from there eventually I was able to get full guard.

I could tell as soon as I broke open the triangle that he was not as aggressive as a lot of the guys at my school, which allowed me to slow down a bit and work for some grips. He was good at defending my choke attempts from guard, but I felt like for some reason his game wasn’t totally on. I told myself at this point that I had him, to just take my time.

For some reason, the only sweep that seems to be really built into me is underhooking the leg, trapping the opposite arm and rolling (I don’t recall what this is called). I go for it all the time in class and people are starting to call me out on it. You can see that I go for it at least three times – one time I try to switch into an armbar attempt until I finally get the setup for the sweep. I really had the setup locked in, though – I completely passed his gi sleeve and gripped it with my underhooking hand.

I’m not quite sure how, but suddenly I noticed that he was in the perfect setup for a triangle. I guess he had put his arm behind my leg to try to bump me off. Anyway, I noticed the setup, and since I’m not good at triangle from mount yet, I broght it over onto my back and winched it up. Luckily the setup worked out and I was able to get the finish. At this point in the video, you can hear my wife who is taping give a little squeal of surprise ☺.

It was a good match and I’m glad I got matched up with Josh, he seemed like a nice guy and didn’t freak out and go postal on me. Getting matched with a turbo gorilla caffeine kick you in the groin guy was probably one of my biggest fears going into the tournament. I hope Josh had a good experience as well.
My second fight took place about 8 minutes later. My opponent had a bye first round. I forget his name. Pathetically, I felt like I had just pushed a train up a hill. Looking at how chill my first match was, I couldn’t believe how exhausted and strained my body felt.

I had a cool experience with this match, even though I lost. For some reason, I had it in my head that I was going let him get the single leg, and then pull some crazy reverse triangle sweep. Very white-belt of me, I know. The cool thing is, though, I just had this feeling that I was going to be able to get an anaconda choke on him.
The cool thing is, it sort of happened. The problem was I had a total brain fart once I got the basic setup, and although I tried to debase him, I couldn’t remember how to get his arm inside for the choke.

The rest of the fight is history. I can’t even begin to point out how many things I did wrong among the few things I did right. I feel I did well being aggressive on the standup, but he was quick to rebound my takedown and side control reversal. And he did have a pretty decent mount, I have to admit.

No matter how I racked my brain, though, between my exhaustion from the first match and his good controls, I couldn’t remember any jiu-jitsu to save my life.

I also have to laugh at the fact that the ref has to tell us three times to stop whenever we go out of bounds.

But I competed, I won my first fight, and I learned a LOT. I did something that scared the crap out of me, and I came out alive. I’ll definitely be back on the competition mat – maybe for the U.S. Open this fall.

Being a white belt, I’m sure there are a million things that any reader could point out about these matches, and I’m happy to get any feedback you have.

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