So I am heading to my first BJJ tournament tomorrow. I will be competing in the -194 White belt division and the under 200 intermediate no-gi division. I weigh about 190 so I will be fighting a little overweight. One thing that bugs me is the lack of parity between the two divisions. If I cut down to the next closed no-gi division (-184) I would still be 3 pounds over the next lowest GI division. Combine that with the fact that weigh-ins will happen immediately prior to stepping on the mat, I decided against trying to cut weight. Testing myself against bigger guys will be better for my jiu-jitsu anyway.
As I have written before, this concept of submissions being the only thing that counts will be difficult for me but I have made my decision not to alter my style at all and let the chips fall where they may. I am comfortable with that decision.
To help make sure I am focused for the event I caught the lunch and evening BJJ classes on Wednesday. We focused on a number of variations of the baseball choke. Adam taught three variations with the gi and I think I found a way to make it work no-gi as well. During the evening class, I finally tapped someone with an omaplata. I typically use it as a sweep but mainly because it is hard to finish. My omaplata is really coming along. I even "swept" Adam with it. Yes, I know he was going easy on me and yes I ended up in a worse spot then before after I swept him but I will take anything I can get against Adam. Any time I manage to take advantage of the openings he leaves for me, I take it as improvement.
So hopefully everything goes well at this tournament. As long as I don't get hurt and I perform up to my personal best, I will be happy. I am bringing the video camera so I hope to post some video of the event.
No comments:
Post a Comment