Competition Day

Today was competition day. I showed up at 10am to check in. I met the two guys that were in my weight class and close to my age bracket. When it came time to compete, they paired me up with a guy that is close to 11 years younger than me. I didn't take him very seriously at first. when we tied up, he felt a little weak to me. He pulled guard and tied me up in half guard. I froze and he eventually got the sweep and came up in mount. We were close to the edge of the mat, so the referee had us move to the middle.

I was able to bump him off and ended up in his guard. From there he got me in an armbar and submitted me for the win. Since there was only two of us, we had to go again for a best of 3. This time, time seemed to go by so fast. I was able to hold him off from submitting me, but I did not get off any attacks. He ended up winning on points. A lot of points. I do not recall the total, but I remember my big 0.

I went to the podium to collect to consolation silver metal. I felt so depleted of energy that I didn't want to compete in the no-gi tournament. My teammates talked me into competing in the no-gi. I felt bad that they came all that way and paid to support me.

The no-gi tournament had no age restriction. There was four of us approximately the same weight. My first round was with a very tall lean young man in his late twenties. At the time of this tournament, I was 46 and qualified for the Masters 4 division. I was able to get a double leg takedown, but he ended up with a kimura on my left arm. I was able to hold him off for most of the round but I was using my brute strength agains his long skinny arms. Because I didn't know how to defend against the kimura, I eventually got tired and tapped so I would not get hurt. He was able to inch my arm behind me. I didn't know if I could grab my own shorts, so I didn't grab it to stop him from getting my arm behind me.

I think I tired him out for his first place match. The same guy I lost to in the gi tournament defeated him quick and easily.

My second no-gi match was for the bronze metal. This one I was able to get the takedown and pass his guard. from there, I finished the round trying to choke him while in his half guard. Luckily time ran out before my arms gased out. That win earned me the bronze.

After the tournament I went to dinner with my team. I could not eat much. I actually felt like I could roll some more. My team praised me for having the courage to compete. Little did they now the night before, I signed up for my second tournament in May.

Seven days out.

Seven days before I'm scheduled to compete in my first tournament. It was a typical Monday for me. Woke up and packed the girls' snacks and got their uniforms ready. Took the girls to school and went to work. Luckily work was busy so the day went by quickly.

I picked the girls up from school then went to get an adjustment from a new chiropractor. The adjustment was great. More about that later. I came home and ate a light snack before taking the girls to jiu jitsu class. Even though I am a white belt, I help out with the children's class. Mostly tying belts and showing the younger children what to do. Today our professor had me roll with one of the older boys that is competing this weekend also. I went easy on him, just transitioning to different positions to see what he could come up with.

I then stayed for the adults class. Our adults class is two hours long. We do warm ups and drills for the first half of the class, then we did a guard passing drill and some flow rolling. At the end of class I played a little chess with my professor.

Overall, it was a good day. I didn't get hurt. That is my main goal when I train. Not because of the upcoming tournament, but because I do not heal well these days. My nerves are not as bad after class was over. I hope the white belts at the tournament are similar to the white belts I train with. Most of them are younger and heavier than I am. I think I am making a bigger deal out of it than I should. Most of the females at my school have competed.

Well, it's getting late and I am dozing off trying to type this blog.

Signing up for my first tournament.

Well, it's been a year now since I started my journey in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It has been a long year with work, health issues, injuries, and family obligations. I switched my daughters my academy in July of last year. I had them restart as no-stripe white belts because I feel they did not deserve to be four-stripe white belts. I took off a month because of a gout attack, then another three weeks because of an Achilles tendon issue.

The joints in my fingers are all messed up from a new white belt that kept trying to attack them. I had some back pain as well as neck issues from rolling. Lots of bruising on my upper arms and chest.

I have met some really great people and attended a few Jiu Jitsu tournaments this last year. I never considered competing until I realized I am now in the Masters 3/4 division.

Today I signed up for a tournament that is scheduled for next Sunday. It will be exactly one week away. I do not know why I felt compelled to sign up for it. Maybe because I was scared to, and I wanted to face that fear head on. It was almost exactly a year ago that I went to a Tony Robbins' UPW Seminar. I was scared attending that one also. But signing up for that seminar lead me to listen to Tony Robbins and ultimately lead me to my jiu-jitsu journey.

The one biggest takeaway from UPW was that I was my greatest enemy. My limiting beliefs and fear of failure held me back more that anything else. So today I faced my fear and signed up for the tournament. Both gi and no-gi. I have been sick to my stomach all day. I'm thinking I can just through away the $119 registration fee and no-body would know the difference.

Nobody but me that is. I wonder if my opponents are as nervous as I am. What am I thinking, I am still so new to this whole thing. Let's see what happens from here.

Day 5 - Inversion

Day 5 started with take down and sprawling drills. Then we practiced inversion/ spinning drills. I don't remember what it is called. My heel has been hurting from calcification of the achilles tendon at the attachment point. All last week I was walking with a limp. I didn't train in either Krav or jiu-jitsu last week.

In fact, I attended a four day Tony Robbins event at the SAP center. It got me very inspired to do better in life.

So even though I am nursing a painful heel, I decided to go train. I am glad I did. Today I got called out to roll with another white belt. The other guy had been training for 7 months. He is 48 years old, so three years older than me. I rolled with 4 different white belts tonight, and it was a very positive day. I tapped out two of them and was tapped by two of them. The last one was a 14 year old girl that I let her get me in an armbar.

Day 4 - Armbars and a scolding

The intensity is picking up. Three hours of training in one day is fun, but it's too much. I definitely need to space it out a bit.

Yesterday I went to see a podiatrist for pain I have been experiencing in my right foot. Later that day, I went to Krav Maga and worked on 360 knife defence as well as chokes from standing and on the ground. That class lasted one hour.

I have an hour between Krav and Jiu-Jitsu, so I usually just drive over to Jiu-Jitsu and watch or read stuff on my phone until about 20 minutes before class. Then I go inside to change and prepare myself mentally. Since I an new, there is always someone I have not met yet so we exchange pleasantries. This time it was a young 22 year old woman that got her blue belt in under a year. She said she was aiming to get her purple belt by this Christmas. I did not want to dismiss her goals as there are known people like BJ Penn that raise up the ranks very quickly.

Today was armbars and a sweep our professor says will work on white belts to black belts. The move consisted of a lot of parts, but maybe it's because he is going so slow to break it down for us to remember. It definitely works on a compliant training partner, but I do not know if it will work on someone resisting.

Flowing was interesting. Since there was not a lot of color belts, our Professor decided to flow instead of roll. I didn't have any issues that I knew of flowing with most of the other students in class. The last person I flowed with was another white belt that had been training for the last two months. He is very tall and slim. I could tell right from the beginning that he had less control. He was going for a submission. Everytime I felt I could have submitted him, I back away, but it caused him to go harder. This was the first time I felt very exhausted after just a few minutes. When I was able to break away, I told him I had to stop.

I would love to use the excuse that I was tired after training for almost three hours. That the last meal I had was at 1pm that day and we were approaching 9:30 pm. In reality, I was out rolled and for that moment, I felt like being 45 years old is not a good time to be in a full roll with twenty somethings.

At the end of class, our professor looked at me and spoke about tapping when we get caught with a good submission. The was a moment when I was flowing with the tall white belt that he held me in an Americana. I did not think about it at the time because I did not feel he had it in tight. I had my knee on his biceps to block him from completing the move. I was calm and just waiting for him to give up and move to a new submission attempt. I eventually got o out of it, but that was not what our professor saw. I apologized to him as I was leaving. I told him I was too ignorant to know that he caught me in a good lock. I didn't mean it though. In my mind, I was not in any danger. But I didn't want to fight it.

Tap early, tap often, train longer.

Day 3

Today we did a lot of knee on belly. Having a grown man sit on your chest and diaphragm is not something I would like to do everyday. Today we flowed at the end of class. It was the most difficult so far. I was primarily on the offensive, and again I do not believe the upper belts were trying to submit me. I'm feeling tight back muscles. I'll try to stretch it out tomorrow morning.

I spoke to the professor after class and told him I probably would have joined five years ago if the name of the school was a little friendlier. Maybe something like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy in it. It was funny because he showed me a logo that he was working on that said the same thing.

I'm having a great time. The other students are great. I'm really glad I took the chance and started this journey. If I would have walked into a school that emphasizes competition, the outcome may have been different.

First official day and a surprise from the Professor.

Today, March 1, 2018 is my first day as an official student of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It only took me 25 years. I signed up for a one year commitment. I did not have to, I could have easily signed up for the month-to-month or the six month plan, but I wanted to see if I am able to train one year straight without injury. Let's see.

I came in a little early to sign the paperwork and pay my tuition. When I called the instructor about signing up, he told me he had a surprise for me. So after I did all the paperwork, he handed me his black gi. I took it as an honor, right? Or did he just want to get rid of it so he gave it to me. It was the same gi I wore when I did the trial class on Tuesday. Maybe he just didn't like the way I stunk up his gi so he gave it to me.

Anyway, I suited up with a gi I purchased off Amazon. It was fairly cheap at $56 dollars shipped same day. What I really liked about it was that it was unbranded. The only brands I want to wear are my own.

So today we drilled triangle chocks. There are so many muscles that I am using in BJJ that I do not typically use, like my adductors. Also my neck muscles are being overworked trying to keep my head off the mat. I hope in time these lesser used muscles will become conditioned.

When we got to rolling, I managed to not get submitted, but I think that was by design. I did get a submission though. I was able to get a crucifix on a purple belt and finish with a keylock. I think that is what it is called. I definitely feel like they allowed me to do better than I really was. It was part of his build you up speech he have me on Tuesday.

I'm just glad I didn't get hurt. That is my main goal. I really can see the draw of BJJ. It really is a chess match between to people that are trying to kill each other. I'm too tired to type anymore. Three hours of training is too long. I am going to have to break up my Krav Maga days and my BJJ days. Goodnight everyone. Oh, before I go, tell me if you had to tap the first time you rolled, and what do you think of the instructor giving me his own gi?

-Tony