This was breakfast today, keeping my weight down for the tournament.
Well, I was on target with weight to spare for my Gi division, so that was one worry off my mind.
I stepped on the mat and unfortunately lost my first gi match via collar choke. I was kind of kicking myself as I felt I wasn’t dynamic enough.
I took it as a learning experience and looked ahead to my no-gi match. As there was no-one else in my bracket Medium Heavy (188) I asked to jump up a weight category to heavy (202 lb max).
I had two matches and lost both, the first by rear naked choke and the second by arm triangle. I felt happier with the first match but I was pissed off by the second, I pulled guard to half guard when I should have driven forward and I left my arm up which gave him the arm triangle. My stance was too high as well.
Looks like I’ll be working on my choke defenses and improving my wrestling.
So frustrating but I’m glad I did it and it pushes me to improve more before my next one.
Thankfully I came away injury-free.
Fantastic way of viewing it all. This was a first tournament ever! Applaud yourself for showing up and learning all that you can learn.
Learning isn’t easy, having courage to face our weaknessness…whoa….
Proud of you? I don’t even feel that I have the right to offer you that…. I am way beneath your growth and courage and determination to keep learning from all setbacks.
You are my mentor.
Thank you
You are too kind, I think you don’t value your own amazing steps as much as you should.