Competitions

I have recently compeated in 2 Bjj competitions representing BTT Ze Marcello, the Bristol open and the Grab and pull in Brighton. So I thought I would give you a run down of how they went. Thanks to seymour yang for taking some pics of my fight at the Grab and Pull comp - check out his blog Meerkat (its in my blog list at the very bottom of the page) for loads of interesting posts and articles :-)

BRISTOL OPEN 2009: I live in Eastbourne,, so getting to Bristol was a bit of a trek which involved us getting up when it was still dark, as I'm a student this doesnt happen very often and I was lucky I had alex to drag me out of bed! So off we set with 40 quids worth of snacks, our gi's and alot of nerves. The journey didnt have the best start with out friend accedentally putting petrol into a diesel car, we got 5 minutes down the road before it ground to a halt and we had to push it to the nearest garage. Luckily we managed to get down there, Pete had to go get his car and tolly had to abandon his at the petrol station. I slept most of the way and woke up to Tolly moaning that we were there waaay to early, he has a cool kid phobia of arriving anywhere too early so we stopped at a caf for some breakfast. As i was way under 64 kilos i scoffed a sauage sandwhich while alex and pete looked on tummys rumbeling away while tolly proceeded to scoff the hugest breakfast I have ever seen. We eventually found the sports center where the competition was, and quickly registered, I was in my gi and ready to go!!!! 5 hours, a million toilet trips and a few naps later the moment finally arrived and i nearvously met most of my adversaries in the loo before we started. There was no weigh in but we decided to be split into weight catergories as it seemed fairer that way. I fought at under 64 but they didnt weigh us at all (grrr to all my healthy eating to make sure i was under 64) My first fight was against a girl alot youner than me but she was really tough she tried to pull gaurd but could only get half gaurd, I won on points when i got into mount at the end. The next fight I had was with a woman who was also compeating for the fisrt time, I think all the agressive training with Tolly paid off as i got the take down passed gaurd got into mount and won with the ezekyl choke! (My favourite move of the moment) The next day was the ultimate division but i think most peopel had gone home so it was only me and 1 other girl, the fight went in a blur she pulled guard and i spent a while trying to get out, finally passed, to half gaurd think i had her back for a while but couldnt finish so went bak to side and won on points. All in all I would say it was a pretty good result for my first competition and I was surprised at how calm I managed to remain, I think when you know you have trained hard that it makes you a bit more confident.

Grab and Pull Brighton 2009
I was glad to hear about this competition as it was so close by! Alot more of our club came to this which was good in some ways but bad in others as I was running around the whole time watching people screaming and generally getting way too over amped,,, haha and being told off by the poor guy that was in change of getting people to sit down. There was 4 girls including me and Sophie who I train with at Canton. The first girl had not been training BJJ long but man she was brutal she was going for the take down big time but luckily I'm used to the guys going mad to get the take down at training so I bidded my time and caught her off balence, I cant remember what happened next but I had her in gaurd and then took her back and finally got to mount somehow and finished with the ezekyl choke (still my fav!).
Next Sophie had her fight but unfortunatly the girl got mount and sophie couldnt escape. My next fight was sooo hard neither of us could get the take down and i was adament that I wouldnt pull gaurd. In the end they gave us a minute extra and i just went mad trying to get single leg take down, It was soo weird I felt all my power go and I just thought hell Im going to lose and then sumhow i felt her weight shift and drove forward and got the take down!!!! The last few seconds were spent fumbelling on the floor but luckily that was it I had won! I was also so proud with our team there was only about 10 of us and i won gold, alex and max shared gold in the wight belt ultimate, alex got silver in his weight cat, pete won wight belt in his cat, sophie and the 2 younger boys joe and steven did really well even though the boys they were up against looked really experianced they put up a great fight!

I'm looking forward to all the competitions coming up,,, I took this week off from training to celebrate easter with my familly in london but i'm already getting restless and feel like I've probably put on a ton of weight eating all the yummy home cooked meals but hopefully i'll be well rested and ready to start training hard for the next comps. I think I'm going to keep working on takedowns and passing gaurd, and maybe start doing some strength training again as since I started BJJ i have shunned the gym compleatly. I have loads of pics from the Briston competition that i'll put up and some videos too so when I figure out how to do that properly feel free to copy and use them if you see any you like.