Combat

I won my tournament on Saturday. I did nogi only, because the wait between divisions was really long and my back doesn't hold up well to standing or sitting for that amount of time. Must find solution to that, because I wanted to do gi more than nogi, so I was a little bummed. Anyway, my goals were not to be a spaz, and to stay relaxed and do my jiujitsu not react to someone else's. I did that. I pulled guard both times, because that's where I like to be and also I don't love nogi takedowns, and I felt like I controlled both matches pretty well. However, there was so much I could've done but didn't. Like I completely disregarded the fundamental principle of separating your opponent's body into two pieces, one of which is immobilized or controlled, which would have gotten me out of this girl's very sticky semi-half guard. Like I was almost past, knee to the ground, but she had a lock on my lower leg. And did I freeze her upper body? No, I did not. Not effectively anyway. But I did have the presence of mind to attack with an americana right at the end, because there was no score and I felt it would be in my favor. I would have had it, too, given a few more seconds, I think. So I'm glad about that. Mostly I just keep thinking about how I could have done better. And I think for NAGA, if I do it, I'm going up a weight class. This was just a local tournament, and I think the competition will be better at NAGA by a lot, but I also think that dominating matches isn't going to do much for me, experience-wise. I'm of the mindset that you tend to learn more from doing sports with people who can wipe their ass with you.

So I'll be preparing for that next.