July 28th - Cornhusker State Games 2012 (Videos Included)

Me and my sons after my No-Gi Matches

I competed in the 2012 State Games, held at Lincoln High School, and I received my money's worth.  I weighed in at 196; I could have cut down to 189 if I thought it would have helped, but in the other tournaments when I've cut some weight it didn't matter and I ended up going against people that were bigger or smaller than me just to make a good division.  No worries that's just the way it goes.

Luckily the gym was air conditioned.  Rumors had been circulating that it might not be, so I was happy that my wife and boys could come and not be uncomfortable.  The tournament was run smoothly and once we had the rules meeting and the brackets had been created, the matches went non-stop.

David, Mike, Ken, Claire, Tate, James, and Fuji all fought yesterday and from what I saw everyone represented the school well.  However, I felt like I had a little bit of tunnel vision throughout the day and spent a lot of time focusing on my matches.

I was put into brackets of 3 in both of my no-gi and gi.  I won't go into too many details because you can see in the videos how I did.  I didn't catch everyone's name and I wish I would have.

No-Gi Highlights:
1st Match Win by points 7-2: I pulled off an arm drag to single leg.  After spending a little time on my back I got a reversal and finished the match on top trying for a north-south choke. 

2nd Match Loss by knee bar: It lasted less than 30 seconds.  He pulled deep half and then rolled to a knee bar and slapped me in the face.  I tapped as soon as I realized I was in big trouble. Inacio was his name and apparently he is a brown belt that competed in worlds

3rd Match Win by points 2-0: Same guy from match one.  The maintaining guard practice that I've been doing really paid off.  I was able to get the takedown and from there we had quite a few scrambles but he never passed my guard.

4th Match Loss by Armbar: Inacio again.  Lasted a little longer this time and I actually got takedown points and we had a nice little scramble. 

Gi Highlights:
1st Match Win by Darce: I was stuck in top half guard for 90% of the match which really injured my leg.  My leg still hurts.  The only way I found to get out of the lockdown was to slap the darce on.

2nd Match Loss by Anaconda Choke: I spent a good portion of this match in half guard and then went to deep half.  I almost got the reversal but he sprawled on me and the choke followed.

3rd Match Win by points 8-0: Tough match.  Same guy from gi match #1.  I spent most of the match hunting for his back.  I did not want to end up in his lock-down again.

4th Match Loss by Americana with the legs: I don't like watching this match.  There were a few times that I felt like quitting, especially when he had me in kesai gitama.  I let him pass my guard much too easily.