Sunday, January 19, 2014

January 18th 2014 - Circle of Iron Tournament


It was a long day and I have to thank my wonderful gorgeous wife for being cool with me competing.  Like most tournaments there was a lot of waiting and the most difficult part was figuring out when to warm-up.  Don't want to do it too early and risk getting cold, but you also don't want to wait too long and have your ring called without doing any kind of a warm-up.

They started off with the kids division.  I have to say I was impressed with several of the kids' movement and their tenacity.  The women went next as well as the lighter men divisions.  There was a break as well as a super fight between 2 brown belts that was quite entertaining.  They continued with the rest of the adult matches.  Our team won the trophy in the picture by winning the most medals.  Not bad for a school that is less than a year old.

My division ended up only being myself and a guy that I had faced in the last state games, Nolan.  We talked a little before and after our matches and he's a good guy.  At the last tournament he beat me decisively, so I was interested to see if anything had changed since then.  I went straight to my game plan in the first match.  I got the sleeve grip I wanted and pulled guard right into the omoplata cross guard position.  I was unable to sweep or submit and he eventually ended up in my guard.  A lot of the rest is kind of a blur.  I ended up sweeping and maintaining top for a while.  I had a farside armbar setup but when I went for it, I lost it and lost position.  That was it for my gas tank in this match, he took control and passed my guard and eventually had enough points to win the match. 

Match 2 went a lot better for me.  He pulled guard instead and I passed with an over/under.  I stayed in side control and attempted the safest submissions and maintain side control.  Kimura, north/south choke, to guillotine not really able to finish anything.  He got me into half guard several times and I passed back to side mount.  Finally he stood up on me and I attempted a guillotine but his head popped out.  He scored some points and almost caught up.  This was the only match I won for the day.

I didn't do much offensively in the 3rd match.  I pulled cross guard again but didn't do anything with it.  He passed my guard way too easily and then spent the rest of the match in side control trying to submit me.  I couldn't find a way to escape and lost on points.  Nolan and I talked after the match.  We both agreed that whoever ended up on top of that last match would take it, because both of us were pretty tired.  It happened that he ended up there today.

Several people dropped out of the blue belt open division leaving just 3 of us.  I ended up getting a bye due to my opponent dropping out, although I was a little worried because he was a very big boy.  I fought Kassius for first and second.  We stood up for a little while and I pulled guard.  The best thing I did in this match was get to butterfly and attempt a sweep.  I must not have controlled him enough because he was able to create enough space to escape and then get to side control.  He then worked to mount and submitted me from there.

I felt like I was in a weird mood after the tournament.  Not upset, but also not happy.  I was doing a lot of reflection.  I know I tried my best and gave it my all.  2 silver medals from 1 win and 3 losses.  Doesn't really seem right and I think that is what bothered me the most.  In reality, my performance probably shouldn't have earned me any medals.  After watching my matches on video again.

What should I improve on?  Cardio is the number 1.  Tournament matches are a lot different than rolling in the school.  Everything is faster and tighter and my opponents seem stronger than they normally would.  Side control escapes and not ending up on my side is number 2.  Number 3 maintaining open guard.  This is the most important thing to gain from a tournament experience.  It exposes my deficiencies and what I should spend my time trying to improve.

2 comments:

  1. great effort,Josh. at least you went out there and did your best. did you fight Kassius from premier combat? he's a pro fighter that is a beast.

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  2. Yep that's the guy. I can confirm that he is a beast.

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