Zade and Arriany..
Here's me and Eddie Bravo..
And Tim Kennedy, who trains with us..
Rousimar Palhares (l.) and Nate Marquardt...
Good times had by all, but I think 6 hours in the venue was too much.
Then today I competed in the Texas Open Fight to Win tournament.. I registered for intermediate and advanced nogi and blue belt gi, but was not put into the expert nogi brackets which ended up being fine with me. The takehome? Gold in nogi, silver in gi, but that's way better on paper than it was in real life. I will post video in the near future (though I accidentally taped a little bit over the start of my first nogi match, booo.) I hate this picture, it's one of the least flattering I've ever taken, but with Tartovski (of Angry Hugging- BJJ for the Modern Idiot) telling me "pics or it didn't happen" I felt I had to come through with SOME proof.
I won my nogi matches which is frankly a shock. (I think I've won TWO nogi matches in my entire life.) I use the word "won" loosely because they were both tied on points (2-2 the first and 0-0 the second) and my hand was raised by the ref, but... I just felt like I should have been crushing these girls and I didn't.
My takedowns were not taking and not downing. I wasn't getting taken down for the most part which is good, but man, this just re-emphasizes the necessity for taking peeps down and not relying on their guard pull (and thence your guard pass.) Also the whole damn nogi business is so slippery slidey spinny speedy. I prefer to be close tight smashy heavy methodical. So this is something I need to stretch to accommodate.
Then in gi-- Erikka Flom, winner of our division (leve blue) at Mundials this year was my first match. She got her arm popped super bad in nogi (girl didn't let go, but cranked at the tap and only let go when Erikka BIT her. No joke.) So Erikka bailed, I had a bye, and thus my first match was finals. Short version: she pulled guard, I passed, I got her arm in an interesting transition I can't immediately recall, and I thought I had a sweet armbar. In fact, the footage reveals her tapping twice.. I felt her tap... and the crowd exclaimed that she tapped.. but the ref didn't see it so when I let up, she kept fighting and after two of those, I gave up and transitioned to mountish then side control. From there, she caught my arm and head in a reverse triangle, scissored her thighs really roughly, and popped my nose (I thought it was broken so I tapped- and it didn't even have the decency to be broken or even BLEED!) BOOOO.
So that's that.
On other fronts, I am slammed with deadlines at work, and had some personal business come up which is going to substantially affect my focus for a while. I haven't decided yet whether I will blog about it-- sometimes I do think if I don't blog about it, it doesn't happen-- but I'd appreciate your well-wishes. Don't feel like you need to comment or whatever, just send it through the air. Thanks.
8 comments:
OMG YES that girl TAPPED!!! I was watching your match and totally was suprised the ref didn't see it and the girl didnt' have to decency to own up to it!
Yay! :)
I'm waiting for the pontificating about what you need to fix. :)
Eeek, where's sportsmanship in that! I hope you can post the video. But you definitely got nice blings on your neck! :)
Oh wow...there seems to be some really bad apples at this tournament. Or maybe it was the same girl who popped Erikka's elbow that didn't own up to the tap in your match? Either way, that's really messed up and terrible sportsmanship. And it seems wrong that the girl from Erikka's match didn't get kicked out and banned completely. This is a competition, not life or death!
*well wishes going your way*
...whoa, next tournament they should just put up a cage and have a last woman standing free for all.
Sorry your nose got popped - but be glad it's not broken. A broken nose is a real pain to train with - going for North/South sucks, takedowns where you want to get your head in tight suck, guys crossfacing you sucks, guys bringing their arms across for choke attempts sucks...(yeah that's the voice of experience from a stray elbow 2 weeks ago)- although the technicolor on the accompanying black eye was cool.
~and good thoughts going your way~
OMG...Oh wow...sounds more like someone really got their feelings hurt. The two girls everyone is posting about here are NOT bad sportsmen. On the contrary they are well known for being vary humble competitors. They don't ever boast or brag and they do TAP and own up to it when it happens. The girl who had a match with Erikka did not crank the arm. She let go as soon as she realized she was tapping, and she clearly let go before the ref even got there. Competitors get hurt at tournaments all the time, it happens - it is a tournament, not class, or practice, but it's not intentional. Saying she should have been banned was a stupid comment, she was very sportsman like and respectful to each of the competitors. As for the other girl, if she would've tapped she would have gotten up and taken her loss accordingly like she did when she lost her previous matches that day - she had nothing to own up to. There really is no further justification or explanation necessary. The girls really respected each of their competitor's and thought highly of each one - it's a shame to see you and others make them sound to be bad young ladies. I guess maybe after reading your posts and comments, the girls wont have the same respect for you that they once had. Sounds like there are some hypocrites out there when they talk about bad sportsmanship!
Anony,
I'm not saying they were bad sportswomen. I am simply reporting what I was told (re: Erikka's match) and what I observed (re: my own match, the crowd's comments, and my videotape.) Other peoples' comments are just that-- their own. I don't have anything to do with what other people report or what they advocate.
Trust me, my feelings weren't hurt. I'm 38 years old, it's just jiu jitsu, and a local tournament up the street from my house. I love jiu jitsu, but I don't lie for it. BELIEVE ME, I have more important things going on in my life right now. :)
I have NOTHING personal against the ladies I fight, win or lose. It's a game and we all lose some, we all win some. I had a funny moment in one match which showed that my opponent understood this: I was trying to get a grip on her back and my hand got caught in her ponytail-- she looked at me all mad, but (while we're still grappling!) I patted her back under her hair and said "Sorry! didn't mean to pull it!" Of course someone saw me pat her back and said I was tapping, lol, but my opponent knew that wasn't the case-- and we kept right on going.
I don't think any of my opponents are bad people. Far from it. If someone has less respect for me because of what I write, so be it. I'm not ashamed of reporting my experience. Maybe it is interesting for people to see how their actions get portrayed by others.
If they are reading this, perhaps it will be enlightening in the sense that they shouldn't do anything which can be misconstrued as a tap, if they're not tapping. Or that they should immediately let up any time they think their opponent is tapping, EVEN IF it means (like what happened to me) they end up losing position in a scramble and losing the match. I'd rather tap and lose because I was erring on the side of caution than miss a tap and hurt my opponent unnecessarily.
That's just me. People are welcome to disagree but I don't think I'm saying anything worthy of disrespect.
Anon, that was ME saying she was a bad sport. And I don't personally know these girls, so perhaps I should have been more tasteful in my comment. And maybe the one fighting Erikka really didn't feel the tap. But to tap and then keep going, when MULTIPLE PEOPLE saw the tap? If she wasn't tapping, then she was doing something that was too close to it. I know I shouldn't judge, especially since I wasn't even there to see any of this myself. But in any case, don't accuse Georgette of saying things that she didn't say. She merely reported what she saw; I'M the one that called them bad sports.
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