Rollin' for Fun

 On Saturday I tried out a jiu-jitsu tournament. I've been training for just over a month, I know a few attacks, I barely know how to defend submissions, so I figured why not compete? Sounds like a great idea right? At least I was going up against other white belts.

In my first fight I went up against a guy from a different school. He had four stripes on his belt, which means he's been training for over a year now. I'd be losing this one for sure, it was just a matter of how long I'd last. Well I was on my back pretty quick and was caught in a headlock. I recognized the headlock and tried one of the escapes I learned. But I think it was a setup becuase as soon as I started the escape the guy maneuvered and got into the mount. He went for a couple arm locks but I defended them and was able to get into half-guard. Then he got the arm lock tight and I had to tap out. The fight lasted about a minute and a half.

My second fight was against Dustin, who I train with. He's a cool guy, been training for about 4 months now. We started on the feet. We jostled for position and I attempted a standing guillotine choke. I had it pretty tight but I made the mistake of moving away from him instead of into him. So Dustin got his head out and got the takedown. There I was on my back again! I scrambled into half-guard, couldn't quite get into full-guard. Then I felt his forearm sliding onto my neck. He was going for the same choke he always catches me with in class...and it worked again. I was forced to tap out.

All and all the tournament was fun. I never really expected to win. The way I look at it, I defended a few submissions against a guy with much more experience than me, and I was able to attempt a submission against Dustin. Considering I've only been training for about a month and I went into the tournament with a slight leg injury, I think I did all right. Plus I got to watch some of the advanced matches and it was awesome to see how fluidly they move and transition between positions. The only downside is that my elbow hurts from the arm lock I was caught in and my leg is still bothering me so I have to miss a few days of training to heal.

The weather is supposed to get crazy here in the next few days. Crazy weather for Hawaii means heavy rain and possible lightning. I like lightning, it's awesome we need more lightning storms here. Slightly weird thing: a few nights ago I had a dream that a hurricane is approaching. Now that would be some crazy weather.