Remembering Hawaii

I understand that the title up there may be a bit confusing. After all, Hawaii didn't die or go anywhere. It's still in the middle of the Pacific. And I live in Hawaii so why am I remembering something that's right there...or here, I should say.

It's because every now and then I need a reminder of where I am. It's easy to get caught up in routines and let the blinders fall over my eyes. Does that ever happen to you? 5 days a week I wake up at the same time, eat the same breakfast (oatmeal and a banana...yum!), go to the same place, sit in the same spot, leave at the same time, and report to the scheduled after-hour event (usually swimming or jiu-jitsu training). With such a routine steering the majority of my days I forget that I'm living in Hawaii and it feels like I could be anywhere, really.

Something has to come along and jolt me back to reality. Recently it was a visit from one of my best friends. We grew up together in a small mountain-town in California. To give an example of how small the town was, when I moved away there was only one stop-light. Today I think there's 5, so the town is really stepping it up!

My friend is a simple, hard-working, honest guy. If I even hinted a complaint he would merely say, “yeah, well and least you live in f@cking paradise.” Kept me grounded, but more importantly opened my eyes.

During the week he was here I eagerly showed him around Oahu and Kaua'i. He was amazed at just about everything he saw. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, beautiful women, and more beautiful women.

At one point we were walking around and it began to rain. What a bummer, I thought. My friend stopped held out his hands, palms skyward, and tilted his head back a bit. He said, “yep, even your rain is warm. You lucky bastard.”

Just goes to show that it's not all that bad. But more so, I think it's the routine that numbs and blinds me. Doing the same thing day in and day out, week in and week out, tends to distance me from what's right next to me. I get holed up in the routine. And I figure if it can happen to me here in Hawaii it could happen anywhere. Does it happen to you?

During my friend's visit we pretty much immersed ourselves in the beauty of the islands. We gazed upon Oahu from the top of a mountain, we swam with turtles, and explored canyons...simply gorgeous. And did I mention the women? Gorgeous!

My friend's visit reminded me that I do live in a paradise. A place where many people in the world dream of seeing but few actually do. And I get to live it. It's pretty good. I gotta get out there more often!

Haiku - Filtered Tap

Purified water

Flowing through Brita filters

To taste just the same

People at the office had issues with drinking water straight from the tap. We used to have a water dispenser that held those 5 gallon water jugs so we could have bottled water. But that got expensive. So then the policy became “bring your own bottled water” and anarchy nearly ensued. After much fuss a water filter was installed in the sink. Now we can have freshly filtered, clean, crisp water…from the tap

Cheers!

Haiku - Corporate Emergency

Office 9-1-1!
The air conditioning's out,
I can't take the heat!

Inspired by events from the office. It's ironic, our building is almost all glass but there isn't a single window. It's like the architects were trying to keep the fresh air out, perhaps it's bad for productivity. Anyways, because of this design when the air conditioning goes out the office swelters, the air gets stuffy, things get rather uncomfortable, and there are plenty of people to make you aware of it.

 Those privileged enough to make their own schedules will flock away to "work from home." It's simply unbearable...

I get a kick out of it.

Haiku: Buzzwords

Buzzword and buzzword
Be a creative thinker!
More buzzwords, buzzwords!

Inspired by my time in the office and in meetings. It's interesting to listen to the upper-ups talk about creativity and then try to inspire it among the office using the same words each time. Think outside the box, accountability, effective leadership, next steps, so on and so on. It's the same thing over and over...and over.

I wonder if the repetative use of language stifles the act of creation within cubicle walls.

Granted, the upper-ups are probably tasked by their upper-ups to inspire creativity. Probably not an easy task. But still, it's amusing.

Lechon Party!

July, 2011

A few months ago my dad got the idea to roast a pig Filipino style and make some lechon. He researched lechon on google, watched YouTube videos, and spoke to numerous people to figure out how to roast a whole pig. The big day finally came and I flew home to Kauai to check it out.

My dad got a 105 lbs pig and it was chillin in a cooler on ice when I arrived. It had been cleaned and gutted so all we had to do was season it, stuff it, skewer it, rig it, and roast it. Simple right? Yeah, no problem.

We hauled the the pig onto a prep table in the backyard near my dads makeshift fire-pit. Oh by the way, my dad named the pig Porkie but also called it porker...so I guess it really had two names. Anyway, we got the raw pig onto the table and checked it out. There was a small slit at the throat and a large one along its gut. I could pull open the gut and see the hollowed-out inside and the ribs. Kinda cool. I often found myself playing with the pig. Moving its legs to make it look like its running, poking its eyes, shaking its hands, checking out its teeth. Does that count as playing with your food? Whatever, I was having fun with it.

To season the pig we used Hawaiian salt and ground pepper. We lined the inside of Porkie with the seasoning and then skewered the thing. We rammed a pointed metal rod down the pigs throat, through the hollowed-out belly, and right out the back end...yeah that back end. With the rod in place we continued to stuff the pig with garlic, onion, and lemongrass. Next it was time to run some skewers through the pig, which also ran through the rod, to make sure the pig stayed attached to the main rod. The pig's skin is pretty thick so we really had to jam the skewers through it. Then we sewed up the pig's gut to keep all our flavorings inside. Skewered and sewed up, Porkie was ready to hit the heat.

My dad made his own fire-pit with a motor to automatically turn the pig. He placed cinder blocks on the ground, laid chicken wire on top of the blocks, and had some sheet metal around the sides to enclose it and trap the heat. The idea was to rig the main rod with the pig to the motor and place hot coals on the chicken wire and let Porkie roast. As we prepped the pig my mom lit some coals and piled them into the pit. However, the heat was severe enough that the grass caught fire. It didn't burn much but there's a nice charred spot in the yard now.



Backup roasting-pit



Unfortunately, we couldn't properly fix Porkie to my dad's motor apparatus and had to resort to the backup plan. My uncle had access to a roasting pit fashioned from an oil barrel and brought it over earlier. It had two side walls and a roof to trap the heat. The pig fit nicely into it. We turned the motor on and Porkie was on a roll.

My dad bought about a dozen bags of charcoal (Costco anyone?) and two large bags of coconut husk to cook the pig. He learned that burning coconut husk will give the smoke some aroma and add flavor to the pig, similar to using hickory or apple-wood to smoke meat. It didn't take long for Porkie to start dripping fat-juices. The juices only dripped off on one side so we moved to coals to the opposite side to prevent grease fires from shooting up and charring Porkie. This is where the first panic moment came.

When my dad and uncle were raking the coals to one side of the pit they accidentally shook the whole apparatus, which shook the rod that Porkie was stuck to off its track. Porkie fell into the fire, or the coals I should say. Panic ensued. We had to break down the roofing and side panels of the fire-pit so we could lift the pig off the coals all while Porkie was burning up. It took a few minutes but we got Porkie back on his rig and all was good. Only the underside was slightly charred...okay well it was straight up burnt.

After that incident we got the coals all situated and added some coconut husks. Porkie was turning steadily and cooking nicely. And then garlic started to fall out of him. Turns out that as the meat cooks it'll shrink a bit, thus the hole in the pig's gut will become bigger, and the stitch we made will become looser. So every time Porkie rotated a garlic fell out.

Porkie wouldn't be done cooking for about six hours so in the meantime my uncle and I drove across the island to pick up my brother in Hanapepe. He missed all the fun of stuffing and skewering the pig. When we got back to the house Porkie was still spinning and roasting. But we missed another incident. The pig fell in the fire...again.

One of the skewers that held the pig to the main rod came loose. As the pig turned the skewer caught on the roof of the fire-pit and the skewer bent out of shape. The main rod came off its track again, the whole fire-pit started leaning and almost fell apart, and Porkie was back on the coals. Luckily my parents reacted quickly and fixed the whole thing. They got Porkie rigged back up in no time.

With a missing skewer the pig's hind legs began to dangle a little low. They dipped into the coals with every turn. My parent's solution was to wrap Porkie up with rope...well not exactly rope, not exactly a string but something in the middle like a sturdy yarn. They used it to tie the legs tighter to the pigs body and half mummified Porkie. It worked really well!

My dad learned a trick to prevent the skin from burning while the pig roasted by spraying some water on the pig. So we enhanced the idea and used Hawaiian salt mixed with beer to spray the pig. Give it some extra flavor!

Evening came and the pig was fully cooked. Now it was time to take it out of the fire-pit and serve it up. Problem was none of us knew how to do that. To be honest we didn't know what we were doing all along but it would be a shame to mess it up now. People had arrived and they were hungry and eager to try the lechon. It was time to improvise.

We took off the roof and side panels of the fire pit and stared and the pig for a few minutes. If we looked hard enough a solution would eventually come to mind. And it did! We moved a table next to the fire pit and figured we'd just hoist the pig, metal rod and all, onto the table. Trouble was the coals were still hot and the metal rod was just as hot too. My dad put some thin metal sheets, which I think was really just chicken wire wrapped in foil, over the coals to block the heat. I was given two worn out pot-holders that were about as thick as the shorts I was wearing to protect my hands. Good protection from the heat, no doubt.

One of my cousins (I think he's a cousin) had a real heat-resistant oven mitt and lifted one end of Porkie's rod. Since the motor was still running the pig was still spinning at my end of the rod and the thing came of its track...again. Porkie fell onto the coals...again. But this time there was a crowd of people urging me to hurry up and pick up the pig. I panicked to find a part of the rod cool enough to grip and hoisted Porkie out of the coals. My cousin and I placed the pig onto the table and we all stared at it again trying to figure out how to take the skewers out and how to untie all the rope-yarn that looped around the porker. We ended up using knives and wire-cutters to untangle everything. We got it, no problem.



Porkie likes guava



The pig was free of its skewers and untied. We moved it to the party area. I wanted to stick an apple in its mouth Looney-Tunes style but we didn't have any apples. So we used a guava instead, Looney-Tunes Hawaiian style! Then, again, we stood around Porkie staring at it, this time trying to figure out how to carve the thing. After several minutes my dad and cousin each grabbed a knife and sliced into the pig. They did the best they could, which was actually pretty damn good.



Porkie was served! And he was 'ono! That's delicious to my non-Hawaiian speaking friends. Perfectly cooked, tender and juicy, and flavored nicely with everything we stuffed inside. Remember the garlic that fell out while the pig was roasting? Well even those things were delicious. Roasted garlic drizzled in melted pig fat...mmmm mmmm good!



Roasted Garlic



All an all, Lechon party was a success. But, of course, with many lessons learned. Next time we figured to stuff the pig and then line the inside with Ti leaves to keep the garlic from falling out. We'll also purposely roast some garlic on its own because that was a great side dish. We also learned to tie to the legs close to the pigs body from the start to avoid any mishaps with the fire-pit. What else...somebody told us in order to get the pig's skin real nice 'n crispy to poke a lot of holes in it before throwing it on the fire (Porkie's skin was a little tough, but I'm not a skin eater so I didn't mind). We had over a dozen lessons learned, too many to keep track of. Hopefully somebody wrote them all down.

There were about 40 people at the Lechon party. All friends and family. I got so see some of my cousins who I haven't seen in a while, always good. And I got to meet my newest family member, Maka. C ute baby girl, 4 months old. Good food, good people, good times! My dad plans on having an annual Lechon party, and I hope he does because it was fantastic. And hopefully some of you reading this who weren't there can make it next time. It's good eats!



Me 'n Porkie



Evolution in Style - Rolling

7/17/2011

I had an epiphany in jiu-jitsu training today. I was partnered up with a guy who is very athletic and very fast. Good guy, I like rolling with him because he pushes hard but not to the point where things get rough. It was a good training session but I often tried to match his speed and I'd usually end up losing the match. During our roll session the instructor told me, “He's very fast. Not many people can match his speed. So you really gotta work on the establishing position first. Even I have to do that when I roll with him because if you go speed against speed with this guy...forget it”

Such simple words right? But it made something click in my head and I've been thinking about it. I realized that the matches I lost I had been drawn into playing the speed game. The matches that I won I had set up and established position. In the months I've been training I've tried to focus on technique over muscle. Nowadays when I feel myself tensing up and trying to overpower somebody I try let go of what I'm doing. Jiu-jitsu is about technique, not overpowering by sheer force. But it hadn't occurred to me that the same concept can apply to speed. Strength and speed are attributes to compliment your technique, not the technique itself...what a thought!

I then asked myself why was I so drawn into my partner's speed game? When I roll with a stronger person I know to abandon the idea of overpowering them. So why wasn't it the same with somebody faster? I think I figured it out: it's because I used to be quick and fast like that guy. Used to be. I was never a strong person growing up but I was always fast (one of my motto's was if I couldn't beat up the other person I sure as hell would be able to run away). I excelled at soccer in high school because I had speed and quickness – and I knew how to handle a ball relatively well. I guess somewhere in my mind I believe I can still be quick like I used to be and match the guy I was rolling with today. But no, that's not gonna happen. Wear and tear, injuries, and just getting older have caused me to lose a step – or two.

Thinking about this got me wondering how I can adjust my jiu-jitsu game when faced with a faster opponent. Well, the answer is what my instructor had said. Focus on establishing position first, or in other words focus on the technique.

So, of course, I found a way to relate this to when I played soccer. I got injured pretty bad in one game. Missed a quarter of a season and went to physical therapy. Next time I played it was painfully obvious that I had slowed down and my quickness was gone. I could no longer make cuts, especially to the right (still can't today). I couldn't rely on my quickness to slice through multiple defenders like before and I had to adjust my game. Instead of being more of a head-on attacking player I became more of a set-up player. I became more patient, observed the field and how the other teams defense was set up. I timed my runs so that I'd have a step on the defense (they could catch me, but if there wasn't much distance to the goal they wouldn't catch me in time). I worked on holding possession of the ball so that my teammates could get into good positions. That season I scored more goals than any other. I think I averaged a goal per game...until I was injured again and had to bail on the rest of the season. And I wasn't nearly as fast or quick as I had been before. But I understood the game and could still handle the ball relatively well. I had technique.

Jiu-jitsu may be the same way. Strength can be countered with good technique. Same with speed. I'm still trying to find what works for me when I roll. I'm still pretty new to this game and there's a lot to learn. Just means I gotta keep training, trying new positions, keep learning, and hopefully I'll improve. Maybe to the point where I can feel confident about countering bigger, stronger, and faster opponents.

Triple Crown

Triple Crown 6/18/2011

Today was the Triple Crown jiu-jitsu tournament. It's the second tournament I've entered. This time I had a few months of training under my belt and was hoping to have a better performance than my first tournament when I got tapped out in both fights in under a minute. There's a lot to talk about so I'll start with the negatives just to get them outta the way.

So I've heard that the Triple Crown has a reputation for being pretty disorganized. Now I've competed in several sporting events in my life: cross-country meets with 2000+ runners, swimming meets, soccer tournaments, running events, etc. And I gotta say, this Triple Crown was by far the most disorganized event I've ever been in. Weigh-ins were scheduled for 10am, me and a bunch of people from my school that were competing got in line to weigh in at 10am sharp. We didn't get to the scales until 11am. Then I found that there were only two scales. Now the Triple Crown staff knew they had several hundred people competing and for an $80 per person entry fee they can get a few more scales. Plus they were handling all check ins by hand along with walk-on registrations. Again for $80 per person they could use a computer and have a program developed to make everything run smoother. Get an automated check-in process and quicker process for walk-on participants. That way the Triple Crown staff won't have to mess with all the paperwork to make sure everybody got checked in and all the walk-on participants got added to the roster. Plus, we won't have to wait in line so long.

By the time we got weighed in and went inside I figured the kids tournament would be well under way but it hadn't even started yet. I also found there were only 6 mats. Several hundred people and only 6 mats. Plus the seating area was very small and many people had to stand and all the walkways got packed. I don't think they really thought through the amount of space needed for all the participants and their families that would be watching.

Then there were the refs and scorekeepers. They barely paid attention to the matches. I often saw refs watching other fights going on and not the one they're supposed to be reffing. A few times points weren't given because the ref wasn't paying attention. Same thing for the scorekeepers. I saw them on their phones, watching other matches, or just zoning out. When the ref would signal to add points to the board the scorekeeper missed it. People train hard for this event and drop a lot of money to participate, the least the staff could do is give them a fair deal and pay attention.

The wait was brutal too. I got there at 10am, weighed in at 11am, then waited until about 7pm to be called to the warm up area, then waited until past 8pm for my weight division's turn to go. This sucked on several levels. First I was nervous as hell going into the weigh-ins and the nerves kept up for a while afterward. Then I just got bored. Then I reached a point where I was just meh about the whole thing because I had been there all day waiting. To make it worse, I had some friends show up to watch and they ended up waiting around all day and had to leave before my division was called up. I felt bad about them having to wait around all day just to leave without seeing what they came for.

So there's the bad stuff – looking back that's kind of a lot. Anyway, I finally got my turn to roll so here's how it went.

My opponent seemed like he'd be tough. He was a little bigger than me and he looked pretty athletic. When the match began we shook hands and started to circle. I wanted to grab his collar and try a single-leg take-down I learned this past week. I faked with my right and shot in with my left and got a hold of his collar but he beat me to the punch. Just before I was about to drop down for his leg, my opponent got a hold of my collar and pulled me down. He tried to roll back and lift me up with his legs to throw me over but I was able to adjust my weight and block it. I got a hold of his leg and was able to land in side-control. I got 2 points for the take-down. I was in a good spot. I felt heavy on him and was able to maneuver around they guy and block his attempts to regain guard. I moved from side-control to north-south. He tried to push me away but I kept heavy and moved to his other side. Back in side-control. I probably could've kept that up for a while but I didn't want to stall, I wanted to try making a move.

I used my hips to push one of his arms away and create some space. I heard one of my coaches yell that I could go for the mount position. Now I'm not good at mount but if I got it that's 4 more points so I went for it. I pushed my opponents legs over and tried to step over. But the guy moved just enough to get me off balance and my leg never made it over. The guy scrambled and sat up to try and push me onto my back. I adjusted my hips and got both my knees on the ground (now we're both on our knees and he's still trying to push me back), I grabbed his knees put my shoulder into his chest and swept his legs out from under him. I put the guy on his back but he had one of my legs between his. I remember thinking “ah hell I do not want to let this guy close the half-guard” so I kept a hold on one of his legs and passed around him. I was back in side-control. I thought that since I passed over one of his legs I got 3 points for passing guard and thought I was up 5 to 0.

My opponent was trying to push me up but I kept heavy and I noticed that the arm near my head was in a spot for me to isolate it. So I did. I pushed my forehead into his armpit and wrapped my left arm around his and grabbed my own collar. His left arm was mine. I looked up and saw one of my coaches, Clinton, nodding and gesturing to keep a good grip on my own collar. I heard him yelling out the steps to attack the arm, “hold his other bicep down, roll him and go.” Now this technique is an armbar that I've only pulled off once in training, I don't have a high success rate with it but I went for it anyways. I kept my grip, pushed his other arm to the mat, came up a little and stepped over his head. The step over is where this technique usually goes wrong for me in training and the same thing happened here. The guy got his arm back, we scrambled for a moment, and we both ended up on our knees again. He had me in a headlock and was going for a guillotine choke. I grabbed his knees and swept them the same way I had done earlier making sure I went left so that he couldn't get the choke. I popped my head out and was in side-control for a moment but the guy recovered the full guard.

I wasn't sure if I earned any points for that but regardless I was in my opponents full guard. He immediately went to control my wrists so I got a grip on his gi and kept my elbows in. He wasn't able to get wrist-control on me so I started working to break and pass his guard. I made a mistake here and slipped up with an elbow. I let it go a little far out and my opponent moved his legs up my back into a high guard as he got a hold of my right arm. He was going for an armbar. I heard my coaches telling me to posture up. I pushed down on his chest with my left hand and exploded upward and got my arm out. But my opponent was quick. He got a grip on my right wrist as I stood up. He threw a leg across my face and attacked the armbar. He had it pretty tight. I still had time to make an adjustment to work free and he had time to make and adjustment to finish it but at that moment my elbow popped. It wasn't the kind of pop like something in the joint just got injured, it was the kind of pop that happens when you stretch out. I wasn't ready to tap yet and was going to work to get free but my opponent suddenly let my arm go.

Now I gotta say something here. My opponent let go because he heard the pop and thought my arm was hurt. That's a classy move. Just goes to show that he was there as an athlete to compete and not hurt anybody because he was legitimately concerned. My hat goes off to the guy because I really appreciated the gesture and thanked him for it after the match.

I actually thought the ref had stopped the match (the ref can stop the match any time he thinks a submission attempt is good) and for a moment my opponent and I sat there looking at each other and the ref. The ref said to keep fighting. My opponent and I shook hands and went back to it.

I was back in his full guard and went back to trying to get out. I got a hold of both his collars with my right hand and got a grip on his hip with my left hand. I shifted my right knee to the middle but the guy shifted his hips to counter the move. I heard Clinton yelling to push down on his hips and I thought, “oh yeah I gotta do that” because I just had my hand there but wasn't doing anything with it. I put my weight onto my left arm until I felt his hips firmly on the mat. Then I got my right knee back in the middle and extended my left leg back a bit to drop my hips.

As I moved my hips it felt like I broke the guard but they guy immediately went for a scissor sweep. It knocked me off balance but I was able to recover. I moved back to reestablish my base but I wasn't quick enough. My opponent went for the scissor sweep again and got it. Now I was on my back and he was in side-control. He just got 2 points.

I could hear Clinton and Broc (another one of the coaches) yelling out the steps I needed to take to get the guy into my full guard. I tried to step over and trap one of his legs but he was quick to avoid it and got heavy. At this point I relaxed a bit and tried to figure out what this guy might be planning to do based on his body position. In the moments I relaxed he didn't move at all. I figured just to forget it and go back to work on getting this guy into my guard. Now I heard Broc closer telling me to get the sea shell, which is a hand position for defending against side-control. I worked my elbow under my opponent's belly and cupped my hand around his ribs – sea shell. This is where I made my mistake. I forgot about my legs. With my hands in place I tried to bump and create space but my legs weren't in the right position. My opponent used the space I created to put his leg over and mount me. Now I'm in a bad spot on my back with this guy sitting on my chest. And he got 4 more points.

I heard Clinton and Broc yelling to trap his leg and bump. I bumped several times, not sure if I really had his leg trapped each time but I couldn't get the guy off of me or reverse position. He put his weight down and got heavy on me. His arm was near my head so I trapped it with mine, trapped his leg on the same side, and bumped again hoping to roll him over. But his base was solid and I couldn't get it.

At this point I realized that bumping wasn't working for me so I had to switch to something else. I also noticed that my opponent wasn't working for any submissions and wanted to ride out the rest of the match in mount. I tried to create some space. I worked my left elbow inside of his thigh (I could also hear Clinton yelling out these steps too, good coach), and I put my right forearm across his belly. I had two ideas here: hip out and create space to get a leg free, or bait him into going for an arm so I could roll with him and regain the top position. He went for the arm.

As my opponent pulled my right arm up toward him I was holding my wrist with my left hand. The momentum helped me sit up and I knew he wasn't going to get the armbar and I would regain the top. But time ended.

I thought I had at least 5 points. I might have scored a few more but I wasn't sure. But to my surprise when I looked at the scoreboard I only had 2 points. I think my opponent had 6 or 8 points, not sure because I was a little shocked to see I only had 2. I lost the match by points.

I'm disappointed not so much with the outcome of the match but with my mindset going into it. At the beginning of this blog I mentioned that throughout the day I went from nervous, to bored, to just meh. Well, I had a “meh” attitude when my fight began. I didn't really feel like I was competing but felt more like I was just going through the motions. As a result I didn't stick with the strategy I had. I'm more comfortable on my back fighting from the full guard but instead I tried to fight from the top position. I also figured that if I ended up in side-control I would attack the americana/keylock. In training I've been successful getting the americana. I've also used it as a distraction to get mount or knee-on-belly position or switch to an armbar depending on how the americana is defended. But instead I went for an armbar that I've only pulled off once before.

Thinking back on it, the “meh” attitude really did me bad. I didn't really feel like I was fighting until 3 minutes had gone by. I was just going through the motions. What brought me back was when I realized that I wasn't controlling my breathing. In training I maintain calm, steady, deep breaths. When my opponent had me in his guard I realized that I wasn't breathing. As a result I was out of breath and winded. This probably took away that extra umph needed to bump the guy off of me when mounted. I was just very lackadaisical leading up to and during parts of the fight.

That mindset confuses me because I've never been like that before a competition. I get pumped up. I put on a game-face and get the attitude of “let's get it on!” Maybe it had something to do with the all-day wait but still yet, when the moment came I wasn't able to get my mind right.

Well, that's how the match went. A bit bummed about my mindset, but I think I performed okay and I didn't get tapped out. But what was awesome was seeing how well Gracie Barra did. I gotta say, GB is awesome. The school did phenomenal taking 7 medals (I think it's 7). In my weight division, we took 1^st and 2^nd. The women also took 1^st and 2^nd. We had two other golds and a bronze (2+2+2+1=7, all right!). That's awesome. Just goes to show that our team is solid. One of the golds was won by Clinton, who entered the competition on the fly replacing Broc who got injured just a few days ago. The guys I train with are champs and our instructor is also a champ. Good to know they're those guys are in your corner. Clinton and Broc never gave up on me during my fight, I could hear all their advice, which was really helpful. Their support along with rest of the team's support was fantastic, I just wish I could've pulled of the win for them.

Next time I'll be better prepared to handle the whole event. Get my mind right for the fight. Hopefully I'll continue to get better and perhaps even bring home a medal for GB.