First the bad news:
Meerkat is annoyed. I'm annoyed cos I lost my fight in the first round today because I got my tactics all wrong. I played open guard from the bottom and found it hard to sweep or submit my opponent. I was very much counting on this and it didn't happen. My opponent didn't pass my guard or submit me so I thought I played an even fight but the judges saw it the other way. C'est la vie as they say. Now I know to be more aggressive and avoid fighting from the bottom. Anyway, here is the video for you to see, WARNING: it is very boring...
Now the Good.
Team Imperial had a monster in its midst. This monster was not known to us until the moment the referee shouted Hajime! This mons ter, is now to be called...The Oscarnator. Yes, Oscar, our American chum with one lesson of BJJ and perhaps a handful of g/f sessions at my club BULLDOZERED his way to the most awesome bronze medal in the 80-89Kg group you will ever see. This man got armbarred like about half a dozen times and simply REFUSED to give in. Not only that, but The Oscarnator escaped one wincesome elbow cracking armbar to pin his opponent down and do what Oscar can only do best, hold the mount and crush the poor unfortunate individual. Trust me, the following videos ARE worth seeing, especially his armbar escape.
Round 1 and Oscar takes pretty good control early on against a bigger guy:
Round 2 and he is up against a very good technical BJJ fighter, and somehow, evades an awesome armbar at around 2'06'':
Round 3 - he loses by armbar to the eventual winner of the whole category (this guy is a London Fight Factory BJJer and very good he is too)
Bronze fight off - with NO REST Oscar is on again and watch how his route 1 tactic (take leg, side hold, full mount and hold) works its charm yet again. Magic!
Oscar had to wait to fight right until the end of the day, but boy was it worth it. Finally the camraderie of Team Imperial came out in force as we all gathered beside the mat to cheer on our hero.
Some more good.
Our man Bartek produced some outstanding groundwork skills, exactly as planned. He wanted to work his scissor sweep all week and produced a volley of them at will in his 70-79Kg category. He even secured a number of very excellent armbar attempts before his opponent, rubber jointedly escaped with amazing eel-like abilities! I thought Bartek edged a win but the judges scored two against one, so it was close.
Ooh, before I forget. More good news - well done to sensei Grant, he won Bronze in the weapons kata (doing the sai kata with a pair of tonfas!) and Gold in the pairs with Eddie Garvey. It is a measure of their skill and talent that Grant confessed to not having any time to practise or rehease. He simply went on to the mat and did his stuff. Next year they really need to tell him to give the others a chance as it is not fair he always wins gold ;)
The seminar
Most years I plough my way through the dozen or so mini-seminars in the morning but my mind is constantly thinking about the tournament. But this year was really fun and I enjoyed all the instructors. Some that I remember:A very entertaining and funny sensei from Denmark explaining to us about risk assessment before using ju-jitsu on an assailant.Danny Burzotta getting all of us to work a Twister Eddie Bravo style. I loved this segment!A very tiny wiry chinese boxer who wowed us with his padwork session.Some classic JJ from Jikishin stalwarts Graham Seargent and Brian Mallon, and of course a smart and clever hand drills from sensei Brian.Oh and let me not forget our Belgium guests who this time, put way their BJJ techniques and offered us good old fashioned JJ knife defences.So overall, it was a well run and good event. My head was down a bit after my pathetic attempts and then when Bartek lost I was a bit miffed but the sheer delight at The Oscarnator made it all worthwhile in the end. So well done everyone!!!
4 comments:
Great blog man. Thanks for the props. I would like to say that today (one day after the tourney), I am very much in pain. :( I think I hyper-extended both elbows and a knee. Worse, I just got Nick's email about Roger Gracie teaching his Monday class.
Also, what program do you use to edit the vids?
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HI MEERKATSU. WATCHED YOUR FIGHT AND THOUGHT YOU PERFORMED WELL, BUT WHY NOT TRY A BIT MORE ATTACKING,IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WOULD HAVE SAT ON YOUR BUM ALL DAY WAITING FOR YOUR OPPONENT TO MAKE A MOVE,ALL 3 JUDGES THOUGHT THE SAME.IF YOU FEEL WEIGHT AND STRENGTH IS A PROBLEM THEN THATS SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO WORK ON.YOU ARE A SENIOR BELT AND SHOULD SHOW A BIT MORE RESPECT FOR OTHERS.
Haha, yeh too true I guess. Next time I know better to work different tactics. Fighting on the bottom is a pretty 'safe' way to work techniques, but the drawback is that it takes (me) time to get a result (sweep or submission). If I fought those rules again, I would definitely play more offensive and just 'risk' it a bit more. Just like Oscar in fact, where he went for it 100 percent. But I still maintain, that in my fight, my opponent did not do anything to merit a win, a draw perhaps, but not a win. And I always respect my fellow jitsuka, I hope my articles do reflect that.
Yo Seymour, have'nt looked at videos yet but wanted to congratulate all your guy's on their excelent performance and to remind you all that it's the takingh part that counts; win or loose, if no-one took part unless they were certain that they would win, then the competitions would be short of entrants. Like you say, sometimes you need to take a risk and just enjoy the day. - Oh, yes and thanks for the glowing words.
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