My first tournament is done. It was fun. I suffered and lost a lot of fat. I spent a lot of money on travel, food and fuel. I cheered on the Martial Arts Students who have become good friends. I spent time with my boys and and my brother and sister in law. Life is very very good.
I was very nervous before my match. My opponent drilled hyper-actively and aggressively with his team mate in the waiting area before our match. I was pretty intimidated.
At the weigh in I was 3.5 lbs under which was lighter than I expected. I drank a sports drink and ate my 3 gels. Fortunately everything was behind schedule and I could feel my energy systems starting to come online fairly soon after.
When we were called to the mat my opponent spent the last minutes bouncing up and down while I stood flat footed and immobile. It might not be optimal but it is optimal for me.
The match was a bit of a blur. I was careful not to waste energy I knew I didn’t have. The messy takedown was awarded to my opponent and he ended up in my full guard. That was where he stayed. I kept him broken down. When he stood in my guard I grabbed his ankles or legs and tried to sweep but he managed to block every time. I broke his posture when he tried a collar choke and I came very close to choking him with the tails of his own Gi. I was awarded three advantage points for some reason. He tried to push my guard of with an arm back, but I was afraid to try for the triangle because he was strong and I wanted him to tire a bit more so that I could be sure I could hold his head. Time ran out and he won with his takedown points.
Wow. I was scared. But I did it.
So now I’ll get back to a healthier diet. I’m going to stay at this weight but I want to trade the remainder of my fat for some muscle and hover right at the border of my weight class on the high end. That means I can actually gain a few pounds.
In terms of BJJ. Open mat, drilling, drilling. I want to abandon the closed guard for a while now and focus on butterfly, sweeps, and drilling for muscle memory of triangles, chokes and armbars.
Workouts are going to be almost exclusively strength and crossfit.
This morning I was 165.5 lbs on the scales. So I have lost 5 lbs in 17 days. At this rate I WILL be able to make weight for the April 24th tournament. PROVIDED I stay disciplined. This is equivalent to 2 lbs a week which is not outrageous. This intermittent fast (19 hours fast followed by 5 hour eating window) seems to work for ME. Other people I know have tried it and they just feel terrible so it goes to show that one size does not fit all.
My strategy for the tournament is pretty sketchy because I have never competed:
- I will prepare by rolling as much as possible over the next couple of weeks.
- Mentally I need to be more the attacker than the defender. Better by far to never have to dig myself out of a tough position.
- I will focus on a combination of cardio to shed the last bit of weight (I need to be 167.5 lbs wearing my Gi)
- and on power endurance workouts (Crossfit and Gym Jones style) lasting more than 5 minutes
- I’ll also make sure I include exercises emphasizing grip strength, bridging power, hamstrings for the guard, and abdominals
- I’ll try to get more sleep.
Aidan’s Gi is torn up past repair so I ordered him a new one. A Keiko Raca black Kimono. He really wanted black. You pretty much need 3 Gi’s each in order to stay ahead of the laundry. He loves his Howard Combat Kimono but I always imagine it would feel like wearing a kevlar weightvest.
Here’s a pic of me back in February trying for an omoplata from rubber guard. My fingers are as bad now as they were then. Healing is slow.
Ha!
Haven’t been able to train or workout this week due to other commitments so between laundry loads I did a quick Crossfit “Cindy”. As many sets as possible in 20 minutes of:
- 5 pullups
- 10 pushups
- 15 squats
I stranded 7 seconds at the end so it was close. Of note: I managed to do the pullups without stopping all the way up to set 12. Around set 16 I had to slow down or throw up.
20 sets in all. 1 better than last time and 6 better than when I started using it as a test again. Good form. That’s a record. Now 21 is calling my name. Yuck.
I wonder if all that time off helped.
Not bad for a guy in his mid 40′s.
