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.

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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.

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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.

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