But to be honest it wasn't really enough. I have basically existed on a session a week of Jiu Jitsu for the last 3 or 4 weeks which doesn't come close to cutting the mustard when you're about to compete against guys who are training 3,4,5 times a week.
I was in pretty high spirits during the journey up. Chris Cook, a club mate from Weston's DV8 class was good enough to come up with me for support and company (and possibly to drive home should I have injured myself). We had a good laugh on the way up and I was fairly calm.
That changed when I got there though as my adrenaline level just went through the roof the moment I walked into Hereford Leisure Centre. We met up with some Checkmat club mates from Bristol in the hall. Shabba and Martin were in the stands and Josh and Rich were down at the mat waiting area getting ready for their second matches (yes we'd missed their first).
The Hereford Open is totally different to most other Bjj comps I've attended in that the day is fantastically and intricately planned out like a military operation with weigh in times and warm up times and even bracket start times actually happening exactly as written up on the schedule.
I've been to some events (cough* cough* Bristol Open) where you start warming up at the scheduled time and don't get on the mat for a full hour and a half after that.
So you can imagine my surprise to find that Josh and Rich had already had there first fights and were waiting on their second each, by the time we got there. And they were in the Adult Blue Belt <82.3Kg bracket just before mine!?
This straight away set me a bit more nervously on edge. Getting there and being faced with the knowledge that my bracket was next on mat 4. I watched Josh and Rich's matches and then quickly got changed to weigh in.
Time seem to fly by at this point and before I knew it I was down at the table being weighed in by event organiser Dave Coles. I came in about a kilo under the 88.3Kg max weight for my bracket, which was good as I hadn't exactly dieted as hard as I could.
This was where my first mistake occurred. At that point, still not realising how accurate the timings for this competition were, I went back to my seat in the bleachers and relaxed with the guys for a bit. What I should of been doing was warming up over in the warm up area but I thought (judging by past competitions) that I'd have ample warm up time once I'd reported in to the mat 4 judging table at my allotted time of about 12:20.
So when I reported in and started a quick stretching routine, I was a bit gob smacked to have a guy come up and call my name and tell me I was next up on the mat?! Fuck! To make matter worse, the first match went quick as one guy tapped the other guy out in quick fashion,
So I was up. At this point I will admit that I was unprepared and fairly nervous. So much so that when I approached the mat to be ushered forward by our ref, Pippa Granger, I was embarrassed by the fact that she had to ask me to take my wedding ring off (rookie error).
When I got on the mat I was facing off against a guy called Mark Thomas, who later told me he was from the home club (Hereford). He didn't look fazed or nervous at all and was pretty quick into a stand up grip battle and promptly took me down with a suicide trip/throw, holding on to my arm as I hit the ground. From there he quickly rolled over and locked on a reasonably tight arm bar. I turned my arm away from it at first while I moved my body around for an escape but he was fairly tenacious with his grip and turned over on it and yanked hard. A few more seconds of exploring to see if I could escape convinced me that if I held on my arm would probably be broken so I tapped.
At the end of the day, the guy seemed A LOT more prepared than I was and had zero in the way of nerves. He just got the better of me. I count myself quite lucky as he broke the ribs of the guy he fought in the next round so just getting arm barred seems a narrow escape.
I went back and collected myself up and continued warming up (dumbass). It didn't seem long before my second fight (thankfully due to the repecharge system) was called. I was faced off against an exceptionally tall dude called Ryan Bassett who fights out of Chris Rees Academy.I was fortunate to have Chris Cook there to film it which I will attach below.
This guy didn't even give me a second to try for a takedown, jumping guard pretty much straight away. He had quite a strong guard and was immediately trying for a triangle. This being one of my least favourite positions to be in (thanks to club mate Dan Foster) I have watch and drilled a few survival methods and escapes for the triangle recently, so I was quite comfortable with a brace block on his legs allowing me space to breath. I stacked him up high at first although he mixed it up a bit with some trip attempts so I eventually went to my knees (rather than go over and have minimum room to defend myself). I was very conscious of a possible switch to arm bar but it never came and he eventually let up on the triangle attempt.
I was then trying to control his rangy legs for a pass attempt, to which he quickly tried to push me away and get back to his feet. Don't know why now I think back to it but I decided I didn't want him to get back up so grabbed his basing arm and dumped him back on his ass, back into his guard. Perhaps if I'd of let him get up I might of had a chance with my stand up but it's too late for second guessing now. I then spent what seemed like ages trying to pass his guard, eventually going up to my feet for the attempt. At this point he managed to grab my legs and take me down but I was quick to counter and we first came up in 50/50, (although in the video it looks a little bit like I'm reaping his leg :oO) and then I shifted around to get back in his half guard.
At that point I was pleased to note that I was physically stronger than him as I was able to muscle his off side arm to the floor and was ridiculously close with an Americana attempt. Unfortunately he was able to roll me over from there using his half guard to assist him, coming up neatly in my guard and giving him two points on the board.
Two points. My old nemesis. Lost to two points in Bristol. Lost to two points here. I bluffed with a couple of gi choke attempts here and nearly had him with a loop choke. I was also extremely close with an arm bar attempt which he had to do some desperate manoeuvring to avoid. During the scramble I ended up attacking his turtle, trying unsuccessfully for a gi choke from there, before turning around and taking his back...... but with only one hook in. He deftly had my other hook defended with his arm and leg on the floor on that side. I spent valuable seconds at this point trying for a rear naked choke whilst my mates were frantically shouting at me to get my other hook in. Ryan was very clever in defending this when I finally decided to try and the match ended with me trying to turn around him to take mount and him turning on his side to defend and catching my lower leg in half guard.
As you can imagine, I'm pretty gutted about how it ended. I definitely feel I had the ability to win that one at the end there if I'd fought wisely. I even had the advice and support. I just didn't listen quick enough. Again. D'oh! With all that control at the end, I could've found any number of ways to get a couple of cheeky points and win the match (I was ahead on advantages). But I instead tried to finish it with a sub. Now I know this has always been my mentality to want the sub finish but if I'm going to enter these competitions (and I AM going to enter these competitions!), I need to accept that sometimes I need to play the points game. Play it safe first. If I'd of considered this back when I had Ryan in my guard I could've just gone for a quick sweep and got the points (something I'm always berating myself for) but noooo, I seem to always try for the sub.
Serves my losing ass right. Until I drill this must sub mentality out of myself, this will probably keep happening. But it certainly isn't going to stop me from entering.
I'm going to enter the one in February at Hereford. And I'm going train my ass off for this one so I have more confidences going in. Half the battle is with your confidence so I'd pretty much already lost that first fight.
But the second one was down to inexperience and naivety on my behalf and that is something I will have to train and drill out of myself. Even if I have to train whole sessions playing purely for points or something. I've gotta wise up. Learn from this and move on.
It was a great day out up at the Hereford Open, even though I didn't win a match. The event was brilliant. Everybody was friendly. I really can't wait for the next one in February!
Glutton for punishment or stubborn to the bone. I refuse to stop. I will be back for another try. And another. And another. Until the confidence and experience come, and the wins start rolling in.
I love this Art. I love this Sport. I will not quit.
Oh yeah.... Here's that vid I promised. Tell me what you think.
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