Guess I Ain't Ready Yet...

Well without too much fanfare...This one is about the Machado Winter Wars Tournament yesterday...If you didn't know, Carlos Machado is pretty much responsible from bringing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu here to Texas, and is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet...The Winter Wars series of Tournaments is pretty much the biggest one here and the unofficial Texas/Southwest championship...there were over 850 competitors yesterday, and it is supposed to be the last, but I really hope it isn't as it is truly one of my favorites...I went to coach my daughter, work as a referee, help coach some of the guys from our team, and to compete...

First off, My daughter went, and in her first match she fought really hard, but came up just a tad short, I think I'm failing her a little bit, as I need to work harder to get through to her the importance of starting fast...Mainly I say this, because, though she doesn't realize it, she is a real talent...Now that she is paying a bit more attention in class and working harder, she should be a great competitor on the mat..I just have to work on her focus...her second match she started out winning and worked really hard but made a tiny mistake and got caught in an arm bar...Her feelings were hurt a bit, but I am VERY PROUD of her as she really did try very hard and a lot of what we worked on, she did...she ended up having fun with the day and that makes me really happy as well that a loss doesn't stick with her like it does with me...

The team did very well...we had MANY first place wins and even a first place in the blue belt absolute...If it had not been for the late hour (bracketing put the tournament a bit behind schedule as did the number of competitors) I am sure we would have taken the white belt absolute as well...big Nia got hosed on a call by the ref (who seemed to have issue with my team all day, by withholding scoring/decisions for some reason), and took second in his division but should have won ...as did one of our rooster or feather weight blue belts who got DQed after some b.s....

As for me...I competed int he Super Heavy Purple Belt Adult division and Super Heavy Purple Belt Masters Division, winning both...the disappointment came in the semi-final match in the Purple Belt Absolute division...I got beat on points by a very good competitor (Albert Hughes)...the match started out, and I pulled guard both too early, and without much authority...Being on my feet refereeing, running back and forth from gym to gym coaching, and dealing with competitors in the Super Heavyweight division who were maybe 40lbs heavier just drained me...BUt, that was no excuse as Idid get to my favorite position and had my favorite submission set up...but it seems my game was studied and he had the precise pass (plus one I'd not practiced defending nor ever seen in competition) to work to get the pass and directly to mount as i attempted a sit out incorrectly...:(...I did get work to a reversal, but did not hold position as I tried to pass and gave the reversal right back to the very same pass...more pts for him...I managed one more reversal but again tried something very dumb once I was up (this is really disheartening b/c I'd been executing this pass on better and bigger opponents than him perfectly in the weeks leading up to this tournament and had a few times in the European Championships)...and I gave him the pass once more...No excuses, his study of my game, and good technique was clearly the better guy ...on that day...but it won't happen again. Just really expected to do better...tired/cramping/mental focus/etc etc...none of them an excuse as I did not execute. Period.

As for my recent post, I still have the Faixa Marrom as my goal before Pan Ams, but I have a tremendous amount of work to do before then. I'm not working as hard as I should or could to achieve what I set out to do, and as long as that's the case I can't be satisfied with doing my best but coming up short in competition. Guess I ain't ready yet. But I'm working on it.


For all who are reading this....Since I am pretty sure with that loss, my Instructor won't promote me before Pan Ams so that I have time to prepare and have a shot at Kron...What do you think I should revise my goals to? The only reason I wanted the belt then was for that, so it doesn't really matter to me when I get it if not then. Any suggestions on something else I could/should shoot for?