I think from having been exposed to a fair few judo comps as a kid has made me quite relaxed in the competition environment. Me and my training partner are revved up, turns out we will be fighting in the same division.
I had decided that even though I do better on my back that I should go for the takedown as default and work position rather than hoping to catch them.
So in my first fight I quickly shot in for a double leg, he sprawls but I insist and get him down and get the points. I take side control and try work to mount, he escapes and we grapple abit at knees. I restablish side control and this time work to mount.
I take both his collars and work a collar choke, forcing my fist into his throat. I was hoping to get him to defend this by giving me an arm so I could armbar. But I force it hard and instead get the tap.
One of my training also does well in my division, winning his first fight by points.
2nd fight -
This has me worried, he is from our closest "rival" club. In his first fight he got the cleanest hip throw (or any throw for that matter) of the tournemount that I saw. Very confident standing and blasted through a not bad looking opponent. My coach tells me to pull guard, I think tomoe nage (stomach throw) and pull guard if it goes wrong, he says pull guard, I agree. So Jude Samuel is our ref (first UK blackbelt) and he gets us going. I take a lapel and immediatly pull guard, I go low as I dont want him to grab my trousers and get the two points. It pays off, by pulling guard low I knock his knee and I unbalance him so I immediately go for the sit up sweep. I hear him whisper "oh shit", I get mount!. But what now..., I sit and solidify my position, looking for a arm. He tries to escape underneath and leaves an arm behind. I take it and secure a reverse triangle. I squeeze with everything I got, unsure on how to fully finish it. He taps!. I run off celebrating my ass off like I just won wimbledon. Then I go check his ok. Turns out as the blood returned to his head it put him out for a few secs.
Turns out he was also the favourite for our division. I feel I was just lucky but am still happy as Ive enver even pulled off a reverse triangle in training.
My training partner and friend does well in his fight, very nearly losing but pulling it back like a pro. I face him in the finals!
I talk to my opponent from the 2nd fight and he seems a great guy and invites me down to his club, I talk to his coach (ricardo de silva) and he seems awesome as well.
(oxford throwdown + Brighton comp = pull guard on judo guys!)
3rd fight:
Vid here, dont know if you will be able to see it.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=24542701090&subj=843735124
Am stoked that I get to fight him, not worried if I lose. We are in the final so we secure gold and silver for our club. First gold for the club in fact (only been open 10 months). It was my oppenents birthday as well!, unfortuantly he unwisely had oysters the night before. Before our fight starts the oysters come up and he is sick in the bathrooms.
Our fight starts and I know he has a good guard where he often catches me in triangles. So I pull guard and work.
We roll over, scramble, I pass his guard to side, he escapes, gets side on me, mounts me, I escape, we go at it a few more times.
During the fight my coach is cornering us both! with such comments like "Go for the sub jadon, DONT GET SUBBED MAT!", " Posture Jadon posture!, break his posture matt!". I think I remember giggling abit.
I try a galvao style head rolliepolie guard pass!. We scramble again, he catches me in a triangle.
Luckily I was shown a good escape the day before in class. I hold his knee with both hands, put it to the ground and catdip to break his legs open. It works! Im in zombie mode now reserves are all gone. We scramble again and I get guard. Already tried a few armbars from guard none worked. This one does and I get the armbar and tap!
I dont celebrate so hard this time but am relieved. Best match including sparring sessions Ive ever had. Never given so much. Could of gone either way many times, we hope to fight each other again in the finals of an upcoming comp in Kent. Big props to Matt for putting in such a tough fight after being ill.
We celebrate with beers and birthday cake. Our other team mate got 4th and another gets gold!.
Comps are awesome, met some great people and shall be seeing them again. However when I got my ass kicked in my first comp I knew exactly what I had to do in order to get better and what I was doing bad. Am abit more fuzzy about it this time. But I know I got to work on avoiding triangles! prevention better than cure and all that. Also not sure why I keep on doing my armbar with my shin under their chin.
2 comments:
Hi Jaydon, another good post. You'll have to show me that triangle escape - I could have done with it last Friday! Which knee do you push - the one on the leg that's across your neck or the one on the leg that's locking the triangle in?
Cheers mate!, have a good picture of it in the comp somewhere. You grab the knee with both hands, so the knee thats against your leg. Then you push it down to the ground, and push forward which gives you some breathing room. Then you walk your feet up and catdip through to break his legs open.
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