Saturday, October 13, 2012
Today the Hudson Promotional Tournament at Tech Judo, to advance to nikyu
through Batsugun. Two decisive victories in a row against other sankyu’s was
all I needed, which on paper didn’t seem that difficult. The fact that my time
in grade (2.5 years) is over twice as long as the “recommended” time in grade
for this promotion for non-competitors honestly made me feel like I was sandbagging
a bit. I've also technically been judo-ing for 13 years... I’ll get back to how wrong I was later.
After my shift running dorm security I took a subway down to
Port Authority where, of course, I ended up getting lost. I run around MTA
every day, but somehow I couldn’t handle New Jersey Transit? Luckily the bus to
North Bergen was a full 20 minutes late, so a full sprint up a few flights of
stairs put me a train in time to get there an hour early. Earlier in life I
remember tournaments running extremely inefficiently, as in parents yelling at
the tournament directors, heavy weights ending up in kid divisions, and score
boards malfunctioning. Billy Martin and company ran a very smooth tournament,
and if that is the standard for Hudson tournaments now I’m extremely impressed.
Once I confirmed my attendance and looked around, I felt a
sweeping sense of “other-ness.” There were big groups of people from other
clubs there, shooting the breeze and warming up before the tournament. There
was interclub mingling going on that I wasn’t part of because I didn’t know
anybody. Eventually I found my courage and re-introduced myself to some guys from
Oishi Judo—they were nice, and remembered me more for being that kid from
Madagascar more than anything. Even with some social capital, I was still
awkwardly doing stretches and plyometric exercises by myself to warm up. After
way too long of doing that, Billy Martin roared and everyone lined up. He gave
a nice speech about positive Judo, which I appreciated.
Being at the bottom of Judo totem pole, sankyu and 66 kg, my
matches were one of the first. I think I was 3rd lightest at the tournament,
which is pretty good! I thought I had let myself go. Anyway, my first match was
against a fellow from one of those trendy MMA schools that does a little bit of
everything. He had a Brazilian flag on his arm and his judogi was oddly
textured, so I deduced that he was a primarily a BJJ player. We bowed and he
took a low defensive stance, which I knew I was going to end up using sumi
gaeshi to deal with. Initially I got a wazari through de ashi barai and ended
up in his guard which, honestly, I didn’t feel like trying to pass. My goal was
to save energy this first fight, so I fended off a couple of juji gatame
attempts and stood back up. I don’t know if my arms are incredibly weak or I
just suck, but my arms were already tired. We got a very generous amount of
time in newaza for the one exchange, which made me happy inside even though I
didn’t actively participate in it. Anyway, win by sumi gaeshi.
Next up was a gentleman who grew up doing sambo and wrestling
in addition to Judo. How do I get stuck will all of these ground competent people?
Was Billy Martin playing a trick on me? In this match, I got outgripped and
wasn’t able to land him on his back. I probably could have been a lot more
physical because it (would have been) my last match, but I wasn’t thinking
properly at the moment. I realized that I just wasn’t used to the adrenaline—my
focus was so bad that I couldn’t even complete a koshi jime (clock choke)
because I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to put my other arm. We ended
up drawing, but because I had to win two in a row it counted as a loss for me.
I bowed off and got some encouraging words from the
audience, that I fought well and looked better than my 2nd opponent
out there. My first opponent even asked me to show him the technique I threw
him with! People were very friendly here. After relaxing for about a minute, I
realized just how tired my arms were, how bad my cardio is, and that I wouldn’t
be able to do two more matches if I didn’t do something about. I tried to do so
yoga on the open mat, but that didn’t really help. Oh well. Before I knew it,
we cycled back to me and I hopped up for another match.
This time, it was a taller brown belt from Oishi (I think).
This entire match was a blur, but I think I ended it with tai otoshi after
about a minute. It was extremely embarrassing being as tired as I was, but the
tournament doesn’t wait for you to catch your breath. The next guy was
literally the lightest guy in the division, who I tossed around for 4 minutes
and got ¾ of a point (I think). He was pretty good at spinning out of normal angles, so I
decided to try yoko tomoe nage. With a minute left, and ¾ of a point lead.
Stupid stupid stupid. He dodged it and pinned me with kesa gatame. I was
literally gassed and only managed to work my way out with about 3 seconds left
on the osaekomi clock, so I lost. Dammit.
 |
| from judoinfo.com |
Although I didn’t get thrown and threw all my opponents
repeatedly, I still wasn’t able to win two matches in a row. I was a little bit
frustrated, but I think in this situation it was a case of my opponents (and
new friends) being much better prepared than I was for the tournament. Better
cardio and safer throw choices would have been my friend, which I’ll keep in
mind for my next tournament in a few weeks. Unfortunately, none of the guys I
faced advanced either! I guess we’ll do this again in spring. I definitely need
to work on my mind set for competitions. I also got a video camera, so I’ll be
able to put up videos of my other tournaments.
Thanks for stopping by! You’re alright.
-Ben
