Competition Video!

Here's my longest match from this past Saturday (I'm in the white gi). I made a lot of noise in this match, which I'll try to control for future tournaments.

Please leave feedback if you can!

Some thoughts on this match (other than telegraphing my crappy throws by kiai):

I'm happy with myself for being the first one to attack in almost every exchange. During randori I usually play the "wait and counter" game, but Mike Oshima who's an alumni of this tournament gave me the advice to be aggressive. It's likely the case that as my opponents increase in skill level, I'll have to force them to give me openings to attack instead of waiting. On the matter of what I attacked with, I was slightly better in using ashi waza with a purpose instead of randomly kicking at the legs like kyu grades usually do. My opponent even remarked afterwards that I could have caught him with an okuri ashi barai at 3:39 and a de ashi barai at 6:49 had I committed with my arms. I think what makes ashi waza difficult for me is that when I catch someone I don't realize it, so I don't build muscle memory for the movement. Clearly from my style of play in this match, I am equating ippon with maximum effort instead of maximum efficiency. At any rate, I met my personal goal of no shidos.

Next, I'm unsure how I feel about my (non) use of newaza. Since he won by ippon in our first match, I was intent on returning the favor so I kept letting him up. I'm still treating these tournament matches like randori and I don't know what it's going to take to get the concept of shiai to properly sink in. I don't know if I necessarily want to treat me opponent like an "enemy," but if I am going to accept donations and invest all this time/money into training I need to start being more focused on winning. If my older brother (Serra BJJ player and judoka) is reading this, it's not because I haven't been drilling the stuff! Something just didn't click that day- the most prime example is at 2:35 after my score where he is literally lying flat on his back (listen closely- an audience member says "osae komi!"). The only technical flub I had on the mat, as far as I can tell, was the juji gatme attempt at 1:10 where I reversed the position of my legs. I literally just drilled that attack a couple of days before- shame on me.

Finally, my stamina needs work. I've been rowing and biking mostly- probably need to incorporate running, jump roping, and... burpees, which I hate.

Thanks for stopping by! You're alright.
-Ben