After a miserable last BJJ competition, I decided to get back on that particular horse, hoping I wouldn't be thrown off in embarrassing fashion again.
The idea of returning to a tournament made me nervous, but I also felt OK with it. In fact, I quite looked forward to it. It was my first tournament as a new purple belt, but I knew I'd trained consistently hard and I had a decent plan going in, despite having to face bigger fighters.
The start of the fight went my way, with a fast guard pull and my opponent locked in my full guard. He worked his way out of my full guard and I made my first mistake by not switching straight to a half guard sweep. I then attacked for an armbar and got stacked. From then on, he secured top position and attacked. I tried to escape and defended OK, but his positional dominance and route mapping on top was just better than my defence from below. I eventually tapped to a collar choke.
But it was a good experience against a skilled competitor. And, after the smashing I took at the last event – albeit at the hands of a much younger and stronger opponent – it was good to come out of there and at least feel competent again. So that was a victory of sorts.
I now plan to work on a thing off the mats and start defining my routes to victory more clearly. Every day is a school day. If you're smart enough to listen.
