Grapplemania Seattle was a huge success for Gracie Barra Seattle.
According to both Griff and Rodrigo, Team Mamazinho really cleaned up. No doubt that we won the team trophy--and it sounds like much of our success came at the hands of Team Marcelo Alonso. Rodrigo said we Marcelo Alonso had like 10 guys cheering on his fighters, while we had about 40.
It's really got to burn Marcelo something bad so see Rodrigo do so well with Gracie Barra Seattle. Rodrigo said they got into it a little bit, but then made up. All in good spirited competition.
I'm back after missing a week with a combined in-law visit/strained oblique. Compared to the out-three-week groin injury (which I'm starting to believe might be something called Gilmore's Groin)), the oblique injury is relatively minor. I still feel twinges in it when I twist too much. But I rolled tonight and never felt that the obliques made a difference in performance.
The groin is about where the obliques are--which is a pretty decent improvement. I can do leg leviations, but not leg lifts, on that side. Working it and icing it should do the trip. I'm also trying to stretch every day--especially on days when I'm not training. Warming up is more important than stretching as far as injury prevention goes. But it wouldn't hurt to be more flexible.
The next tournament is a Copa here in South Seattle. July 29th is the tentative date, five Saturdays from now. I'm 0-1, 1-1, 2-0 for a 4-2 record over three tournaments. But I don't have any submission wins.
I want to make chokes the staple of my submission game, with shoulder locks second. Since my game is pretty much a Carlson Jr./Ralph smash game (I think my jiu jitsu deal is this guy, Cassio Cardoso), chokes are an ideal attack. They are also very efficient, as I remember Rodrigo pointing out once, making them good for opponents of varying sizes. This is also why shoulder locks are second. Bigger guys typically aren't very flexible in the shoulders.
Anyway, I want to get myself in gear this week and go into pre-tournament mode beginning Tuesday, July 4th (or Monday, if there is no class on the holiday). I'll have a full four weeks to get a competition game plan together, stay healthy, and get into really good conditioning. If I can pull off that trifecta, then I think I can win first place again on the 29th--and do it with submissions. Chokes!
