When Casey and Lindsey took first and second in the purple belt welterweight division at the Revolution event today, my first thought was "please let Sauleh and me do the same for the blue belt lightweights."
Chalk two up for the Gracie Barra blue belt lightweights.
Sauleh won a challenging 6-2 contest against a young guy from Impact Jiu Jitsu. Both were very much guard players - I think the Impact Jiu Jitsu guy actually managed to pull guard on Sauleh, which isn't something you see every day. For awhile it was dueling spider guards, but Sauleh managed to come out on top more often that not to get the win.
My match came next (there were only four of us in the division). I went after the arm drag immediately, but noticed that he was already open for the double leg. So I shot in and got the takedown. 2-0 GB Seattle.
I ended up in his guard, which I thought I'd be fine in. But he was very aggressive with his armlock/choke attack. I initially had to fight off an armlock that he had set-up pretty well. I remembered to stay low, keep my weight heavy, and not extend the arm FOR him.
Then he was after me with the choke. I'd argue that the choke was at least as much of a threat as the armlock was. I was probably one mistake away from getting choked. But I managed to stuff it, stay low and prevent him from getting the angle he needed.
His final attack was a triangle choke. He launched his leg up and I managed to scoop it and pass to side control. A lot of times, guys will escape triangles this way in no gi. But it is a risky way to go in the gi because it's easier for the attacker to hold you in position.
It worked for me this time and I made it to side control and eventually to mount. I would have thought that made the score 9-0 - 3 pts for the guard pass and 4 for the mount. I had mount for awhile, then lost it to half guard, then managed to get mount back again, lose it to half guard and then to full guard where we finished the match. But the score on the sheet said 8-0.
Whatever. It couldn't be less important. I had done almost everything I'd wanted to do in this tournament. I made weight with almost three pounds to spare. I executed my gameplan by getting the takedown. And though I didn't win by submission as I'd hoped, I did get to dominant position and win the fight convincingly.
As did Casey and Lindsey, Sauleh and I split the 1st and 2nd spots. I didn't even want to go the "rock, paper, scissors" over it. When Rodrigo asked if I wanted to figth Sauleh, I turned to Sauleh and said, "sure, do you want heads or tails?" But after a little while, I just told him to take first. For one, I was just so happy that I more or less did what I'd hoped to do that I really didn't care. For two, Sauleh beat the Impact Jiu Jitsu guy who ended up beating the Marcelo Alonso guy I defeated. So technically, Sauleh beat the third place guy and I beat the fourth place guy.
But all that is neither here nor there. The colored belts did really well today: Casey and Lindsey, Sauleh and myself, Nathan won first place after losing his first match, Connor was dominant as usual. I think the white belt results were a little more mixed. But I think there was a lot to like there also.
A great event on a great day. Jeff and LeapLLC continue to put on very well-run, professional events. Between them, Sub League and our own intramurals, we've got a nice "season" of jiu jitsu and sub grappling starting to develop here in the Pacific North west. I celebrated with a Mango Smoothie from one of the event sponsors, Jamba Juice (along with my traditional post-fight slice of pepperoni pizza). I got some great coaching from the sidelines by Rodrigo, Jesse and Casey in particular.
Plenty to work on between now and November. I really felt exhausted after that match - too much so given what should be my conditioning level. That will be something I'll want to pump up over the next few months. I'm also determined to get my training per week average back above 3. The mistakes I make against people at my level are very basic ones. But I need to pound the corrections into my head so that it becomes second nature to avoid those mistakes.
