Hey all. As some of you are aware, I've been training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu for about a year and a half now, and I figured it was about time for me to try my luck at a competition. So today, I competed in my first jiu-jitsu tournament.
I competed in the 170 lbs intermediate division, that is, between 1-3 years experience.
My first match was against a four-stripe blue belt, Victor, who really should have been in the advanced divison. He dominated everyone to easily win first place.
A note on the pictures: although I'm wearing a red belt, there's no such belt in BJJ, I just had to wear that so that the ref could quickly keep track of who to award points to during the match.
I was most worried about my takedowns, since Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is somewhat notorious for not working on them, and in fact I have barely ever spent any time on them. It turned out not to be that big of a deal, fortunately.
In my first match, Victor tried doing some judo-style throws and leg trips on me, but I was able to defend all of his attempts:
On one of his trip attempts, I was able to counter and take him down and land on top:
Unfortunately, that didn't last long, as he quickly reversed me
got past my guard
and was able to secure an arm bar to force me to tap out.
for my second match, things fared far better. My opponent quickly shot in for a double-leg takedown, but I did a textbook sprawl, and then spun around to take his back:
I tried to sink in the choke, and got close, but he was able to squeeze out, but I moved to mount:
Eventually, he managed to reverse me, and get me into quite a bit of trouble with an attempt at a triangle choke from the bottom:
Fortunately, I was able to escape, and again move into mount position:
As time counted down, I once again was able to take his back and make another attempt at a rear choke:
Unfortunately, I didn't quite have the strength remaining to finish the choke before time expired, but I won the match on points 16-4.
Last match to follow:
I competed in the 170 lbs intermediate division, that is, between 1-3 years experience.
My first match was against a four-stripe blue belt, Victor, who really should have been in the advanced divison. He dominated everyone to easily win first place.
A note on the pictures: although I'm wearing a red belt, there's no such belt in BJJ, I just had to wear that so that the ref could quickly keep track of who to award points to during the match.
I was most worried about my takedowns, since Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is somewhat notorious for not working on them, and in fact I have barely ever spent any time on them. It turned out not to be that big of a deal, fortunately.
In my first match, Victor tried doing some judo-style throws and leg trips on me, but I was able to defend all of his attempts:
On one of his trip attempts, I was able to counter and take him down and land on top:
Unfortunately, that didn't last long, as he quickly reversed me
got past my guard
and was able to secure an arm bar to force me to tap out.
for my second match, things fared far better. My opponent quickly shot in for a double-leg takedown, but I did a textbook sprawl, and then spun around to take his back:
I tried to sink in the choke, and got close, but he was able to squeeze out, but I moved to mount:
Eventually, he managed to reverse me, and get me into quite a bit of trouble with an attempt at a triangle choke from the bottom:
Fortunately, I was able to escape, and again move into mount position:
As time counted down, I once again was able to take his back and make another attempt at a rear choke:
Unfortunately, I didn't quite have the strength remaining to finish the choke before time expired, but I won the match on points 16-4.
Last match to follow:
