People of the internet, my first Jiu-Jitsu tournament.
Jason, Tim and I headed to Toronto so that I could try my hand at the Grappling Industries Gi and NoGi round-robin. Jason and Tim were awesome, they helped me get over my nerves and were the encouraging voices from the side of the mat pushing me to keep going.
To be honest it was probably one of the hardest mental and physical things I’ve put myself through in a long time. After each round I was completely gassed and running on pure adrenaline fumes. I had a total of eight hard matches and I managed to actually squeak through one for a win!
That round was a complete struggle, I fought through two ankle locks and my competitor and I worked back and forth being on top and bottom. I survived the five minutes and we went into overtime, which is a sudden death round where you both get a chance to start from your opponents back.
I got to do back-control first and held on for a good twenty seconds. Then it was my turn to try my escape - and BOOM - I got out in ten seconds or so!
There is video evidence to follow, Jason has it all on film. He also has my other seven rounds where I got absolutely crushed, which should make for an interesting watch.
You win or you learn and I sure did a lot of learning today.
Today I competed in my first Jiu-Jitsu tournament at Grappling Industries in Toronto.