After a month filled with festivals, holidays and weddings I'm back on the competition trail, spending my precious weekends in pursuit of shiny metal disks like some kind of arm barring magpie.
The exceptionally bright among you may have wondered what happened to my blog on the Bournemouth Open, I must blame my editor who is known as an exceptionally lazy man standing in the way of my scattergun gonzo stylings. I can assure you that the only things of note were my epic battles with a variety of white belts on Mat 5 after which I was drenched in gold and proclaimed 'The White Belt Killer' a nickname that will haunt me as long as their screams (Ed- enough of this nonsense).
Kleos is known as an incredibly well run tournament so it was no surprise when they recruited me as a scorekeeper and general dogsbody. I traveled down with organisers Jen and Mike and my instructor Nick Brooks and worked a few hours before my category started. Working at the competition was a little frustrating when your teammates are on the mat and you are unable to offer any advice. This was the only downside, that so many higher belts from my team where involved in running the comp that there was no one to even tell you the points and time remaining, so you look up at the points and panic at being two down and no idea how long to make your move.
I had entered the heavy weight division, working on the basis that while it is best to get better at jiu jitsu, it is second best to get stronger and try and crush the small people and their fancy jiu jitsu tricks. As I was most interested in getting a shot at the fantastic prize for the absolute this seemed like a decent strategy and allowed me to continue with my normal diet of peanut M&M's right up to comp day.
I won one and lost one of my heavyweight matches giving me the silver medal, my first match came down to a last second pass after a cagey start. The second match was back and fourth but I lost to an advantage from an omoplata attempt. Both opponents felt very strong, I don't feel comfortable at heavy and will drop back down while trying to maintain a bit of the strength I've gained.
In the absolute, I had to deal with the speed of attack that comes from the lighter competitors, nearly having my guard passed in the first match I was able to pull off a half guard sweep, eventually reaching mount and finishing with an ezekiel choke.
I had a diva moment before my second match demanding that the song be changed before I'd step on the mat, I'm not a Metallica fan and no one should be expected to grapple to one of their slower ballads so I insisted on one of their thrashier numbers. This must have also energised my opponent who quickly jumped for a picture perfect flying triangle to oooohhs from the watching crowd, while exceedingly tight I had just enough of my arm out to survive and begin to work an escape. Wearing my opponent like an ill fitting and rather uncomfortable necklace I had to worry about my balance as well as the choke and arm bar attempts, slowly I managed to free my arm sufficiently and dropped to pass. I didn't want to deal with any more of these skillful tricks so sprawled hard, forcing the other guy to turtle and working for a bow and arrow choke.
That was a close escape but I wasn't so lucky in the next match facing another skilled opponent and MMA fighter who was adept both with takedowns and chaining submissions, when I attempted to posture out of an arm in guillotine he was able to transition to an anaconda choke that I could find no way out of.
In the bronze medal match I faced the guy who beat me in my weight division, I wanted to have an exciting, good natured match but didn't want to end up in his guard for a second time. I decided to jump guard and did so at standard hip height, however this forced him backwards and torqued his knee and although he was in no initial pain it was decided best to stop the match for medical reasons, I hope there was no damage and that he's back on the mats.
So I failed to take back the war hammer for the glory of my team and got a tainted bronze in the absolute, putting that aside it was an excellent tournament and great to be surrounded with so many team members even if they're all too busy working to shout advice at me.
The exceptionally bright among you may have wondered what happened to my blog on the Bournemouth Open, I must blame my editor who is known as an exceptionally lazy man standing in the way of my scattergun gonzo stylings. I can assure you that the only things of note were my epic battles with a variety of white belts on Mat 5 after which I was drenched in gold and proclaimed 'The White Belt Killer' a nickname that will haunt me as long as their screams (Ed- enough of this nonsense).
Kleos is known as an incredibly well run tournament so it was no surprise when they recruited me as a scorekeeper and general dogsbody. I traveled down with organisers Jen and Mike and my instructor Nick Brooks and worked a few hours before my category started. Working at the competition was a little frustrating when your teammates are on the mat and you are unable to offer any advice. This was the only downside, that so many higher belts from my team where involved in running the comp that there was no one to even tell you the points and time remaining, so you look up at the points and panic at being two down and no idea how long to make your move.
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| The fabled Kleos Warhammer |
I won one and lost one of my heavyweight matches giving me the silver medal, my first match came down to a last second pass after a cagey start. The second match was back and fourth but I lost to an advantage from an omoplata attempt. Both opponents felt very strong, I don't feel comfortable at heavy and will drop back down while trying to maintain a bit of the strength I've gained.
In the absolute, I had to deal with the speed of attack that comes from the lighter competitors, nearly having my guard passed in the first match I was able to pull off a half guard sweep, eventually reaching mount and finishing with an ezekiel choke.
I had a diva moment before my second match demanding that the song be changed before I'd step on the mat, I'm not a Metallica fan and no one should be expected to grapple to one of their slower ballads so I insisted on one of their thrashier numbers. This must have also energised my opponent who quickly jumped for a picture perfect flying triangle to oooohhs from the watching crowd, while exceedingly tight I had just enough of my arm out to survive and begin to work an escape. Wearing my opponent like an ill fitting and rather uncomfortable necklace I had to worry about my balance as well as the choke and arm bar attempts, slowly I managed to free my arm sufficiently and dropped to pass. I didn't want to deal with any more of these skillful tricks so sprawled hard, forcing the other guy to turtle and working for a bow and arrow choke.
That was a close escape but I wasn't so lucky in the next match facing another skilled opponent and MMA fighter who was adept both with takedowns and chaining submissions, when I attempted to posture out of an arm in guillotine he was able to transition to an anaconda choke that I could find no way out of.
In the bronze medal match I faced the guy who beat me in my weight division, I wanted to have an exciting, good natured match but didn't want to end up in his guard for a second time. I decided to jump guard and did so at standard hip height, however this forced him backwards and torqued his knee and although he was in no initial pain it was decided best to stop the match for medical reasons, I hope there was no damage and that he's back on the mats.So I failed to take back the war hammer for the glory of my team and got a tainted bronze in the absolute, putting that aside it was an excellent tournament and great to be surrounded with so many team members even if they're all too busy working to shout advice at me.
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