The Game Plan

I have a love/hate relationships with tournaments. I enjoy seeing old friends, I like making new friends, I love seeing some outstanding jiu jitsu, and if some vendors/sponsors show up it is great to see new gear. Are you feeling the love?

On the other hand I hate hanging around all day on a set of uncomfortable bleachers for what might be a single roll. At 49, I hate that there is never anybody remotely close to my age to roll with (unless I want to travel to the Pan-Ams) so my matches wind up being "aggressive" rather than "technical."

So it is always with some mixed feelings that I decide to compete. I put all that aside this last weekend to compete in the Nashville BJJ Open/BJJ Grand Prix Tournament. The event itself was outstanding - well run and a lot of fun. Great refs, great competitors, great location, Vendor/Sponsor Casca Grossa was there with lots of toys. If you're in the Southeast you should definitely check it out (the next one is already in the planning stages).

My participation however was not as outstanding. In typical "why doesn't anybody over 30 ever compete" fashion I didn't see many older participants and none around my weight (oh well). I'm not sure what bracket I was in - they called my name, I ran over to the mat and never thought to ask where I wound up being placed. In my finals match I was paired against a 24 year old blue belt who had a few pounds on me (maybe I should have actually cut a little weight instead of eating pizza the night before?).

I had a game plan of some things I wanted to try in this competition: I wanted to work for a takedown instead of pulling guard and I wanted to work my open guard. These were things that I wanted to try in competition because they are not my bread and butter - in other words this wasn't my "A Game." When I saw my opponent I had a brief moment to reassess that plan - since it appeared that I was outclassed on youth, speed and strength should I punt the plan and go with my "A Game" (since we all know that old age and treachery beat youth and skill)? Nah, that would be wussing out. A plan is a plan (or is that really "a plan is just a wish in a party dress").

Anyway, we shake hands and start to go for grips. For my takedown I try for the Power Kouchi Gari and got stuffed (actually it felt like running into a brick wall). This failed attempt left me vulnerable to several possibilities and as he tried to power through me I pulled guard. Not just any guard mind you, I'm sticking to a plan, I tried to pull open guard (working into spider guard). I got one sleeve and foot/hook on his bicep, but I couldn't get my grips for the other side. I tried to get my other foot to his hip to make space, but he caught it before I could get to his hip pushed it down to the mat and started to pass. My one spider hook was useless without some corresponding control on the other side so I tried to transition to De La Riva  but it was too little to late.

I spent the rest of the six minutes pinned under a grinding side control. Well not the entire time. He would move to mount and I would work him back into half guard but I could never get deep and wound up getting smashed back into side control several times. He tried a variety of head and arm and breadcutter chokes but they were not truly dangerous (but they did hurt like hell - I think he expected a pain tap).

It takes a pretty big skill gap to make up for advantages in strength and speed. Obviously my skills were not enough to bridge the gap. So much for plans. At least I contributed a silver to the team effort.