As I said to one of my instructors: I’m 60% pissed off, 40% stoic. In short I lost 12-0 to Dimitrios Bitsanis of Rio Grappling Club Greece, who was just the better competitor on the day (as well as, as usual, having the audacity to be a really nice guy).

Stuff that went well: I managed to minimise my first match problems, primarily by doing a better warm up and having a bit of time to get myself mentally set before we started. It also helped that it’s easier to get yourself psyched up for something like the Euros.

I’ll no doubt be working on this for a while. My natural mental approach is to try to stay calm and I want to be sure of what I’m doing before I do it. This has advantages. I’ve won matches by not being the first guy to make a mistake. But it exacerbates the common problem of needing that first match to really warm up and get into the groove — which is no good if you loose it!

Also on the positive side, I feel I hung at the Euros. It’s pretty much the highest available level of competition available to someone at my belt level / age. So, stepping out there and not being totally out of my depth, isn’t a bad place to be around 16 months after starting.

Stuff that’s not so good: to continue the baseball metaphor, I might have been in the right ball park, but I wasn’t one of the starters. Looking at my division, I was below average in terms of my technical ability, my ability to deploy what I knew in competition, and my physical capabilities. This isn’t to run myself down: I think I do pretty well on all three counts compared with the general population of older white belts; or even Masters 2 white belt competitors in the UK. But the Euros is definitely a step up.

There are a few technical details I need to address, such as avoiding / countering the leg underhook when breaking closed guard, more technical escapes from the back and improving my knee slice pass. Also, I’m kicking myself for not trying for a straight footlock towards the end. Tactically, I should have recognised I wasn’t going to make back the points and needed to go for the sub. Even if it hadn’t worked, I should have tried. But I didn’t really lose because of any particular technical flaw or error. I was just generally below the level I needed to be to win the match, much less the competition.

To go back to the positive though, it was a great experience. Training for a high level competition was satisfying and certainly improved my jiu jitsu. Plus I had a great time in Lisbon, particularly since Anne came and we got to have a holiday as well.

A photo posted by Michael Reed (@mikereedin) on Jan 18, 2017 at 7:39am PST

A photo posted by Michael Reed (@mikereedin) on Jan 21, 2017 at 8:49am PST

Last one of the year. Would have been nice to go out on a high, but I took a default bronze after losing my first match. Essentially got run over by a more assertive, aggressive opponent who put me on the defensive from the start. I had some opportunities to make a comeback in the second half, but didn’t capitalise on them — primarily because he’d put me on tilt. So, definitely still working on getting that initial start right.

A slightly disappointing bronze.

Lost my first to an ezekiel from half-guard. My defence just wasn’t technical enough to do more than slow the sub down slightly (I now know that I should have been pushing on his elbow to relieve the pressure). Not so much annoyed at that, so much that I shouldn’t have let him get that far. For whatever reason I lacked focus and energy — and he was plenty good enough to punish me for it.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, getting tapped woke me up and I won a convincing point victory in the second. Including an overhead sweep that, quite honestly, I think looked kind of cool. Of course, I wouldn’t have needed to sweep him again if I’d hung onto mount the first time around…

Then ended up in the bronze medal match against my first opponent. Definitely preferring not to get choked again, I played a fairly conservative guard game, ending with a sweep from single leg X. Once on top I got trapped in his closed guard (I must get better at coming up and achieving some measure of control, without pushing so far back into them that I go into closed guard). The fact he was down on points at this stage definitely helped me, since he felt he had to open his guard, which allowed me to start knee slicing. Unfortunately he held onto three-quarters mount for long enough to deny me any further points. Time ran out just as I came into mount. Still, I was happy to get revenge for my earlier loss.

My main thing to work on for next time is mental focus and getting ready for that first match. I think I need to try a slightly more intense warm up — break a sweat, get my heart beating — and then come down slightly before that first match so that cardio shouldn’t be an issue. Also I must make sure to drink coffee (seriously, the only mornings I don’t is when rushing out for BJJ competitions and it’s an obvious violation of the ‘Don’t do anything different on the day’ rule).

I wanted to do an IBJJF competition, before doing the Euros. And I’m glad I did. ;-> Two good matches against strong competitors, but I managed to win both by points and take home the gold for masters 2, light.

As I suspected there isn’t really much difference between IBJJF and other competitions. Fundamentally they work the same way and it’s a very similar experience. The only totally new thing was that they throughly checked my gi by running a wooden block built to the standard measurements over it. I think there were also a few more staff on the organisation side than you’d see at a smaller competition (and the PA system worked reliably). But otherwise much the same. Still, I’m glad to have seen that for myself since it might take some of the pressure off.

The competitor standard was high (for white belt, all is relative). But that was more about consistency than absolute ability. I’ve been against people as tough or tougher in the UK. But nobody at Paris was doing their first comp and everyone seemed to be at the tail end of white belt. It was probably the first division I’ve been in where everyone could have plausibly won it.

From the matches, the particular positive thing I’m taking away is that I managed to stand to break closed guard several times. This feels like a milestone in terms of confidence and control. Standing up in closed guard is a) genuinely a bit tricky and b) tends to feel unsafe. So I’m glad to have overcome that in the heat of competition. Of course, I still need to work on it — in particular I need to get better and more systematic about breaking their grips and controlling them so that I can stand up more easily and in better posture.

Also, while I obviously need to improve everything generally (ahh, the wonderful open freedom of the beginner), I feel I’m starting to get to the point where it’s worth working more on my submissions. Particularly in that first match, I should have put him in serious danger a few times, given my positional advantage. Aside from the fact that it would be nice to win by submission more often, being able to seriously threaten the submission will keep my dominant positions more secure.

Silver. Revenged my loss from the previous weekend by fighting in pretty much the same match — an inconclusive guard battle where I failed to sweep or seriously endanger him, while he failed to pass me. At the time I thought it had been another referee’s decision, but apparently I took an advantage for an attempt at a cross collar choke from half guard in the closing seconds. To be honest, I think that was generous — it really wasn’t there. But I’m obviously not going to complain. We agreed a rematch is in order and that one of us should definitely try to score some points next time.

Then lost the final to Rob Etheridge, who I’ve met at a number of competitions. He’s a nice guy, but that didn’t stop him passing my guard, taking my back and tapping me by choke. On the positive side, it took him some time and effort. After he initially got round I caught half-guard and we fought there for a while. But, in the end, he was better at passing than I was at guard retention, plus my half-guard definitely needs some work. And, once he got round, he finished me briskly. I should have done a much better job of defending and trying to escape.

Still, similarly to the Warrior’s Cup I’m cautiously pleased with my performance. There’s still a very long way to go, but I’m happy that I’m improving.

For the first time, I have film of proceedings, which is interesting. Definitely a useful tool for post match analysis and identifying areas to work on.

Another Bronze, but a good day out and I’m broadly happy. Lost my first (against the ultimate winner) by ref’s decision and then won my second by submission (americana from side control).

The first match was more interesting (at least from my perspective) that the lack of score makes it sound. I pulled guard and tried to submit or sweep him, while he tried to pass my guard. Basically our games were asymmetric. His passing was good, but my guard retention was better. However he had a similar advantage in posture / top-defence. So, while we moved through various guards — de la riva, feet on hips, closed, single leg x and half — neither of us could really make our game plans work. He took the ref’s decision and I think that was right; he got round to half guard at one point, which was more comparative progress than I was making.

The second match I did make my game plan work. Pulled, then used the sleeve / tricep grip to bring his arm across and move towards the back. He managed to escape before I got round, but burned up too much energy doing so. Also, he quite rightly didn’t want me to get him back into a similar position, but started to focus on it too much. This allowing me to sweep him into top-half and pass into side control. Got the americana grip and started to apply the sub. He was tough and definitely made me work for it. At one point he’d almost turned his back to me and I strongly considered transitioning. But, I felt the sub was there and, having adjusted to bring his arm closer into his body I got the tap.

What I’m taking away is that I still need to make my guard more aggressive. I was more assertive than I’ve been in the past, but still some way to go. I need to trust that a) a more aggressive guard will keep them on the defensive and thereby act as its own retention and b) that my guard is good enough that I will be able to get myself back out of trouble if a sub or sweep attempt goes wrong.

Much happier with this bronze than my last one.

I had three fights, winning the first on points, losing the second on points, and then taking a referee’s decision (against my first opponent who’d made it through the repacharge for a rematch).

Five competitions in I have a better sense of what my game is. I pull guard early and look for a sweep. On top I’m looking to get to mount and finish from there. In my first match this went, broadly, according to plan — although he was tough to sweep and I managed it late in the match. Still, that was enough to win on points. In my second, I couldn’t sweep him and he passed me — hence going down on points. In the third he was too fast for me on the guard pull and turned it into a takedown. I again struggled to sweep. But right at the end I did to equalise the score and was then lucky on the ref’s decision, which really could have gone either way.

What I’m happy with: I’m getting more composed and my cardio is better. Also, my guard retention seems to be holding up in competition. I was only passed once, towards the end of my second match. And there I think my main problem was that I wasn’t able to put him under enough pressure in my guard, which meant he had too much time to work.

What I’ll be working on: I’m too one dimensional from guard, particularly considering how big a part of my game that is. I feel I have a wider game in the gym, but I need to get be able to apply it in competition. Also, I need to learn to tie my belt properly for podium pictures.

In the classic jiu-jitsu cliche ‘You win or you learn’. Winning, of course, is more fun — but learning is important too. At the Brighton Open I lost twice and learnt that it’s embarrassing to get on the podium as the third man in a three person bracket.

It’s an interesting loss for several reasons. First, I’m surprised by how annoyed I am. Not at my opponents; who won fair and square by being better on the day and were, as usual, genuinely nice blokes. But having been on a gentle upward trajectory of losing, getting better, winning a bit more, getting better, it feels like a backward step. Which, intellectually, I know is foolish. There are far too many random factors and the sample size is too small to draw conclusions from (win or lose).

Second, and closely related, I wasn’t in the right mental space. I don’t think I was overconfident coming off a win — although there might have been a bit of that. But I wasn’t properly focused. In my first match I was, for quite a long time, behind by a few advantages, having managed to deny a few passes before the points. We were both getting tired, he was breaking my grips, but I was able to reestablish them. If I could have put together a sweep I could have won. I think it came down to who was more present in the moment, wanting it more, and it wasn’t me this time, which I don’t feel good about.

Similarly, in my second, I got guard pulled almost directly into a triangle (which was a nice move on the part of my opponent, which I hope I can add to my repertoire at some point). I was a half second slow responding to the pull, but got into a decent posture and started defending the triangle. We struggled for a while and I didn’t make any glaring technical mistakes. But I was continuously just a bit slow and not aggressive enough in trying to get out and turn it into a guard pass. One of the things I need to get better at is recognising the moments when I need to commit 100% effort.

So, I have a few technical things to work on, especially responding to a guard pull and revisiting triangle defence. I also have a nice stretch of time until the Southend Open on the 25th September. Plenty of room to get to the gym, eat well, improve my cardio and, most importantly, get the hours in on the mats. All of which, I hope, will pay off, and also get my head on straight.

Safe to say that I enjoyed the Chelmsford Open. Three matches to take Gold and I managed my first competition submission — an ezekiel choke from mount in the final (although I feel I’d have scored more cool points if I hadn’t started off by inserting the wrong fingers in the wrong sleeve, leading my corner and teammates to shout desperately ‘Wrong sleeve! Wrong sleeve!).

It’s still amazing how tiring competition bouts are. I got more time to recover between rounds this time, but was still hanging on by the skin of my teeth at various stages. Need to work on this. I also need to work on side control retention / submissions; I really don’t feel quite comfortable there yet and my lack of effective submissions means that I’m giving people too much time and freedom to work. Much the same goes for passing the guard. I don’t have a ‘go-to’ approach or techniques there in quite the same way that I do now from bottom.

One last obvious insight: the pressure of the timer and points system opens people up. Particularly if they’re behind. You have no choice but to push hard to try to recover the score. Which creates a pressure that’s quite different to a roll in training. If you’re in a disadvantageous position and burning energy faster than your opponent this can lead you into danger very quickly. So there’s strategy in running up a points lead beyond just hoping to stall for time (although, equally, that’s a viable option, if somewhat inaesthetic). If you can take an early points lead, you’re pressuring your opponent in a way you can take advantage of. I suspect this starts to change at higher belts, where people will be much better at handling this pressure and reacting tactically — but even there you’re in an inherently difficult position.

Won my first match on points (teammates told me after that it was 16-4, but I had no idea — although I was fairly sure I was up). Then lost the second.

Again, a big drop off in satisfaction between my first match and second. Obviously, I’m fairly chuffed about getting my first win. But also, for most of the match I felt in control. I pulled guard quickly, which was according to my game plan. Then swept promptly. At this point I hit the issue that he was stronger and more athletic — at least he certainly felt that way. So he was able to push the pace. Nonetheless, I was just about able to keep up and felt that I had the edge on technique. We shifted through various positions and sweeps, but I stayed ahead. At one point I nearly had the back, and when he came close to getting me in side control I was able to scramble for a single leg to put him on his back. Towards the end he got to double underhooks and was stacking me hard. To be honest, in the club I’d have tapped at that point, but I was determined to hold on in competition.

The second I lost because I just hadn’t recovered from the adrenaline dump and intense first match (which is not at all to say that I wouldn’t have lost anyway — I just don’t know). Physically and mentally I just wasn’t ready to go again. Really need to work on this, since obviously only being able to do one tournament match a day is going to be a rather serious limit on my competitive career.

Slightly regretted chickening out of the absolute. Think I’ll try to have a rule that if I qualify, and I’m not banged up or injured I’ll throw my hat in the ring — at least while my main aim is just to build up experience.