One stripe at a time

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.