Febs, Part Three

Febs, part three (a post-mortem so late, that it has reanimated and left the table)

February for me ended on an unspectacular note, at least in the competing sense. I went to the Abu Dhabi Qualifiers in Montreal. It went unaccording (new word) to plan.

I continue to be fortunate that I am with a team that competes. We have a lot of guys that come out and get into the fray on a regular basis. Handy for me, as I have always been without a vehicle when I am doing school.

I managed to secure a ride up to the venue with two pals from Pura. I arranged the hotel. Friday was pretty cool, lots of time spent in the car, shooting the shit and saying stupid things about glory and beards.

I've mentioned before that I don't care for cutting. I seldom see a reason for it to be important, unless it's part of some sort of strategy outside of the actual fights. Worrying about weight is a waste of energy. I'm a strong little man, this is part of the reason I fight well against the big guys. Typically in fact, I find that my style tends to victimize those who are bigger than me. There are bigger things playing on my mind on Tourney Day.

This was a tourney that was apparently supposed to be over by 2pm. Not a shot in hell. I showed up at 10 (like a lot of people) and heard that my division was already running. I changed out as fast as I could and started warming up. Then I stopped. It was really taking a long ass time. This series of events repeated three or four times. I was in the pit for nearly four hours before I fought. This took a toll. In situations like this, you just want to leave out of boredom and anxious tiredness. I've found though, that when it is time to go, I am always ready.

First fight I won against a Montrealer. It was a good scrap. I got the W on points.

My second fight was not as good. I was fighting a guy that I was familiar with. I had seen him prior in tourneys down in the GTA. This is one of these young guys who comes in and cleans up, takes the weight, takes the absolute. Prior to this he had always fought in the division above mine.

I didn't much care about all of this. I'd say that mentally I've just recently come of age with competing. I shut out the concerns, the man is good, but so am I.

The fight went very poorly for me however. I didn't do anything of note, other than be a resilient bugger. He triangled me three times. I escaped twice. Not a good loss on one hand, but it was clearly his game. Jump, Triangle.

How'd I get triangled three times? Fine question, this may perhaps be the only material thing I came away with.

Although I am good with breaking closed guard, at one point the hand that I had on his hip apparently became loose or at too shallow of an angle, and he quickly hipped over it for the triangle. The second time I was executing a “double under pass” but allowed one of my arms to get trapped again. I don't recall the third time, but it may have involved being out of it from triangle escapes.

At any rate, I still had fun that day. I managed to hang out with tons of my Tourney comrades, and the Ronin Crew was there in force. Always excellent to see those guys.

I also talked briefly with Ryan Hall. I'm impressed that he remembered me from our conversation way back in the summer when I was in NY at Marcelos. Very cool and smart guy. Much like the rest of the grappling world, I think it would be great to pick his brain. I'm going to make it a point to train with at his place someday.

I also had a lot of fun with the guys from Pura that I went with. They are cool guys to hang out with, and it made the drive up there go quick.

Some highlights:
-Josh's epic weight cutting.
-We ate at a Hawaiian themed Chinese buffet...?
-We had awesome prime rib at a restaurant that has the worst service I've ever seen. Well done.

I spent the next four days in Kingston with Ash, rolling at her club. This was cool too. I was on reading week so the time off with Ashanator was very tremendous. I also managed to make it into the Queens Weight room, which is glorious.

I'm hoping my next blog post will be more timely. I won't be held to that though.