Niagara Open March 23rd 2013

This past weekend we made the trip south west down the QEW and 406 to the 2nd Annual Niagara Open.   Last year, this tournament was quite small, and was plagued with quite a few issues revolving around staffing, draw systems and inexperience.   They tried a few new things to try to make the tournament better but unfortunately most of them didn't work out.

This year was 1000X better.  They had a lot more help from the rest of the OJA crew and that made a huge difference.  They used a standard OJA registration system and the usual Mata Leo draw system which is very powerful.  They brought in and scheduled the referees through the OJA referee group.  They also changed venues.   The old venue wasn't really bad, but this one had a bit more space.

The gymnasium was just about the right size for the tournament.   It was cozy at the middle of the day, when the kids and parents hadn't all left yet, and all the adults were there, but there have been plenty of tournaments in the past that had way bigger space issues.  It would have been nice if they had the room to pull out both sides of the bleachers, but it wasn't a big issue.  They won't be able to grow the tournament at this venue though. It only fits 6 mat areas, and there is not enough space for more.

 One thing that wasn't too clear with this venue was where to park.  They did have some signs outside, but they pointed to the gym, not the parking lot, and by following them, we ended up at a lot that cost $2.50 per 1/2 hour or something insane like that.   We turned around and found a better lot that was only $6 per day.   They did a good job of posting signs in the building that the gym was in. Unfortunately, they all referenced the gymnasium the gym was in, which wasn't on any signs until we got to the hallway that the gym was in!   But, by just walking down the hall, looking for signs, we did find it without making any wrong turns.  It was just confusing, because the signs didn't have arrows or anything.

The one issue they did have was with scheduling.  The tournament was scheduled to start at 9:00am and the first matches were on by 9:20 or so.  I'll call that pretty much on time.  It was a little bit slow getting started with only 1 or two mats running, but that's not unusual.   I feel like this is a hurting point for many tournaments.  Things always get jammed up in the weigh in -> finding the people -> getting them on the mat time process.  This happens at OJA events, and it happens at IBJJF events.  I see it everywhere.  Unfortunately, if tournaments insist on having weigh-ins right before the first match, there really isn't a way around this.

By the time the kids were wrapping up, we had managed to catch up, and were actually ahead of schedule for a few minutes.  They couldn't start the next divisions for about 10 minutes, according to the schedule, so there was a lull in action for a short time. Then, somehow, by 3pm, we ended up almost 2 hours behind!  I think this was a combination of misjudging how many white and blue belt adults there were and how long it would take combined with a traffic jam at the weigh in, and some trouble finding competitors.

There was also an issue of not being able to start the blue belt no-gi divisions, because the blue belt absolute wasn't able to run until all the blue belt divisions were done. One of them got majorly delayed because of 2 serious injuries on the same mat.  They probably should have moved some things around to accommodate those divisions so they could keep things moving, but the trouble is, no one ever knows how long an injury will take to clear the mat, and it may have taken longer to shift things around than the injuries to move!  It's a tricky situation.   Either way, we ended up wrapping up the last match around 8:30pm.  So, just shy of 12 hours of matches for the day.

Another thing the tournament did really well was feed the staff!  There were volunteers coming around constantly offering cookies, water, and other snacks.  Lunch was pitas from the pita pit!  This is a way better option than the pizza a lot of other tournaments do, but much more expensive so I understand why we normally get pizza.  The only down side was the meat ones were all ham. I try to avoid eating large amounts of pork when possible, but I ate one anyway. And by one I mean, all the meat and cheese from one.  I'm doing a ketogenic diet right now, and a pita doesn't exactly fit that mold.   It would be cool if they had turkey, or chicken instead next time.

Finally, I had a new experience at this event.  Pura had a pretty large contingent out to the even, so it was unavoidable for some of them to end up at the mat I was refereeing.   I made full disclosure to the other athlete in every case, and offered to swap out with another ref if they wanted.  Most people were like "Of course not, it's fine", a couple asked to swap, which was totally fine as well.  I didn't get all butt-hurt about it.  In one match, the coach was like "yea, no problem, it's all good" and then as soon as I scored any points for the competitor who was from my team, shit hit the fan.  He was yelling and making a scene.

As soon as the athlete from my team grabbed on and stopped moving for 5 seconds he's yelling "she's stalling she's stalling". Thanks, I see that, but 5 seconds isn't stalling, 20 is.  I DID give her a stalling penalty at the appropriate time.    She ended up stalling again with only 30 seconds left, so I gave another penalty and advantage for that.  In the end she ended up winning by 5 or so points and the other coach was livid.   There was absolutely nothing I could have done differently within the rules to change the outcome.  The points and advantages / penalties given were all clear cut; in fact, I was probably quick to give the 2nd stalling penalty.

When they were up to fight again, I quickly asked another referee to do the match.  I didn't need my teammate to be harassed and have her accomplishments marred by his irateness.   Turns out she won by armbar so it didn't matter, but I didn't want to have the tournament, my teammate or anyone else have to deal with that drama.   In the future, if there is a referee available, I won't even bother asking, and just swap out for the match.  I think this is fairer to my teammates and the tournament as a whole.  I know I can be impartial as a referee, but some people don't know the rules, or will do/say anything to have their students win so I will do what I can to avoid that kind of nonsense in the future.


The level of competition at this year’s event far exceeded last years as well.  Last year there were only a handful of purple belts, and some of the adult blue divisions only had 2 or 3 people in them.  This year light and middle purple each had 5 or 8 competitors, and some of the other divisions had a few as well.   Several of the blue belt divisions had rounds of 16 as well, which did not happen last year.   The while belt divisions grew as well, and there was even 1 brown belt fight.  The ladies divisions were disappointingly small, with only feather and light having any competitors, most of which were from a single club.  There were no blue, or purple belt ladies registered (other than myself).

There were a few guys at the tournament that stood out to me with their impressive display of skills and techniques in their matches.  I didn't get to watch everyone all day so I'm sure there were plenty of other equally impressive displays of jiu jitsu, but I wanted to take a minute or two to highlight a few that I saw while refereeing, and during my break.

Arther and Graham from team Ascension.  I mention these two guys together, because Graham is practically a blue belt clone of Arther these days!  These guys both have a really good 50/50 game, as much as I hate that game, and they both have sick straight ankle locks.  They are also berimbolo machines.  Their style isn't always the easiest to referee, but they don't dick around and try to win by a few points or an advantage, so it's always an exciting match.

Ahmed and Ramie Chaarani are another pair that stood out. I had the pleasure of refereeing  a few of Ramie's gi matches and one or two of Ahmed's nogi matches.  I don't know why these guys don't compete more often because they are ridiculous!  They have a great level of patience and control in their matches that keeps the match at their pace and works pretty well for them.  Ahmed unfortunately (for him) had to face Alasdair in the first round of gi, and lost, but he made up for it by winning the nogi division.  Ramie cleaned up his gi division with impressive style as well.   The best part about these guys is that they also referee so they help keep the tournaments running.  Maybe that is why they don't compete that often.  Either way, I’m looking forward to watching them compete more in the future.

Speaking of Alasdair... I don't want to be biased because he's my teammate, but man, he was impressive in Niagara this past weekend.  He fought in the middle weight division, which is not his normal division and still ended up placing 2nd.   The final was a really tough match where the other guy really pushed the pace in a kind of spazzy way, a style very different from Alasdair's game.  But it was a crazy match to watch anyway. In the absolute, Alasdair avenged his loss and won the whole thing.  That is insane for a light weight, who has only been  purple for less than 6 months!

Pura had a HUGE team out to this event! It was great to see so many people competing from our small team.   We managed to take home the 2nd place in adult gi, 2nd place in adult nogi, and 2nd place overall awards!!  Everyone fought hard, especially all the kids.  The club was well represented and I couldn't be more impressed with everyone's attitude throughout the day.

It's a week later and I'm finally done writing this.  I've been sick for the last 2 weeks, but yesterday it dawned on me, that it might just be allergies.  I never used to have allergies, so I don't know what they really feel like, but it seems the last couple years I've had allergy like things happen to me at typical allergy times.

There are a few things coming up:

Pura In House next weekend (Pura people only, talk to Brad or any of the office people if you haven't signed up yet!)

New York Open!  April 20th. This should be a lot of fun.

Toronto Grappling Italian Edition.  April 13th.  3 trips to Rome on the line. If you’re a purple or brown belt, or no gi advanced male, I'd get on this.

The ONTARIO OPEN.  It's not till May, but I am excited for it.

Montreal Grappling Jan 26th 2013 Tournament Review

This past weekend, four of us made the long road trip down the 401 for the first Grappling Industries event of 2013.  We left Burlington around 12pm Friday afternoon, and were back home in Hamilton by 11:59PM Saturday night. This is how we generally do our trips to Montreal to save money and not spend the entire weekend away. The drive home is always a bit rough, but we get Sunday to recover and get ready for the new week.

This time around, it was Jon, Alasdair, and Ken, and myself.  I might as well mention the results now, so I don't forget. Jon went 2-2, earning his first 2 wins at blue belt. Both of his wins were with chokes, but at least this time there was a variety. Ken went 4-0, winning his division! He won 3 by submission, and one on points score late in the fight. Ken is a competing machine lately and it's great to see how much he has improved the last little while. This was Alasdair's first competition as a purple belt and he made it look like he was a seasoned purple. He went 4-0 in the round robin,  with 3 subs, and a win by points (against a BROWN belt). He then fought a tough opponent in the final, losing on points. A great start to what will likely be a very successful run as a purple belt, and a great warm up for the pro trials in 2 weeks.

So, a bit more about the trip up. We hit some snow in east Toronto/Oshawa and missed an insane 80 car pileup by about 1/2 hour or so. I'm glad we left when we did, other people coming from the GTA spent up to 10 or 11 hours getting to Montreal!  Some people turned around after sitting in traffic for 4 hours.

We stopped at a service center to get a bite to eat and get some gas. Jon and Ken both got 20-packs of timbits, and both of them were missing timbits! Jon only got 16, and Ken got 18. Now, it's probably better for them, because that is a disgusting amount of carbs and sugar to be consumed, but 16 instead of 20? That is losing 20%! Ridiculous. So be aware of that if you're buying timbits along the 401. Count them before you leave the counter and don't get ripped off! I stuck to my paleo diet, and got a grilled chicken burger, on a lettuce bun from A&W.  They charged me the full price, which was fine. Interestingly, on the way home, we stopped for gas/food, and I ordered it again and this time it was like 1/2 the price, and they gave me two pieces of chicken! Oh well, it was tasty chicken so I don't really care.

Our hotel was... different. It's always an adventure when we travel to Montreal, because I tend to book hotels through Hotwire, Priceline, or deals I find on Wagjag, Groupon, Livingsocial, Dealfind, or whatever.  You never really know what you're going to get until you're there. This hotel I booked through a Teambuy deal. It was only 70 bucks plus 10 bucks per person over double occupancy. The location wasn't the most convenient, or inconvenient, not really close to food. We walked about a km to find some, and it was tasty. The hotel used to be a post office, it had really tall ceilings, and looked cool on the outside. The inside was a little rough around the edges, but was functional. Our room was cozy, but quite nice. They are in the process of renovating all the rooms, so we had a fresh room. We are staying there again in two weeks for the Pro Trials, hopefully we get an equally nice room.

I suppose I should talk about the tournament itself.  It was a typical Grappling Industries tournament. Ran smooth, started on time, decent refereeing (if I do say so myself) and a few trips to California for the absolute winners. My friend Sissi, from BTT Canada, in Montreal, won the ladies' trip in a decisive manor, she looked very impressive on Saturday! I'm looking forward to a chance to compete with her again sometime this year. The men's purple and up trip went to Amir, from Toronto. Amir is an absolute BEAST and he should do well at Pans. I don't know the guy, but Derek Boase, who won the men's blue belt trip, won the final with a nice armbar so that's a good sign.

Grappling Industries has adopted the IBJJF weight classes, which is an important step for them,  they have more weight classes at their tournaments now then they used to as well.  I don't think they use all of the weight classes in Montreal though, which is understandable, because the market is so much smaller. They are all about giving competitors experience, and when you're alone in a weight class, there is no experience to be gained, just a shiny medal. In Toronto, I think they will use all the weight classes for adult men, a subset for masters men, and 2 weight classes for the ladies.

I refereed for the day, and it was a pretty good time. We had 5 referees for 4 mats, so were able to have some breaks throughout the day.   The interesting thing about refereeing for Grappling Industries is that their uniform is a bit different from most other tournaments.  We wore tuxedo shirts and bow-ties.  I admit, I felt quite silly at first, but it sure does look good in the videos and pictures. It adds a nice touch of professionalism I think. It would have been better if both of my black socks had made it to Montreal, but instead I had to borrow a pair of socks from Ken, who thankfully brought an extra pair. 

So, that's that,  in two weeks we do it all over again for the Pro Trials.  I will just be playing chauffeur, but it'll be a good time. 

On a side note, my concussion was getting a lot better, but I think the mental strain of driving 6 hours, not sleeping great, reffing all day, then driving back set me back a bit. I'll likely try to train a bit later in the week, but am resting for the early half of the week. This weekend Jon and I are having a mini vacation in Toronto, going to see a Marlies/Bulldogs hockey game, and watch the Second City comedy show.  Should be a nice break.

Competition Day Strategy

This is part 3 of the series on the mental side of the game. If you haven't read part 1 and part 2  do it now, then come back.

It happens to everyone,  you train hard, you know your stuff, you can pull it off rolling, and then at the tournament you forget everything and get smashed.   It's not because your bad at jiu jitsu, and it for the sake of argument and this blog post, it's not because the other guy is better then you. It's likely because your not "in the zone" or any of the other buzz-words that basically just mean your head wasn't in the game.  

So, How do we fix this?   It's not easy, and it's not going to happen over night.  But it starts with the first 2 parts of this series and carries on with the rest of this post.

Developing your competition day routine

Sports players everywhere in every sport have there little things that keep them grounded when they compete.  They wear their lucky socks or underwear, they always have the exact same thing for breakfast, things like that.   These things that are often brushed away as being superstitious and nonsense can be really powerful mental tools.  Consistency in your habits will help you focus and be prepared for the day.

I can't tell you what works and what doesn't for you, Everyone will be quite different in this. Some people really like to be social at tournaments, some people don't like to talk to anyone.  Some people like to watch matches, some people that makes them very nervous.  The best way to figure out what does and doesn't work for you, is to keep a competition journal, and keep track of what happened that day leading up to your matches, and write down how you felt physically, mentally, and emotionally through out the day.  It's a bit of work, but it's well worth it.  After a few events you should have a bit of a picture of how what you do leading up to your matches affects your state of mind and your performance.

There will always be things that are out of your control, like when weigh ins are,  the time your division starts,  who you fight, what colour fighter you are.  But there are all sorts of things that you can control to counter act these unknowns and keep you focused.

This is a topic that examples will speak much louder then explanations, so let me give you a bit of a breakdown on the things that are part of my competition day strategy to get me focused and ready.
For the sake of the example, I'll use a local event that I'm driving to the morning of, since I think that is a more common case and will be a better example.

The night before:

1. pack my gear back with everything I need, including, but not limited to:
1. 2 gis, my mendes gi, and one other one, ussually a red star
2. 2 pairs of shorts, 2 rashguards, 2 sports bras
3. a full change of cloths for afterwards.
4. mouth guard, camera, extra battery, nail clippers, a fresh package of hair elastics
2. pack my non-gear  bag
1. snacks including protein bars, granola bars, some fruit
2. gatorade, usually a 6 pack, almost always grape g2.
3. a bit of candy or chocolate for quick energy and a post-fight reward
4. often i'll have some chocolate milk (the kind that stays good not in a fridge, weird, but tasty, and a good recovery drink)
3. pick out my cloths for the morning, ussually a comfy pair of jeans, my pura t-shirt, and a sweater, you never know how hot or cold the venue will be, and layers are the best way to get warm, and stay warm, but not roast when your done. Also: my competition socks, not always the same pair, but always an interesting pair, and almost always mismatched, and knee highs.
4. print out the directions, any registration confirmations, schedule, and the list of my team mates that are competing so we can keep track of the day.
5. Shower and get to bed nice and early (I like to be in bed and relaxing by 10pm, but it doesn't always work out).

Competition Day: Before the tournament:

1. Wake up about 45 minutes before we have to leave.  
2. Get up as soon as the alarm goes off (If I lay around in bed I get groggy and get headaches)
3. Check my mail, facebook, twitter.
4. Put anything that was in the fridge in the snack/lunch bag and double check my bags
5. Get breakfast, usually at mcdonalds. I know, it's weird, but I love breakfast burritos and orange juice on fight morning. 
6. Drive to the venue! I like to give myself at least lots of time to get there, generally if it's less then an hour drive, i double the time, if it's more then an hour, I give myself an extra hour to get there.  

 At the venue

1. Check in / Register right away,  pick up my free t-shirt if there is one and stake out a spot in the bleaches/stands.
2. If it's all bleachers, I go for the top of the most central place. This way you can see all the mats, and you don't have to worry about people stepping on your bags b/c your at the top.
3. I'll check my weight on the scale right away, and depending on how that is, have a snack, or not.

 More then 1 hour before my fights

• The time way before my fights I'm really relaxed, I'll be social, I'll listen to music, I'll watch the fights.  
• I tend to just be relaxed and not thinking about my matches, my division, whom i'm fighting and whatnot.
• I like to watch my team mates,  video them, or take pictures.   
•  

 Less then 1 hour before my fights

• At about the hour mark, I'll get changed into my gi, and check my weight again, just to be sure.  If i'm good, I'll have another snack, likely some of the fruit, and gatorade. 
•  At this point, you never really know when exactly your going to be up, even at the most organized and scheduled events.  (except maybe IBJJF they are pretty particular about their schedules).   So  I like to be pretty much ready to go about 1/2 hour before i'm scheduled.  
• I'll put my headphones in both ears, but not loud. I listen to mostly metal, rock, alternative.  Pre-fight is a lot of stuff like In Flames, Korn, System of a down, avenging sevenfold and killswitch engage.   I have a lot of the same songs on my car's usb drive that I do on my mp3 player.
• At this point I get a lot more anti-social, I'll still chat a bit with my team mates but I'm starting to think about my matches, and doing some visualization and whatnot.

 After my divisions has been called up

•  Music on, socks on, sweater on.  
• Generally I'll pace and do some light stretches before the matches, just staying warm, but not spending a lot of energy.  I'll close my eyes and do some serious visualization and self talk to.

 I'm up next

• Head over to the mat,  pacing if there is room, or just standing beside it, staying loose.  
• headphones, sweater and socks come off just before I step on the mats and it's go time.

 Match Time:

• Check the score board, make sure it's clear and the match time is right.
• Shake hands with the ref, shake hands with my opponent, and say "ooos".   This is something I've done since my judo days, back before ooos was said at the end of every sentence, on every picture that has anything to do with jiu jitsu, and before it was completely watered down.   It's me saying "Thanks for coming out, let's fight hard, and do what we came to do".  It puts my brain right where it needs to be. 
•  FIGHT!

Between matches

• Put my socks back on right away, ussually put my music on in one ear. 
• drink some gatorade 
• shake hands with the coach(if they are around) of my opponent and congratulate them and the coach on a good match.
• I'll chat with a team mate or two between matches, but generally stick to myself, keep warm, and listen to music.  I don't think about the last match, and I re-focus myself with some visualization and whatnot.

So that's generally what I do,  If it's a tournament I have to travel to, I stick to this, but of course drive to the tournament, sleep in a hotel, but It's mostly the same.  This strategy, or plan, or set of habits, whatever you want to call it, is key to me being ready mentally and physically for my fights.  It's been in development since I was about 16 or 17 years old competing in judo tournaments.   It's shifted over the years but hasn't changed a lot.

For you, it might be quite different!  You might be social until right before you step on the mats,  maybe you like to sit at the bottom,  maybe you can't watch your team mates because you get to excited and nervous and it wastes all your energy.    It's going to take some experimenting to figure it all out, but once you do, you'll have a very powerful tool to help you perform the best that you can.

Alright, this blog post is long enough, I was going to talk about game plans but I'll save that for another day.   If you have any questions about this stuff please post a comment, or message me on facebook, or twitter, or email me or whatever.   I'm more then happy to share my experiences and the stuff I've learned in courses with fellow competitors.

I'll be running a new, much easier to enter contest on my fan page to correspond with this blog post.   All you have to do is Share my blog on facebook or twitter, like my fan page, and post on there that you shared it(There will be a post to comment on to say you shared it. if it's twitter, i'll need a link to the tweet, just to verify it) Alternately, you can just share the post from my fan page that has this blog on it, if that is easier for you.  OR, if you got here from twitter, give my tweet with the link a retweet and I should see it.    The winner will be chosen randomly and will win a VVV rashguard of their choice! Contest closes October 24th.

Sad state of women's Bjj in Ontario and cutting weight sucks

So  my last post I was all excited about the number of girls who competed at the montreal grappling.  This week I'm ranting about the lack of girls at the GTA classic.

There is no purple belts, and I am the only blue in medium heavy or heavy,  there are I think 7 blues in medium and below, which isn't bad, but its weird that my division and heavy are empty. They are often the most populace divisions!

The white belt situation is dismal at best, my team mate Heather is in light, and has to fight all the way up to medium heavy to have a fight! She will he giving up about 30 lbs.   She's awesome and will be fine, but its crazy that there isn't anyone else in light or middle!   There are only a couple girls all together in white.  It's sad.  Those girls are the future of jiu jitsu in Ontario and there isn't very many.  Statistically speaking there isn't going to be anyone left if a year or two!

The GTA classic isn't to blame. They are doing all the can to get girls on the Mats.  Discounted registration, good abosolute prizes and separating the belts so people arnt intimidated by the prospect of fighting more experienced girls.   What else can they do?  I would like to see an absolute for the white belts, even if there are no extra prizes,  just so that they have a better opportunity for matches.  Other then that, they are doing a great job.

So who's responsible for this sadness?  Is it the clubs? The coaches? The tram mates?  Are girls not being encouraged to compete like the guys are? Or are they to discouraged by not being able to roll competitively against there male team mates that they think they aren't ready to compete?     Is there names on the list that are scaring people away? I've heard this talked about but I personally love to have a tough fight so I find this difficult to believe.  

It doesn't matter who is to blame,  we need to fix it.   I think I will start a facebook group or fan page for the ladies of Ontario who do Jiu jitsu so we can talk about tournaments and encourage each other.  

I think one problem is, no one wants to register and then have no one to fight,  so you wait and wait till someone else registers, meanwhile,  they are waiting for you!  So ladies,  just sign up!! Worst case senarjo, at most events, you'll get your money back and you might even get to still compete in the absolute.   

In a few weeks the best opportunity on the planet to get good competition experience will land in the GTA.  The toronto grappling grand prix.   Round robin.  White separate from blue and up,  and let's not forget, a trip to worlds for the blue and up absolute winner!    I have been attending the montreal tournaments for the past year and the atmosphere and conradarie at these events is amazing.   I encourage every one of you to register.  Don't wait for a competitor list, register, and inspire others to do the same.

So, the 2nd part of this.   Cutting weight sucks.  As you may or may not know, I used to be kind of fat.  Well, I was skinny, then I git injuries and got fat.  I was pushing 200 lbs at this time last year.  I hid it well because of my height and build but it was bad.    I've since worked my way down to comfortably making medium heavy, which is -163.5 with my gi on.   As you now know, there is no one in this class, so on Monday I decided to try to cut to middle.   Middle weight is -152.5 with my gi.   This will he the lights I've been since I fought MMA in 2009.  My body doesn't like being much smaller the. 155, so this is pretty rough.    I have until tonight at midnight to let the organisers know if I am moving down or not.   Last night, with my gi on, I was 6 lbs over, after class.   It made me realize how dehydrated I will have to be to pull this off.    Is it worth it? Should I just stay and only do the absolute and hope that it will be early enough in the day that I will be there for it?  
The worst part is, my team mates can cut this kind of weight no problem. They eat clean for a day or two and bam, they are down 7 lbs.   Guys can cut weight so much More easily then girls.  There is science to it and its rather unfortunate. 

So, that's what's on my mind right now!  Do you have any ideas on how to get girls out? Any weight cutting tips tricks? stories? 

See you on the mats!

I really wanted to win a trip to Abu Dhabi

After the Ascension tournament, I had my confidence back.  I felt like I had gotten most of the rust off from my long time off and I was back into the swing of things.  So I registered for the Montreal Abu Dhabi Pro Trials.  

We had a pretty decent size team head out to Montreal for the event, which was pretty cool.   Weigh Ins were the day before, which was great, for those on the team who weren't in an open weight class.  Unfortunately, for the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials,  there is only 2 weight classes for women.  and I'd likely have to cut off a leg to make the lower one.   The weigh ins all went fine,  hopefully next year they bring in some more staff, or find a way to stream line the process because it wasn't to quick, and the line up filled up the entire hotel lobby for much of the afternoon/evening.

The venue for this tournament is the BEST venue in Canada for grappling competitions.  The

Centre Pierre-Charbonneau is a great venue,  It has seating all around the "arena"  and the arena is sunk in, it's almost pretty square, so there isn't really a bad angle from anywhere.  I've got some good memories at this place from judo tournaments back in the day and that familiarity helped me be focused and get into the zone so to speak.  

So my fight was the only (or maybe 1 of 2)  fights in the first round.  which means, unlike 90% of my division, I didn't automatically qualify for the absolute, which was the division that the winner gets the trip for.  I'm sure by the tone of this post already  you can guess how my match went.   I lost.  It wasn't a terrible match,  It was very close on points, but then i got frustrated, and left my arm out,  and tapped.  The worst part is, my arm wasn't in trouble,  before I had even tapped the first tap it was free.   I think in my head, I had given up because I was down on points and there was very little time left.   I quit fighting, and that's the worst thing in the world.  

After the match, I managed to mostly hold myself together until I got away from people, but I was so mad at myself, and disappointed with myself that I couldn't hold back the tears.  Once I got myself back together (mostly)  I headed back up to my team to cheer them on and whatnot.  As long as I didn't think or talk about my match I was fine.   It's funny, even now, like 6 months later, if i think about it I get angry at myself and If I dwell on it to long I'll get on the verge of tears.  I hate being a girl sometimes!! 

Sadly, none of the team was able to win the finals of the absolutes to win a trip.  At least we got to go some early sunday instead of having to wait around for someone to fight in the final.  There's always a silver lining, or something like that!

On the way home, my team mate Alasdair (who also really wanted to win a trip)  asked me if I wanted to go to NYC in two weeks to try to win the trip there.   I don't think he was serious at first,  but the more we thought about it, the more it seemed like a great idea.    So we registered, booked a hotel, and bought some overnight bus tickets.    Sadly, Alasdair ended up separating his shoulder in a super fight at sub x. and we scrambled to replace him, so Kyle came along instead, which was fine by me!  I just didn't want to be in NYC by myself!

We got to the bus station in Buffalo early,  so ended up on an earlier, express bus, which put us in New York at 3 or 4 am.    We found a cab and got to our hotel.  (which has a checkin time of 4pm.)   Thankfully, No one was in our room that night/morning so they allowed us to checkin!   I'm so glad they did, we were exhausted and I have no idea what we would have done otherwise.  

On Saturday we wandered to time square and did a bit of shopping and site seeing.  Then weighed in.  Nothing to exciting or unusual.   We got some food after,  and I spent the evening relaxing in the hotel and Kyle wandered NYC.    We had a great breakfast at the breakfast diner across the road from the hotel, checked out, and took a cab to the venue.

I think by the end of the weekend we ended up spending at least 100 bucks on cab fairs!   But it was convenient and got us where we needed to be.   We had some adventures trying to get a hotel back to NYC proper after the event, but it all worked out in the end.

On to the event!    I got a better draw this time around, sort of,  At least if I lost the first round, I could still get into the absolute!  Good thing to, because I lost on points, to the eventual division winner Nicole Whissel.   It was a close match but her wrestling and tight guard prevailed.   I won't get into details, but the timing for this tournament was bad, and I was probably at about 50% strength, which, when dealing with wrestlers, isn't so good, but even at 100% I think I would/will have trouble against Nichole. She's one tough chick!     I had some trouble convincing the tournament people that I still qualified,  They thought it was only semi finalists, not quarter finalists. But once they saw their own tournament flyer It was all sorted out.

In the absolute, they had some pretty crazy draws.  The first place people from the two divisions ended up facing each other in the first round!  and losers like me had byes!   I wasn't going to complain, I needed all the help I could get.    There was a lot of draws that day that had much bigger problems.  (like people having 2 or 3 rounds of byes straight into the semi finals, in a division of 16 ish).   Anyway....   In the Quarter finals,  I faced Rita Floyd in a good match. I ended up winning by arm bar!  

Then in the Semi's I fought Hana Fisher.   We had some good stand up back and forth ness, and then I pulled guard, I should have trusted in my Judo more, but I didn't see any good openings, and didn't want to waste to much energy and time on it.    She ended up passing my terrible guard and we had some scrambles and back and forths  and I ended up in  kimura somewhere in there.    Now, I have a bit of a past with kimura's I've been in a few to many and my shoulders really don't like them.  So i tapped fast and that was the end up my day.    Hana ended up winning the trip, so I at least lost to the champ.   She medaled in Abu Dhabi and also placed 2nd at worlds.  So I don't feel terrible losing to her at all.  Hana and Nichole had a crazy crazy crazy close match for the final. I felt sad for Nichole because she, like me, had competed in Montreal with less then the desired results! 

I think the level of competition in NYC was actually higher then Montreal. Hana came all the way from Texas, and there were girls from all over.    In the end I was bummed about not winning the trip (again), but Not nearly as devastated as I was in Montreal.   I don't really know why.   What I do know is that next year,  I am going to win a trip.   I have been training and competing like a crazy person and no one is going to stop me from getting to Abu Dhabi. 

Ascension Feb 2012

So after my embarrassing performance at the Michigan tournament (I go squashed, and could do nothing about it), I hit the mats the very next day and was determined to not have that happen again,  or at least, not so badly.   I worked hard on getting the underhook from bottom 1/2 guard and keeping from being flattened out.  Fast forward a couple weeks and it's time for the Ascension tournament.

This is kind of the unofficial start to tournament season in Ontario.  Omar Salvosa runs a great event.   Like most tournaments in Ontario, it started a bit late,  but ran fairly smoothly once it got going.   I think the highlight for me was the amazing rendition of O Canada to open up the tournament.   It was something else!  I wonder if anyone has video / audio of it. I'd like to see/hear it again sometime.

The girls divisions here were a decent size, and by decent size I mean the existed.    In Heavy (163+)  we had myself, and Sam Curtis.   Jane Poulin ended up joining us after medium heavy turned up empty.  A problem I have since remedied by un-fattening myself.  Of course, Jane is usually in middle, so It seems medium heavy is quite sparse after all. But that's a problem for another day.

So Jane and Sam fought first,  with Jane coming out ahead.

 Now, a 3 person division, in the OJA tournaments has a kind of strange setup.   the first two people fight.  then the loser fights the fresh person, and the winner of that fights the winner of the first.  Sometimes, if the loser of the first fight wins that second fight, they just get silver, they don't get a second change at gold.  It's a very strange system, but it kind of works.   I'm a firm believer in having round robin for a division of 3.  I think it's the most fair and will produce the most accurate winner.  But, I don't run tournaments, so It's not up to me.  

Ok, back to the event.   I then fought Sam, and won by arm bar,  It was a good match to follow up the atrocity that was Michigan.  I even used what I had worked on since then!  I love it when I can actually use the stuff I drill.  Next up was me Vs Jane.   She is so tough and feisty!  We had a great match, and I ended up pulling off an arm bar late in the match.   I've gotta give major props to Jane for coming up to Heavy weight and fighting my fat ass.  I was really heavy back in January!!  I think without my big weight advantage, the match would have been even closer!!

 I was feeling pretty good, but decided not to do the absolute.  I'm really not sure why.  I think I was tired,  my conditioning wasn't to good, having still been on the comeback trail. My confidence wasn't to high either.   I didn't want to ruin my good day by being smashed by people smaller then me.  What a horrible attitude.   I've since remedied this attitude. there is nothing wrong with losing to smaller people,  It's all experience on the road to becoming a better fighter.  

One other good thing that came from this event was it began my serious effort into getting back into shape.  After seeing some pictures of myself from this fight, and how gigantic my butt looked... man, it wasn't pretty!  No more pizza and ice cream 4 or 5 days a week for me haha.    I wish I could find those pics to link to here,  just for motivation, but I think I un-tagged myself so I wouldn't be embarrassed. 

The end.