First and foremost, as I've said before, I love most all martial arts and I'm a big fan of self defense over sport, but that being said I find competitions help keep the edge on your skills an fine tune your game.
This weekend I had a submissions only competition that was out of town. I like submission only over point as I believe in finishing a match by making them tap, or them making you tap, rather than by being able to hold your opponent in more different ways than they can hold you. I still find both are fun and will continue to do both as they come ut I always go for the finish. Anyways, I decided that since it was out of town I would travel there the day before and grab a hotel room so that I didn't have to rush to get there and rush back home on the same day. In the past I've done all the traveling on the competition day and felt burnt out by all the running about, it was a nice switch to be able to take my time to get to the competition for once.
So there's the setting for this story on why I love Jiu Jitsu. Now the several awesome, and not so awesome, things that happen to come to this already made conclusion. First, once I announced my plans to travel over and compete a friend who trained at my club for a while contacted me offering a find a place to crash and forego hotel costs, it didn't work out but the offer still stands as awesome. I'm always grateful for any offer of help from anyone, no mater how small, helping each other is just good living. The Mayweather VS Pacquiao fight was on last night and this friend knew I was in town on my own and invited me out to their gathering to watch the fights and meet a bunch of new people. Another awesome offer, this time it worked out and was a fun experience.
Now it's game day. I make my way to the stadium for the competition and meet up with another teammate who is competing. We meet up, get settled in and wait for our divisions to start. I wish at this point I could say that we cleaned house and went home with a bunch of medals but alas it was not our day, the not so awesome experience, but that's ok because it was still a fun and eye opening experience, and best of all I made a new friend. I've always found it funny how friendly everyone else is to one another when we're not on the mats even at competitions.
Originally my division had 3 people in it but it ended up just me and 1 other guy, again (being in a 200+ lb division it's been quite common only having one competitor on game day, where are all the big guys?!) Me and the other guy square off, I'm a big enough man to admit it, he's got the perfect game to shut me down. I later found out he had a very strong judo background and his grip game was superior. In the past all my opponents had been more grappler types and I had worked my stand game for that, pummelling, arm drags and working a tight game for under hooks. His grip game shut any of that down and he maneuvered me and swept my leg out with ease. Dam! I was half pissed on not being more of a problem for him and half being in awe of his game. He got me with an Americana. He helps me up and I say to him "judo game?" and ha laughs and confirms it. Up to this point I had only been guessing but as soon as the match started with his more upright posture and strong arming technique and unbreakable grip it was quickly apparent what his background. Of course you can say, well he was wearing a orange belt, but I know lots of academies that have picked up using other belts to make the slow progression between white and blue or blue and purple, and I don't tend to put much care on their belts anyways, the mats tell all.
The match is over and he and I start talking, admiring each others grips and enjoying the quick but crucial grip game we had, I watched it over a dozen times since today because it really was fun. This is the by the way the next awesome thing that happened, bonding. Not just with teammates but with other competitors. Him and I talked for probably 20 minutes about our competition and training experiences, complimenting each other on there skills, and in true Canadian fashion, apologising to each other for any pain we may have caused the other. I made a new friend to look forward to seeing again in future competitions. I had a fun time with teammates, met made new friends, gained a bunch of experience and learnt where to work on my game. In the end I didn't lose anything, I won a lot.
This is what I love about Jiu Jitsu, the friendly community that exists with the sport. I look forward to making more friends in competition.
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