aftermath

So I did better then I expected but not as good as I'd hoped.  I have this secret fear that I will go in and embarrass myself, get destroyed 20-0.  I should have more faith in my Jiu-Jitsu, and in reality, I do.  My mind set is to go in and win, blow the guy out 20-0.  It usually ends up being somewhere in between.

The venue at City College was okay.  Hot, not too crowded, easy to get to.  MTA to Harlem/125th and cabbed it over.  They were grilling some food in the gym so it smelled like a sexy mixture of B.O. and fried bologna.  The brackets were well organized and ran on time.  I went off around 215-230pm.  My professor was unable to make weight and also was injured so he couldn't go and compete.  I felt bad because he did not look good on Friday.  I had been excited to compete myself and then watch him compete but it didn't happen.  No biggie.  I will get my chance to see him get down. To quote Method Man "i roll dolo from state to state"

So I had one match, the score was 9-9 with my opponent beating me by two advantage points. I had a 7-0 lead and fucked it up. Sucks, but I learned a lot...lets see, where should I start...

- gotta finish.  I had a lead and didn't keep it.  Fucking finish and be wary of dumb mistakes.

- be aggressive.  But not too aggressive.  Marcelo and a ton of other guys have said this in a few different ways.  I've been making an effort but apparently gotta keep at it.  I started to really get their idea by watching one of Rodrigo Freitas matches that day.  He looked very nonplussed, calm and patient.  Only exploding when he had to.  That's how I have to be.

- work on my top game more.  I'm a guard player so my natural instinct is to fall back.  I gotta keep working on my attacks and passing from the top.  Round out my game.

- Drill.  Drill my sweeps, passes and everything else.  nuff said.

 Other random shit from the day:

It was nice to see and talk to some of the guys I know from other competitions, Ari and Pat. They were doing well.  Ari had just got his purple and was coaching Pat that day.  

Some guys use some corny/crazy shit to motivate them.  Guy in the locker room was listening to "Eye of the Tiger".  Another guy put his Gi top on, recorded himself giving a pep talk and sent it to himself.  But hey, who am I to judge if it works.