Yesterday was the IBJJF NYPRO tournament.  The Black Hole Jiu-Jitsu team sent 8 people, 5 from our club and 3 from Professor Mike Wacker's Academy.  

Our ride down was pretty uneventful, and went quickly.  Upon arrival we found a spot to put our stuff and changed into our Gi's to check our weight.  I was at 165.6 with the Gi, so I was able to have some of my usual tournament fodder (beef jerky, trail mix and Gatorade).  The rest of the guys and girls were all on weight, which was a good start to the day.  None of us were scheduled to fight until 1330 at the earliest so we wandered about watching matches, talking to people we knew and staying loose.

My 1st opponent was someone I had fought before in the NY Spring Open.  I won that time by a single advantage, but he got a takedown and worked me over pretty good so I had to fight from behind.  Going into this match, I remembered that and made my plan to take it to him quickly and bring pressure.  My plan went off without a hitch, I pulled, got a sweep, then mount and kept attacking.  I was up by a fair margin before I took his back and got the sub with a minute left.  

My second match was a bit more difficult.  He managed to get to a 2-0 lead before I got him in my closed guard and attacked with cross chokes (+1 advantage for me).  He applied pressure and almost broke my guard into a pass but I recovered at the last second.  With 30 seconds left I managed a sweep to score a quick 2 and a started to knee cut while attempting another cross choke which gave me another advantage and the win as time expired, good enough for 1st place.

Per my usual, in the Open weight division, things did not go my way.  I was matched up with the winner of the Ultra Heavy division...again.  I pulled guard, scooted underneath him to try to get a sweep which didn't work to well but I recovered into spider guard and stepped on his biceps when he tried to stack me.  I popped his arm over and set up my triangle and was close to having it except 1) I didn't create enough of an angle, 2) My arms and legs were burnt out from breaking his posture down and forcing his arm across for the triangle.  I'm pretty sure that I'll be drilling triangles every training session this week.  

The rest of the team did very well.  Everyone was competitive in their matches.  No one got blown out in any loses (this is my personal biggest fear, its happened to me).  Unfortunately none of us managed to win any of the prize money in the Open weight divisions.  It would have been nice, but it just gives us something to work toward for next time.  

Overall we managed 4 golds and 3 bronzes.  Our team score of 47 was good enough for 10th place, not bad considering we had 8 people.  Hopefully we can bring more people next tournament and make a run at placing in the top 5 as a team.