Saturday, May 18, 2013

Tournament Self-Review: US Grappling Virginia Beach


First, I'd like to say US Grappling rocks. They put on a great tournament, that runs on time, the owners, bracketeers (sp?), referees, and in general, everyone involved is great.

That being said, despite my fears that like Sampson I'd lose my power/mojo/technique/whatever by cutting my hair, I did well in my first points tournament after surgery AND cutting off my luscious locks.

US Grappling Virginia Beach was my first points tournament back post op ACL reconstruction roughly 10 months ago. I was a bit nervous about losing by advantage or maybe a sweep b/c my flex and bust out jiu-jitsu is rusty from the recovery from ACL surgery.
The month before I competed at the US Grappling Submission Only tournament in Greensboro, NC. I blogged about it HERE with some breakdowns of what I'd been drilling and what I used in each match to win. I won the 30+ and adult blue belt under 149 lb weight class.
The short of it is I utilized the Bernardo Faria sweep and a combination of Terrere's pass/leg weave, and/or knee through passing to get to knee on belly where I would finish with a lapel choke or variation thereof.

The biggest change in my game between then and the US Grappling Virginia Beach tournament was adding in the over/under pass (another version NoGi HERE) following the Bernardo Faria sweep, though you won't see that pass in these two videos. They will be the subject of a forthcoming post. Stay tuned. In fact, I don't even Bernardo Faria sweep the second opponent b/c he passes postures up nearly standing.

This was my first match of the day:
I quickly sit to guard and get to deep half guard and begin feeding the lapel for my Bernardo Faria sweep. I come up into the double underhooks position b/c he turns the opposite direction from the normal counter, and we stalemate for a bit as I force the pass.
I ride him out in knee on belly until he gives me the brabo choke from top position.



Second match of the day: The choke that got away....

He does a good job of being aggressive with his knee through to guard pass and I adjust by hitting the De La Riva sweep Kurt Osiander shows HERE (I hit this sweep ALL the time).

My opponent keeps me from setting my underhook so I switch off to the Paulista pass (Kurt Osiander shows HERE - seeing a motif?) which I also use virtually any time I don't get the underhook (and it was one of the first guard passes I learned in Judo). I lose pressure/fail to keep him flat on his back and he turtles and I lose the position in the restart by the referee. This guy is physically stronger than me, as was the first opponent of the day. I make a note in my mind to start lifting weights again.

At 2:13 I'm lazy and go to turtle rather than pummel to fight and regain my underhook which leads to a near back take, a near choke set up, and only in the scramble do I manage to dive back into half-guard to again force the pass. I felt confident with him on my back and with my escapes but I should not have been in that position in the first place.
I try to force the cross grip/Paulista pass again when I should be doing the Terrere/leg weave pass as I'm too high/far above him-disrupting my base which allows him to get perpendicular to the mat then he picks up a single leg. I'm forced to abandon the position b/c of how deep on my leg/knee he is and give up 2 points for the sweep in the process. Again, an error on my part. Fortunately I hit my kimura grip sweep, but lose position, he comes up and nearly mounts me and I again gain top position in the scramble.
At 4:30 I finally use the correct tool and Terrere/leg weave pass into sidemount, but time runs out b/c it's 30+ with 5 minute time limits just as I set up a collar choke.


Go Train/Drill.

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