Ze Grapplez: Grappling & MMA News + Commentary: US Grappling Chicago Roadtrip Photobomb

Monday, September 15, 2014

US Grappling Chicago Roadtrip Photobomb

It was a long weekend in the books. We met at 530/6am in Durham to ride up to Chicago. We ended up departing by about 715/730am (long story) and began the 12ish hour trek through West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and part of Illinois.

I slept several times as did the other guys and split my time playing on facebook or reading the Steve Jobs biography by Isaacson. We left so early I hadn't checked my weight and suspected I was at least about 3 lbs over.

1st place to my teammate John "Delicious Bagels" Telford and 2nd place for me in the advanced NoGi division

We ended up making it to the hotel and I checked my weight around 830pm, but I had suspicions that it was incorrect, though it estimated I was about 4 lb's over. I had a salad with chicken and slept, waking up according to the scale approximately 2 lbs over.
We got lost on the way to the venue and went 30 min's in the wrong direction but eventually arrived and finished the set-up in progress. I was running on about 10 hours of sleep over the previous two nights and felt less than stellar. Also, I was a bit nervous having never done NoGi Advanced and having not competed in NoGi in any manner in over 3 years.

I began feeling the familiar feeling I used to before doing the NoGi: namely that I just wanted it to be over, but I remembered Donald Cerrone saying in an interview that there are red lights thoughts and green light thoughts. Red light thoughts are self-doubt, insecurity, and in general negative emotions. Instead, before I realized it, I had caught myself and focused on what I would do in the match first. Rather than just go out there with no plan, I decided I would sit to guard and work from bottom as that was where I was most comfortable. I had neither the desire nor the recent training to fight for a protracted takedown and just opted to adopt that as my strategy.
It worked, I beat my first opponent 8-4, despite that I let him dive for a takedown as I sat to guard, starting him off with 2 points. I nearly caught him in a triangle, had some close calls as he stood up to pass/guard break, but eventually butterfly swept into a knee through position, scored some knee on belly points but gave up top position as he did the semi-bench press escape as I raised my hips to garner knee on belly points. My teammate and I handshook it out as we were both beat from the trip and waiting for the Gi. I reffed some NoGi intermediate and 30+ men's matches and would later in the day referee some really, really good blue belt men's matches. They were some of the best matches I saw that day.

CJ Murdock, black belt and MMA fighter

Venue before the start of festivities. It was a long day.

I warmed up for the purple belt featherweight and faced my opponent from the NoGi Division. I can only be honest and say I felt very confident going into the match. I knew with the Gi on I would almost certainly not give up takedown points, and would immediately work to sweep after pulling guard. I did just that and hit a quick butterfly sweep into a cross grip/knee through pass position. I got my underhooks and passed to knee on belly then eventually as he sat up to sit out took his back, later working my way to mount. I threatened with a double lapel choke from the back and several ezekiels from the back. Later he reversed position as I scored knee on belly and I dove for a rolling baseball choke after making way quite ahead on points.

Busy weekend with something like 26 hours in the car. I'm glad I went through another competitive day and conquered some negative self-talk and made my way back into the Advanced NoGi division at it's another avenue to more matches. I got more referee experience and spent time with the awesome folks at US Grappling.
Win or learn. This weekend I got to do some winning after some very hit or miss performances in the first half of 2014 and my first year at purple belt.