So I get maybe 6 hours of sleep because it is my first competition in grappling and I keep going over my game plan. The weight class I'm going for is technically 204.9 lbs. and I wake up at.... 205.5. Well looks like I'm not eating or drinking anything till 8:00 am. So I pick up one of my boys at my dojo and it's an hour drive to the place so I think that's plenty of time to cut.
Get there and wait in line to get weighed in and I come to find out that the weight classes are different for Gi and No-Gi, (for those who don't know a Gi is the uniform martial artists wear). No-Gi cut off is 204.9 and Gi is 201.9. MOTHER F!@#$er. fine what ever the next weight class cut off for Gi was 213.9. So I get on the scale and I come up at....... 203.8lbs. the guy looks at me and says, "Do you want to cut any more for the other division?" At this time I'm soooo tired and frustrated that I said, "No I'm done cutting." So I start POUNDING Gatorade, I drank 40 oz. in less than 1 minute. It never tasted sooooo good. Then we go off and get some breakfast and I eat this big steak and egg sandwich and a bagel with cream cheese.
I get back to the place and are awaiting the schedule for the matches. Now They do the kids and woman's first which I can understand, but then I come to find out that they are doing the Advanced Men's first and all the Beginners are last.
Why would you put the new guys last and the more technical guys first. It just didn't' make sense to me. It's like doing the main event first and the warm up bands last. So I get there at 8:00 and I don't go until 3:30 ish. So the whole time there I'm nervous and trying to enjoy myself at the same time.
Fast forward to my matches. First was No-Gi grappling and I come to find out that one of my friends in my school is in my division. Then I find out that the retards that did the brackets are going to put us against each other in the second round and didn't put us on opposite sides of the brackets.
We find this out right after we both tell one of our teachers our game plans in front of each other thinking that, best case scenario we meet each other in the finals. Well, this just took all the wind out of my sails. Needless to say I got a Kimura on him and it was tight and then right about when I realized that his elbow was just about touching his shoulder I remember that he is one of the most flexible guys I know and he wasn't tapping. Well I wasted almost a minute holding this lock and the round was only 4 mins long. so I didn't win the match and the score was 3 - 6.
So I'm bummed and he ended up getting 3rd so I was happy for him but at the same time pissed that my first match was against a guy from my school.
So on to Gi grappling. Well here is where I kicked ass. I got first place and the last match was 20 - 3. I was all over this guy and my Judo training came in very handy. I was very gassed out after my first match but recovered fairly quickly. I also tried getting some locks but the guys were too strong and I was too tired. At the end my arms were dead. I could barely hold my drink.
All and all it was awesome and I got to stay and see some Kickboxing and MMA fights at the end.
I cant' wait to compete again.