The thrill of Victory and the pain associated with it

Exactly one week ago to the day I entered into my second foray in martial arts. The area's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ProAm tournament, "The Best of the Best 9." Like I said in recent posts, this event takes place in Omaha, NE and is an open invitational competition to anyone with a submission or wrestling fighting style.
Before I give my thought about the event and the outcome of my particular divisions I would like to clear up any misconceptions of Jiu Jitsu. Loosely translated from its Japanese origin, Jiu Jitsu means the Gentle Art. This is obviously an example of Feudal humor, since the only thing gentle about the art is maybe the camaraderie between the participants. When I tell someone at work that I am studying and competing in Jiu Jitsu, most of the time I get an, "Oh, wow...what is that?" So I have to explain that it is a martial art, and what it usually entails. If you don't know what Jiu Jitsu is, this is the basic way that I explain it. If is very close to Greco-Roman Wrestling, but you can submit your opponent instead of pin your opponent. Next question I get is, "What do you mean by submit your opponent?" I mean, if I am on his back with my arms around his neck I am trying to choke him until he either taps or passes out from a lack of oxygen to the brain. I know that it sounds serious, but only the dummies let themselves go that far. If I have an opponents arm in a angle that puts pressure on a shoulder or elbow, this may also garner me the submission.
One major misconception is that we hit each other, which is false, striking is not permitted. Jiu Jitsu has in the past 10 years become synonymous with Mixed Martial Arts or MMA. In MMA, Jiu Jitsu is what happens when the two participants get to the ground, minus the strikes on the ground. OK, everyone got it?
After waiting 6 hours to finally get my matches going at the tournament, I began my quest for metal, or rather medal. I started in my Gi division, which is 221 lbs. and up, which I may add was the heaviest division at the tornement. Out of a field of 6 competitors I held my own. My first match was against a Sam Longstaff out of Topeka Jiu Jitsu, in Kansas. The match went the distance, the entire five minutes, with myself winning by points. I still am not sure how many points I was up, rumor was I had a 13 point lead over him going into the last minute. Most of the match I had his back, but to me the match seemed closer than the result showed. Sam was a hell of a competitor, and had a determination to win that rivaled my own, which was great. Because my second match was a total disaster for yours truly. Be the time my division was beginning the coordinators were realizing that this ProAm was taking way too long and needed to speed things up, so they began putting entire divisions out on all three mats. To make a long and pointless story short, guys were having to compete on one mat right after they got off of another mat. This happened to me in my second and it really showed. Luke Schollmeyer, fighting out of Omaha. Beat me soundly within 2 or 3 minutes. Which was ok, I really didn't expend a lot of energy and was no worse for wear coming out of it. There are sometimes in life when you know you can't win, considering the hand that is dealt, and this was one of those times. So I fell into the losers bracket, I was going to have to fight my way back up. I then took on a competitor, who I am not sure who he was or where he was from. To be honest, he shouldn't have even been competing, I soundly beat him, I basically drove him to the floor by off-balancing him and pushing him over, I jumped on top of him in side control and submitted him with a Kimura (arm crank). The entire match took less than an minute. This is the way you stay fresh in competition, taking out the competitors quickly to save energy. The final match I had in this division was for the Bronze medal and took place against Sam Longstaff again. Sam had won his second match, I would like to think that I helped him, I was coaching him from the side, since after his first match he befriended my and we hit it off, I thought giving him some advise was the least I could do. We squared off one last time, with intentions of winning a medal. Sam took me down quickly and landed in my guard. It seemed like all my training had prepared me for this moment, within a minute he was tapping from an armbar to Gi choke, something that we had been working on just the week before and I had never gotten anyone with it before or even tried it out. The elation of winning a medal was great, I wish we both could have felt that way, but for every win there must be a lose. Anyway if you want to see how anyone else did in their division, please check out www.bjjomaha.com. The video is of the bronze medal match between Sam and I.

Best of the Best 9

Just 2 weeks away from my second foray into the competitive Jiu Jitsu I am getting anxious to see the competition. The Best of the Best Tournament is help every few months in Omaha by Midamerica Martial Arts of Omaha. This tournament is like any other tournament, teams show up and their team members participates in matches for individual glory as well as team points that could give them the coveted championship.

The tournament in my opinion could be better, the competition is good, but the actual structure of the tournament could use some sprucing up. I don't want to throw stones, I think it is great that someone, anyone is putting together a Jiu Jitsu tournament that is available to all the schools in the region.

This BOTB is looking promising as far as depth of schools that will be competing. According to http://www.bjjomaha.com/ there are 10 schools that are sending fighters to compete. One of which is our very own Roseberry's, which I will represent.

At BOTB 8 I had 4 months of Jiu Jitsu under me and I think I put on a pretty good show, coming in 4th place in my divisions. But this time around I have really been training hard and learning the craft and am looking at getting a medal...Third or higher!

If you are reading this and live in the Omaha area, please, come check out this competition.

Best of the Best 9

Blackburn High School

2606 Hamilton St., Omaha, NE

Competition Begins @ 9am

Admission is $5