10 Years of BJJ - My Jiu-Jitsu Journey - Part 12 (Welsh Open 2009)

(If you haven't read the previous part, you can find it HERE)

Now, after being graded, I was super motivated to train hard and eventually get to green belt. Even if that meant staying in the kid’s class for another two years, I just didn't really care. All I wanted to do was get my green belt prior to my 16th birthday.

The next day (Friday) I actually took the day off school. I don't remember exactly why, but I was probably 'sick'. Anyway, around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, my dad got a phone call from my instructor saying that he was running a competition and wanted me and my brother to compete in it on Sunday. I was a little shocked to say the least, just because it was two days away and I don't like doing things last minute (I've always been that way). 

Reluctantly, I agreed to it, and that was that. I didn't know anything about the competition, how many people were in my division, what weight I'd be fighting at etc. I actually didn't know what the competition was called until I got there. 

Up until this point, I'd only ever competed in one BJJ competition (the others I competed in were Japanese Ju-Jitsu competitions because there were no or very few BJJ competitions run in the UK in the early to mid-2000's) and that actually went really well. I took silver and submitted two of my opponents. I saw this as a good opportunity to test my skills (or lack of) against some people my own size for a change. I still had no idea about weight classes, the rules, the point system or any other stuff associated with competition. 

Fast forward to Sunday morning, and we arrive at the venue in Newport. I was a little shocked because there were no kids or teenagers about. Only me and my brother, sitting there like a bunch of lemons with my dad. I then found out that there were only four of us in my division, and it was open weight due to lack of entries. So at least either me or my brother would walk away with a medal, even if it meant fighting each other.

About 2 hours later, I was called and my division was about to start. 

My opponent was a kid who was the same age as me, but much shorter and skinnier. I thought this was going to be an easy match, but I soon ate those words. The match starts and we start to try and take each other down, mainly with foot sweeps. Back then I had no game. I was neither a top nor bottom player. I literally just did anything and my technique was quite sloppy. I cringe just thinking about it now. 

After about two minutes or so, the guy lands a killer foot sweep and lands straight into side control. F***! Now I really am well and truly screwed. I couldn't escape side control to save my god damn frickin' life. I tried to shrimp but I sucked at that as well. I looked like a dead fish just flapping around out there. After about two minutes with the guy on top of me in side control, he gets an armbar and that was it. 

This was really a reality check for me. I needed to do something with my training or I was just going to continue to get killed out there. The last time I competed I did so well, now I got absolutely schooled by someone half my size. As frustrating as it was, I wasn't too disheartened. All I wanted to do now was train and get better.

My brother's match went actually pretty well. He fought a guy from Roger Gracie Academy who was around the same size as us and an orange belt. He eventually got submitted with a triangle about 4.5 minutes in, but it was a good match. 

Now, there's actually footage of me versus my brother, so I thought I would share that rather than explain the match fully. The quality of the footage is abysmal! But if you are interested you can take a look. I'm the one on the bottom the whole way through.

(If you're viewing on a mobile device, please click HERE)

Another competition over with... But then something happens a few weeks later which change my Jiu-Jitsu game forever. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this part of 'My Jiu-Jitsu Journey', and part 11 will be published next Wednesday.   

Catch you later,

Giordano