10 Years of BJJ - My Jiu-Jitsu Journey - Part 8 (Braulio's Competition Part 1)

(This is part 8 of this series. If you haven't seen part 7 it can be found here.)

So I am now a yellow belt...

I mentioned last time that I was promoted to yellow belt by Braulio and Victor Estima in October 2007, as the regulations had changed.

Fast forward a few months, and it is now January 2008. I found out that Braulio was putting on his own kid’s competition in February for all -16's under Gracie Barra. Now, if I'm honest I didn't really want to do this competition at first, but somehow I always come round to saying yes.

I guess I was hesitant at first as this would be under IBJJF rules, and this would be my first ever competition doing so. Actually, as a thirteen year old that meant nothing to me, all I knew was there would be submissions involved, which I was a bit nervous about if I'm honest, as we didn't really roll that much in the kid’s class with submissions, only if Chris told us too.

Nobody else entered in the club, it was just me and my brother. Actually, my brother was ill the week leading up to the competition, so now it’s just me. 

The competition itself was held in Gracie Barra Birmingham, and as always, it took forever to get there. Now, other than my first ever competition, this was probably the most nervous I have ever been leading up to a competition. Probably because this was something completely new, and I guess I didn't know really what to expect.

For some reason, I didn't actually own a yellow belt. When I was graded, they gave me a yellow belt, we had a photo, and then they took it back. Actually, at this time I only trained nogi, so I didn't really need one. So, instead Chris gave me an old white belt to use instead for the competition. Actually, Chris was supposed to come up, but for some reason he didn't.  

So, we finally arrive and the place is rammed. I mean literally you cannot move. There were loads of teams there that day. Every team had loads of competitors, at least 20. I on the other hand, had my ill brother, and my dad wearing that AWFUL purple coat, (one day, I am going to burn it!). So if nothing else at least I had some good corner men (jokes!).

Basically, they weighed all the competitors, and then separated them into categories. I was in Teens A (13-14) heavyweight division, as I was pretty chubby at that age. For some reason, they did IBJJF rules and time limits, but not age or weight divisions. There were a decent number of competitors there that day, so they probably could have done proper divisions.

Now, I didn't really know the rules all that well, and I definitely did not know what advantages were. Neither did I know what submissions were legal or not, but I wasn't too worried about that, as most of them I never really did. Back in those days I didn't really have a game, just try and get on top, and somehow pass the guard. And if I'm honest, that game SUCKS! And I found that out when I started training with the adults. 

So, now I am there dressed in my Gracie Academy gi, with Carlson Gracie and Brazilian Top Team patches on, at a Gracie Barra competition. Yeah, people must have thought I turned up to the wrong competition. But all jokes aside, today I felt really confident. I just knew today I was going to win!

My division was actually pretty big, and since we all pretty much started again in terms of grade, everyone was either a yellow belt or lower. Except for one guy, who was an orange belt, and was in my division. Great!

Okay, so I get called to fight...

I hope you guys enjoyed. Part 9 will be uploaded shortly.

Catch you later,

Giordano