IBJJF Pan Jiujitsu Championship part1of2

Tomorrow is the IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Irvine California.  This will be my second Gi tournament and fourth overall.  My first Gi tournament was Nationals last September in which I was subjected to a triangle choke fairly quickly by my first and only opponent.  It was a hard loss for my ego but after a day of "woe is me, am I built for this?", I wanted to be back on the mats for more learning and I was looking forward to the next opportunity at competition.

I put on a Gi the end of June last year.  I had had some No-Gi training off and on before then. Sporadically for about a year at Krav Maga but then I left fight training all-together for about eight to nine months.  Currently I am a 'Baby' Blue having just been promoted mid-December to Blue Belt by Lucas Pires at Werdum Combat Team. 

It will be interesting to see how I handle myself against women who have probably been training longer than myself and women who are under 118lbs with Gi on.  I hope to get past the first round for many reasons mostly having to do with making my coaches and teammates proud.  But also I want the opportunity to move around with girls my size and to learn what that feels like.  There are not that many women in competitive combat sports and then you factor in experience levels and weight classes and geography and what you find is that it is hard to get fights in Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA.

That there will be nineteen women in my division is a thrilling opportunity if I can stay on the mats to go a few rounds!

But there is no pressure but to learn and grow from this experience for which I am grateful.

I hope the calm I feel during training, the calm I am feeling this evening before tomorrow will stay with me when it is time to put into practice that which has been taught to me. 

All of us know all that we can know, need to know for any given situation at any particular moment.  Acknowledging, Accessing and Making Use of what we know is the challenge. 

So I cannot worry about what I have not yet learned.

Tomorrow will be fun!