Naga Milwaukee Tuesday Morning Quarterback

The venue was a huge sports complex in Franklin, WI; which is just 10 minutes south of Milwaukee. It was county run (I think), which was AWESOME. This meant that it was staffed, and they actually took out the trashes, and refreshed the bathrooms throughout the event. The main "fieldhouse" we were in was huge, and easily accommodated the 14 mat setup that Naga brought. This is in contrast to 10 mats they run at the Arnold Classic, and really made things run a lot faster. I talked to Kip Kollar later in the day who said each extra mat they have subtracts about 1 hour of time from the competition. They had small bleacher sections in a few places, but these weren't very effective, as everyone just crowded around the mats anyways.

Naga does no-gi first, so I was one of the first divisions up, being old and all. I did masters intermediate, and there was only one other guy in my division. I think the next time I'm going to have to do adult, as I would like to get some more work in for the $100 entry fee. I don't know what school the guy was from, but he was very nice, and we joked around before the match about buying drinks before we fight (they served beer at the venue). The guy tried to pull guard but I immediately jumped to his half guard, as it was one of my key mental points for the tournament not to get caught in full guard. He never closed his half guard, so I just jumped around to side control right away. He started spazzing pretty heavily, and I just gave him a little "shoulder of pain" control to try to settle him down. At 1:00 my coach was telling me to mount, which was wide open. I didn't hear him (or wasn't listening good enough), as my head was clouded trying to set up a far side armbar. I trapped his arm, and he pretty much gave me the armericana, so I just finished that. I heard his elbow pop and asked if he was alright, and he didn't seem to notice at all, so that was good.



My teammates were kicking ASS all around me, and the day started out very good. With 7 GRBJJ members competing, we won 4 1st place swords in no-gi! I am so proud of all my teammates, and going to tournaments just reaffirms that I train with the best group of people around.

I got to rest for a couple hours before the my gi division started. I ate a gross hamburger from the concession stand, and took about 3x the recommended dosage of this B vitamin energy spray that I got. I wandered around watching my team, and tried to keep my energy up listening to my mp3 player.

Eventually they called my division (masters blue belt) and it turned out to only have 2 other people in it. I wish I would have done adult, but I watched the adult blue belt for my weight, and that only had a couple people in it too. The guys didn't seem nearly as good in adult either for some reason. In my group, I recognized my first opponent. He is a 3 stripe blue from New Breed in Chicago, and I saw him do really well at the Arnolds a few months ago. The other guy was a white belt who bumped up to blue belt.

My first match, I fought the New Breed guy. This is probably the worst jiu jitsu match of my life. Taking nothing away from a quality opponent, I felt like I was in slow motion. He pulled guard, and I immediately looked to lift him up to do a standing pass. I had HORRIBLE posture and was all bent over. This is agonizing for me to watch, and even worse for me to post for strangers to see. He sweeps me over to mount, starting up 6-0. I was PISSED at this point. He had a good very high mount, and I just stayed in defensive position, as I could feel he was trying to set up and armbar/choke/s-mount type combo. I waited for the right time and shrimped. He went to try and take my back, but I was waiting for him and turned into him, taking the top position. He then immediately swept me as I was just sitting there doing nothing. I took half guard for the last minute or so. I pulled deep half guard which is one of my better positions. I grabbed under his foot, and felt I probably could have swept him. Knowing I was way down on points, I went out the back door and grabbed him, trying to take his back. He postured down pretty well and just layed on me for the last few seconds of the fight. Hats off to a good competitor, but I feel like I let myself, my coaches, and my team down. This is not because I lost, but because I didn't use the good technique I was taught.



Because their were only 3 guys in the division, I had another match against the white belt. I'm not sure what school he was from. I took a shot and ended up taking him down pretty easy. I tried the lazy single that I have been working on a little with one of my coaches (C), but pretty much missed. I just kept driving through and ended up with the takedown. I needed to get a lot deeper. I need to keep practicing this. I ended up in his half guard, and he immediately went to the lockdown half guard. I decided to Brandon Klein him (push the top of my head into the bottom of his chin with all my body weight) which he didn't like very much at all. The ref then stops the match at this point to ask me if I was green or red (he told me I was green before the match). This ref is one of the worst refs Naga has. He screwed up one of my matches at the Arnolds, and later in the day gave one of Luis's opponents 7 points that they didn't earn. I thought my coach was going to go ballistic on this guy at one point, as he really does suck. Eventually we reset, and I with my coaches instruction, I pull out the guys lapel on the far side, and feed it under his neck. This is one of the best control points in half guard in the gi. I try to work a baseball bat choke (one that Hermes Franca practiced with us a couple months ago), but I was having trouble getting a good grip with my right hand. The choke did bother him enough to let me pass his guard. I then jump up to knee on stomach, and take his back. I was up 11-0 at this point. He had his near arm straight up trying to defend me, so I took it a fairly ugly looking armbar from it. Props to the guy for jumping up and fighting at blue belt. This is something I did a lot as a white belt, and even in losses, it only makes you better.



We ended up all being done around 6:30pm, which is by far the earliest I've ever been out of a Naga. There were still some groups going, but I can't imagine that anyone was rolling after 7:30pm. We went back to the hotel and showered up, then headed to Buffalo Wild Wings in Milwaukee. After a fun night we went back to the hotel.

I had a great time with my team, and can't wait to hit the gym Tuesday to start fixing all my mistakes. Despite a 1st place and a 2nd place, I am embarrassed by the performance in my loss, and am going to work even harder to make sure that never happens again. I would like to offer a big thanks and congratulations to all my teammates who competed, as I am proud of all of them. We fought hard and showed good jiu jitsu. I also want to thank my team that didn't make it out. Without all of us, we simply wouldn't be the CRAB NATION!

-The Dutch Assassin