Exciting three weeks! Jiu-jitsu tournaments! UFC Nebraska! Japan! My pride and joy.
I just entered into an exciting back-to-back action packed three weeks! I have five major things going on!
First, on Saturday August 18th, I would coach my kid students at the NAGA Grappling/Jiujitsu tournament!
On Saturday the 19th, I myself would compete in the NAGA!
Wednesday, August 22nd, I will compete in the IBJJF Master Worlds tournament, which is one of THE largest jiujitsu competitions in the world. People fly in from overseas to compete. Specifically, anyone over 30 is eligible. Despite being a vampire and looking like I don’t age, my legal age is 35, so I could register.
Friday the 24th, I’ll fly to Lincoln, Nebraska to support JoJo in her UFC fight, and assist John in her corner. What an honor!
August 30th, I’ll leave for Japan, returning a week later, September 8th. Whooooooo!
I don’t have an MMA fight yet, so I decided to try and do a jiujitsu tournament and Japan trip ASAP. I didn’t expect TWO tournaments to pop up back to back, or go to Nebraska, but they are amazing opportunities. 😀
I have to cut weight HARD for the Master Worlds, so I can go and gain five pounds in Japan and be fine. 😀
Aaaand….START!!!!
August 18th: Kids NAGA
Our kids did well! The brothers Illia and Artem…. last time Artem won a bunch but Illia didn’t, and this time it was kind of the opposite. They both did the beginner division, which is supposed to be 6 months to a year of training. They’ve been training a year and a half, but I knew kids sandbagged. It was absolutely the right choice. He struggled a bit. Illia fought a gray belt who beat him easily. It definitely takes 2 years or so to get a gray belt. *huff* I’m not going to do anything like make my kid wear a lower belt, but I’m going to make sure he gets fair matches. I had some moral struggles this weekend in regards to what divisions to put my students into…. and decided that basically if they couldn’t win in the beginner division, it’s fair to keep them there until they start winning, and then I should move them up. Anyway, Illia guillotined a different kid, which none of us teachers taught him….his dad taught him. haha way to go Dad, I guess? He got second place. Artem got third.
They both fought hard! I’m so proud of them!
Aleena had some rough matches! She had won her beginner’s division previously so she had to go intermediate, which I was slightly concerned about due to people not competing in the divisions they’re SUPPOSED to, but I have confidence in her skill and toughness. I knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. She got this tiny gray belt girl, and I thought, ‘Pffft no problem.’
Oh, I underestimated her! I’m forget how but Aleena got 2 points somehow [edit: she got the take-down], and then spent the rest of the match escaping from triangles and armbars. That little opponent was amazing! She threw up triangle after triangle! Not many kids at Syndicate are good at triangles, so our advanced kids don’t have a lot of practice defending it. _< She defended it incorrectly, buy reaching up and trying to open up the feet with one hand, but hey, it worked and she got out. It freaked her out, though, and she was crying while fighting near the end of the match. But she kept fighting hard!!
Finally it ended, and we all thought the other girl one. Then the ref raised Aleena's hand and I was like omg! The opponent girl started crying. ;_; Aleena was crying. Everyone was crying. lol
I hugged Aleena and tried to calm her down. “You won! You did so great! Now we have to go shake the other coach’s hand.”
She shook her head, and planted her feet like a puppy when I tried to pull her. ^^;
“No! I’m scared!” she said.
awww. It was so cute. And sad. Cutely sad. ;_; Across the ring, the other little girl was being comforted by HER coach. Aleena got the points and pulled off the win. That’s jiujitsu!!
The ref just stood there patiently in the middle of the ring, smiling and waiting. I actually know the ref…. we used to train together when I was in college. How cool is that?
A few minutes later, I tried again to get her to go shake their hands. “See, she’s crying to. We have to be polite. What’s wrong?”
“I’m not happy!”
Aleena is a martial artist. I can’t wait to teach her the triangle defense, because I guarantee all she wanted to do was train and get better so she would have a better performance next time. I couldn’t be prouder of her!
5-10 minutes later, she stopped crying and we went to the podium. Her opponent was still crying, though. ^^; I kinda felt bad for her, but that’s the way it goes! Aleena deserved it.
Then, she had a match with another girl…………. So if a kid is set up with an exhibition match, the ref asks the parents and coach if it’s okay to put her with someone heavier or more skilled or whatever. Nobody asked me, so I didn’t really know what was going on, but whatever was fine, I thought.
Some tiny girl with an orange belt stood on the other side of the mat. Aleena’s eyes opened wide. I was like, “Don’t worry, you’re fine!” Then the orange belt went a way and a girl with a tattered white belt came over. I was like, “That’s better.” Aleena’s mother said, “That’s the same girl!” What…? It was? I didn’t notice…
It must have been. She grabbed Aleena and launched her over her shoulder in a beautiful, perfect ippon seoenage shoulder throw. x_x She got mount and went for an armbar. I was like, holy sh****! but Aleena defended by locking her hands together. The girl looked like she was FIVE YEARS OLD. How is this possible?!? @_@
In order to break the grip, she knelt on Aleena’s arm and wrenched and it turned into a wrist-crush/shoulder lock. Aleena said “Ow ow ow” and the ref stopped the match on verbal tap. 🙁 Dang!
Okay, the girl earned that, but if you are an orange belt, WEAR the orange belt. It’s fine. Now I feel like there’s some sneakiness involved. Just wear it and be intimidating. You earned it. I realized this match must have been an exhibition for expert division.
Anyway, proud of Aleena.
A few other big kids in Coach Rick and my class competed and did very well. I didn’t really get to watch my other young student Brandon’s matches. Serena was corning him, but he fought hard. I think he lost one and won one by choking the kid out. Yay chokes!
Then I busted out of there to my hair appointment and got my hair cornrowed! No matter how well I braid my own hair, it always comes out, and if I was going to do two tournaments in a row, might as well make the effort and spend the money. It’s between $30-50 usually to get cornrowed.
I was SO tired. From 9 AM until 3:30, I was pacing around the gym, doing lap after lap, making sure none of my kids’ names were called without us being aware, making sure brackets were made, sprinting here and there to corner kids who were up. Oh, I got to weigh in early for my match the next day, which was nice.
Sunday the 19th:
I went back to the gym the next morning around 10, and found that no-gi divisions went first, so I had to wait hours to fight. It’s always a challenge timing food, because I want to make sure I have energy and food digested enough, but if it’s too close to the match, I’ll feel crappy. I was up around 1 PM!
A few Syndicate jiujitsu members Tim and Christine came to support! Casey, my mentor/coach came and stayed by my side the whole time. <3 Thank you! I know it's so tedious to hang around a tournament for hours. And of course, Serena.
I weighed in a 137, and apparently one lady Crystal who weighed in around 129 took the fight. It’s technically a weight class up (120-129, and 130-139) but we were within ten pounds of each other so it wasn’t TOO bad.
I managed to get a single leg and keep top control. I ended up winning on points. 
Thank you very much for taking the fight and for the match.
It seemed to be over so quickly! They gave me a belt! @_@ I couldn’t believe what was happening.
It took me a while to calm down and get out of fight mode.
Cool! I floated and maintained top like how I’ve been working with Mike Pyle lately, so thanks for that training, Mike. Also thanks Casey for the drilling and rolling sessions Monday and Tuesday, and my training partners at Dunham jiujitsu, and Rene, for making me better.
Phew.
Monday was a normal schedule. Sarah Kaufman was in town so we trained together a bit! It’s great to have her!
Also, a woman from Indonesia was here on a UFC training scholarship! She’ll be here for a month. She doesn’t speak English at all…. no problem! Feels like home in Japan. lol 
Yesterday I just drilled BJJ for an hour, did Yoga, and watched anime. I’m caught up on the second season of My Hero Academia! I love that series so much! It’s so motivating and inspirational!!
So today is Wednesday… Time for my third major event in a three week period… IBJJF tournament! omg I’m nervous! and thirsty and hungry because I have to cut weight. x_x I’m on weight right now. I ate a little breakfast but I’m slightly dehydrated….
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