No Gi Grappling Tournament

There is going to be a no Gi grappling tournament held at BTT on July 26th and I have decided to give it a shot. It will be my first tournament and I am more then a little nervous. The division I will be competing in is 147 – 170 lbs and 0 -12 months experience. I will have around four month experience at the time. There is a big difference between 4 months and twelve so I’m not expecting to much. Sometimes I can count on my strength to give me a bit of an edge, but I don’t think that will be the case this time. I weigh 160 lbs. So I could be 10 lbs lighter then guys at the upper limit of the division, and if they cut weight to get down to 170 lbs, I could be giving up even more. That said, my expectation are not too high, so I am not too worried about it. More than anything, I am doing it so that I can get the first time out of the way. This way, if I enter a tournament in the future with hopes of doing well I won’t have the first time jitters. Also, we will have ‘Home Mat Advantage’, which will be nice. I sure it goes a long way toward making you feel comfortable.

Being only 2 weeks away, I am really trying to train hard. I have switched almost all of my training to no Gi to prepare for the format. What I am most concerned about is that the tournament will start standing, but, our sparring always starts on our knees. I will need to work some take downs and defenses as soon as possible. Although I think a take down is only worth one point, I would hate to start in a bad position.

Full Tournament Info.

~ by blairturton on July 15, 2008.