Full results are here

It was a tough day for the team but there were some notable achievements throughout the tournament.

• Snoop (Kevin) and Thomas playing rock, paper, scissors to close out their division
• Tommy survived and triumphed against many tough guys (Black Belts) en route to his silver medal
• Riccardo winning his division after a grueling competition
• Several nosebleeds
• Cat, Gabe, Bato, Fred, Peter with Bronze medals
• Dudu's silver

Confusion?
The biggest glitch in proceedings for me was the fact that although my division was 2 sheets deep and only had 3 Toronto BJJ fighters in in it I was scheduled to fight my team  mate in the second round. We complained to the staff but hey refused to shuffle the divisions. So I retired to give my team mate the bi and for him to keep his strength. But then they called my name and when I went to the pit they had switched names and claimed I was never meant to fight Oscar and to get my Gi on. So within a few minutes I was back on the mats. Not sure what was going on there.

Gameplan
My gameplan was simple. Go for the choke. I was facing *white belts and have a high rate of success with this but for some reason both guys survived multiple choke attempts. Probably for the same reason I survived the triangle at Grapplers Quest. On a normal day I am not sure it would have been the same. But it wrecked my arms and fingers for sure and that was that. 1 Triangle but I had my guard passed twice in the second fight and I couldn't finish him with 4 choke attempts...I need to refine this. And I need to relax alot more.

*white belts...This is another thing to be wary about. A white belt can have 5 years NO GI experience or a Black Belt in Judo. It's not always someone new to the game you will be facing...

The Organisation
Overall I think the event was well organized and the time moved along at a decent rate...by that I mean that all grappling events are long and you are usually waiting for ages to fight but this was OK generally speaking..plus they had TV camera's to deal with.

I heard the live stream was not that great and only featured 1 mat...

Free Tournament T Shirts are always welcome and we all got one

The Lessons

For me these are the take home things for me to think about.

I should not go to competition not to win. I must go there to win. To be casual and just go there to see how your BJJ is against someone else is something you can do at your school everyday. If you spend the money and take the time off work and put in the time training you deserve to be there to win it. Otherwise there is no point.

I still need to calm down during my fights. I don't breathe right and exert too much energy.

Frame of mind is another area that I am working on. Once I find the correct frame of mind I need to perform best in competition I think that will be a turning point and I know I have yet to find it.