Wow it has been a busy week!

I’ve been doing really well, feeling pretty “on” lately. I think I’ve made another progress leap!

Coach won’t be able to come in the early mornings for the next few weeks. There were 3 brand new white belts on Wed morning – leaving me as senior student with no instructor. So I taught class. One of the guys seemed fairly put out to have me, white belt girl, teaching – I suppose the lavender gi added to my authoritative image. He’ll get over it.

We drilled mount to fat boy transitions, then a bow/arrow choke from fat boy. I told coach and he approved.

I did a tournament today (Saturday). It was a small, friendly tournament pulled together by several schools in the area. I was the only girl there so I asked to be put in with the lightweight guys. There ended up being seven people in my division.

The matches were submission only for 10 mins, then they go into “first point wins”.

The first match I had went very well for me – and it was apparently spectacular for the spectators to watch. I imagine the poor guy is gonna get a lot of harassment for the thrashing I put on him. He had to fend off: triangles, mount, side control, ezekiel choke, and multiple sweeps. The only thing he got anywhere close to threatening me with was a straight ankle lock – which gave me opportunity to stand and pass his guard. Finally he got tired and I finished him with a cross choke from guard.

He kept trying to open my guard by digging his elbows into my legs. He looked so surprised when I didn’t even wince.

Anyhow, my next match didn’t go so well. He smashed through my guard and kept me crushed in side control for about 6 minutes. I had a few brief moments of breaking free – but otherwise, stayed smashed. I avoided all of his submission attempts and finally he grabbed the back of my collar and leg, stuck his knee in my rib, and coach called a stop to the match.

I ended up with 2nd place, and they gave me a 1st place as well for “being an awesome competitor”. That was sweet although I don’t feel like it was earned.

My biggest mistake was attempting to pull guard on that last guy. He did a very good job of keeping me small – and not giving me a chance to play my game.

What made me proud, was I didn’t give up. After a few minutes of being smashed, I felt my resolve weakening – then I steeled myself for a fight to the death. I refuse to be beaten because I lost the will to fight. If someone is gonna beat me, it will just be because they are better than me.

Sign of a good match!