Back to the drawing board

39 days left....

Sometime in the beginning of March, I overheard a couple of guys at my BJJ school talking about the mythical Pan American Jiu Jitsu tournament - the 2nd largest jiu jitsu tournament in the world. If you took a look at my credit reports and past dating experiences, you would know that while I may be a white belt at BJJ I'm a freaking Black Belt in "Stupid Decisions", so I decided to enter.

At the beginning of the month, I noticed that I was close to the limit of 194 lbs. I don't know what was worse- cutting weight or being 195lb and 5 ' 6". So over the course of those last month I have ate really well, drank only water and upped the nutritional content in my diet. I also go to the gym in between days of BJJ, so now I am exercising 5-6 days a week. The results? The day before the tournament, I weighed in at 189 (with a 3 pound gi on) and weighed in at 187 at the tournament. So while I still have 30 pounds to go, I am pretty damn excited about where things are going.

The tournament itself was amazing: over 2400 competitors (!) showed up along with many high level guys. I was there on "White Belt Friday", which was also "Main Event Black Belt Friday". This is when all of us newbs show up and make complete jackasses out of ourselves while the black belts show how beautiful our sport can truly be. There were 10 mats and when your weight class is called you checked into the bullpen (warm-up area) and weighed in. Since my weight and health has spiraled out of control over the last few years, I was in the Medium Heavy (181-194 lbs) weight class and received a doozy of wakeup call: The average guy was in great shape and 5 ' 10 or taller. Apparently, some people do like to keep their weight proportionate to their size, though I still maintain I have yet to receive this memo. Even when I weighed in, the volunteer told me to drop a weight class or two.

After all the pre-game festivities you walk out to your mat. I noticed the size of the crowd, the pounding of my heart, the beads of sweat trickling down my brow. I look over and see the expression on Vanessa's face: a combination of fear and excitement. I could fill your head up with BS about how I "Visualized Victory" and remembered some magical quote my instructor told me, but neither happened. I looked across the mat at an unassuming guy and figured my best shot was to kick him in the nuts and follow that up with a chair shot. Alas, it was not meant to be: We traded positions for two minutes, then this is what followed:



Yes, I lost. No, I don't care. It was incredibly exhilirating and made me want to train even harder.

With a little over a month to go, I am counting on being 165 lbs and ready for Grappler's Quest.