Brazillian Jiu Jisu Blue Belt Match 2 Breakdown
Caged 6, Fight City Gym 5/12/2021 - Second Fight
The first fight was a tough one! I just learned this week my opponent was awarded his purple belt which make complete sense as I felt his level was ahead of mine.
Although I was happy with my survivability and wasn’t submitted it’s of course never a great feeling to loose your first match.
I was determined to do better in this second one.
For this second fight, I felt a lot sharper. I think at 40 years old I’m bit slower to start than some. I’ve noticed I tend to perform better from the second round of sparring onwards.
I need to take this into consideration for future competition warm-up’s and have a light sparring session before the actual event to get things kicking. (Like a race car who needs warmers on his tyres?!?) lol
Observations from the fight in chronological order as the fight progresses-
I missed the opportunity early in the fight when he first sat down to guard. I should have controlled him the ankles rather than above the knee which allowed him to stand up again. Had I done this I would have been in a much better controlling position to set up a stack pass or leg drag.
When wrestling on my feet I was standing too square. I need to keep practicing adopting of more a wrestling stance. This will allow for better movement and quicker changing levels.
When wrestle I need to look to impose more dominant grips, grab the hands of my opponent less. I need to establish bette under-hooks & head control and then work my attacks off of these. I’m still too static in standing, I need to start connecting techniques and build a chain of attacks.
I was standing too square when I got swept, should have been based down and left leg should have been back in combat base.
I did well to capture both of his legs to stop him coming up but I should have capitalised off of this and initiated a straight ankle lock more quickly, maybe with a cross grip.
As he escaped this I did well to come up and get top position. In the past I’ve been lazy to accept the bottom position. This would be ok in a submission format if I had good attacks off of my back but in a point scenario this would be terrible.
I shouldn’t have allowed him that second sweep, I created a hole in the back right hand side for him to bring me down.
His legs were really long, it felt like I had a mile to get to his hip line! lol
When trying to pass guard I kept making the mistake of trying to grab both legs, I should have gone 2 on 1 and focused just on controlling or pinning one leg to set up a guard pass.
Again did well recover position and get on top again.
My double under pass worked well. I turned my right shoulder down to take away the space. I maintained good pressure to retain that position in spite of him framing to recover.
From there I build upon this by getting good head control to consolidate the position. The wall helped me to stop him from hip escaping away very well.
I used my left knee well to block and follow his hip line to stop him getting a knee inside.
From side control I was patient to maintain pressure and set up the gift wrap. I really like this as an avenue to taking the back.
I use this gift wrap grip to stop to stop him from recovering to turtle and then followed him nicely as he rolled away, taking his back and getting my hooks in.
I should have have flattened him out for the choke. I was aware time was running out and instead decided to attack the left arm.
I probably could have closed a triangle on him as my right leg was on the wrong side for an arm bar. I need to figure that positon out more, I’ve started getting a rear triangle in sparring more but the technique is still not fully uploaded yet to become automatic.
I was running out of time but I should have been able to finish the attack on the arm.If I wasn’t getting the rear triangle I should have brought my right leg over his face to pin him down which would have stopped the roll.
In addition in order to break the defensive grip between his two hands more effectively for the arm bar I should have used the blade of my forearm to attack more at the wrist line. This would have stopped him being able to reconnect the hands after I separated his hands the first time. I would of then be able to get better extension of his arm for the finish. You can hear my grunt of frustration as this happened!
Closing Thoughts
Overall I really enjoyed the Caged 6 completion. It was run really well, with good communication on what time you were fighting.
The refereing seemed very fair and balanced which you don’t always find at every competition.
It wasn’t too big of a competition and because if was inside Fight City Gym it has quite an intimate feel old school ‘dojo storm’ feel to it.
I will look to do more of these smaller intra-club competitions in addition to bigger competitions to keep sharpening my skills. Depending on what craziness is going on in the world in 2022 i’ll be doing many more competitions next year.
There is so much to improve on. I am humble to be able critically self access and work on this weak spots. My Jiu Jitsu journey continues to be exciting and I am very grateful to have become part of the team at Fightzone London this year.
Happy to receive any feedback, please leave in the comment either here or on Instagram.
