Judo Tournament

I got third place in both divisions I entered in. On the day I went 2-4. Judo rules suck.

My first match had me throwing a sacrifice throw and essentially pulling guard. I immediately snapped a triangle choke on my guy and moved to finish with a triangle armbar. I did not really have it sunk in, and I did not throw my leg over his head to truly finish the armbar so the ref stopped the match. I did the same takedown and again snapped on the triangle choke, only to be stood up as I was moving to complete the submission. I gave the ref a dirty look, and he sneered at me that "This is Judo, not Jujitsu." Both have submissions right??????? During this stand up I was able to take my guy's back and start to choke him, he fell backwards, where they called "ippon" for him. Loss number one. I chalk that up to inexperience and not knowing the rules.

The second match was virtually the same thing. Me slapping on submissions on the ground, but not getting a chance to finish them. The match ended when I again took the guy's back and he fell in to me.

I got the hang of the thing after that. My next match was not for a little bit, so I got to watch how the other "REAL" Judo guys do it. I noticed that after start was called, the guys just kind of walked at each other, grabbed the gi and started from there. I "faked" this in the beginning of my match then shot a steamroller double leg for the take down. This got me some points and I was able to relax and just play my game. I did not get taken down, but the guy slapped a Kimura on me from half guard. One of my bread and butter moves is to spin to armbar after someone is foolish enough to try this on me. However in this match, when it counted, I spun the wrong way and managed to allow him to sweep me, take mount, and sink the sub in deeper. The good news was we were out of bounds and stop was called. I won that on on points.

I managed to talk my jujitsu teacher in doing this tournament with me, and he agreed. Wouldn't you know it, but we were matched in the same division. Never mind that he out weighs me by 30lbs. I told him that if we were matched together that I was going to try a flying armbar on him. And that is just what I did in the opening moments of the match! It was awesome! I was very very close in finishing it, but I could not do it in time, and the ref called stop. I botched a throw next and my teacher beat me by pin.

The next match my opponent tried to throw me with a sacrifice, but managed to pull me to half guard. I passed, and held him in side control for the pin victory.

My last match had me feeling very confident and relaxed. I knew I was better than my opponent and I knew there was nothing he could do to beat me. We started out, and I stepped in for a massive throw... I set down on my right foot wrong, stumbled, and was easily tripped for ippon. CRAP!!!

Anyway third place is not too bad for a first time out, and I had a great time. So all in all it was a good experience and a fun tournament.

All in all I found that the Judo rules did not allow nearly enough time for submissions to work. I got less than 10 seconds on the ground before stop was called, and, after the first match, I felt horribly rushed on the ground. That was partly the reason I screwed up my Kimura-armbar counter. The other reason was... well I suck.

I don't think that I will be doing another Judo tournament, the rules are too restrictive, and there is too much bias against Jujitsu.