On the road to GOLD!!!!!

Competition....I love these things. I've done pretty good in competitions so far.

Jacksonville BJJ open , 155lbs White Belt 3rd Place
IBJJF Florida State Championships, 155lbs White Belt 3rd Place
Copa America Submission Grappling National Championship, 155lbs White Belt 2nd Place

That first place title has eluded me thus far but, I plan to change all that coming Jan 24, 2009 at the NAGA World Championships.Even though this tournament will be the biggest tournament that I have competed in...I am confident that I WILL GET THE GOLD!!!

I am doing a couple of things different for this competition. First and foremost I am trying to cut weight and get into the 140lb division. I usually walk around at 156lbs so, this is a challenge. I want to see if I can truly dedicate myself to lose this weight. The first step was changing my diet. I am eating 6 small meals a day and they are healthy meals...NO JUNK. I am also including more time training BJJ and I started hitting the weights again.I started this 2 weeks out of the tournament....I should have started it a month out but, you we'll see what happens :)

So this past week of training has been fun. I have been really pushing my cardio each class and I am totally spent at the end.

Tuesday - Jan 13, 2009

I came into class early and started to roll with a guy named Augosto( I think that's how you spell it:/ ) This guy is really good he is a 3-stripe White Belt as well but he trained when he was younger in Brazil.We went back and forth for 10 minutes at least. It was a war and it ended up in a draw...because we had to line up for class. I was sooooo exhausted and now I had to do the "Competition Class" warm-up. It was CRAZY...but I loved it. I got to push myself to the limits. It wasn't over yet though....there is a lot of free rolling/sparring in competition class. I did soo awesome during sparring!! I was surprised because I thought that I was totally gassed but, when it was time to roll I just had this boost of energy. Even after class was finished I stayed and rolled for another 30 minutes. It was a GREAT day of training!!!

Wednesday - Jan 14, 2009

We had a Surf champion/ BJJ Black belt in class visiting. Joel Tudor is his name and he seemed like a pretty cool guy.

Anyway, there were some sneaky techniques this class. They were all GI chokes and the were nasty!!!We also learned some guard passes but the chokes are definitely what stood out to me. Like always we did specific training after we learned all the techniques and it was a lot harder to get them on a fighting opponent. Like with anything though...practice makes perfect!!!

After class is when I started pushing my cardio. I was rolling with some really good Blue belts and they were dominating me. I was on the defense most of the time but, I was holding on and if they we gonna tap me it wasn't going to be easy. Out of the next 30 minutes of rolling I only got tapped once. It was an overall good night and even though I was getting beat up... I seem to learn a little something from each experience.

Oh and how could I forget.... I got a new GI!!!! I purchased a Blue Gameness Pearl. I did not use it that class because it was WAY too big. As soon as I use it I will write a review.

Until next time.....Have fun and train HARD!!!