I went to another judo tournament in the area. I won first place and was promoted to
blue belt in judo. This is my
third one.
I'm already a blue belt in BJJ...
I was very scared before the tournament. We did some uchikomi to test for our promotions beforehand. I was so nervous I screwed up my uchi mata into a harai goshi, but they didn't seem to mind. It felt like I wanted to throw up and go to the bathroom at the same time. However, I toughed it out and won every match I fought. Unfortunately, I did not get any video from this tournament. Maybe next time. I got
six pictures at the end of this album that you can view OTOH.
I won my first match against a brown belt named Will. I got a waza-ari from tani otoshi and mounted him directly from that. Then he pushed on me, so I submitted him with an americana. Later I heard that Nolan coached him to avoid the ground with me... LOL. That's cool I don't care.
I won my second match against a really good purple belt named Nolan. Last time he uchi mata-ed me into orbit. I knew there was one chance for me to win: to keep attacking. This time I was the aggressor, and although he countered my seoinage, I was able to take his back on the ground and choke him with hadaka jime.
I won my third match against another good judoka named Dan. He was an orange belt but still very strong and skillful. However, I tried uchi mata but he did too and neither of us could get it. Finally I got tired of playing the uchi mata game and threw him into the air with a good tani otoshi for ippon (yes, a sacrifice throw).
I had two exhibition matches. In the first one, I fought another guy in my division named Joe. I used a left side uchi mata to get either a waza-air or koka (I forget which). I passed his guard and pinned him from yoko shiho gatame for the win.
In the second one, a larger judoka named Phil challenged me. I was very tired and had trouble throwing him. So I tried for a flying armbar. He pulled out but was off balance and fell to the ground. So I reversed the situation and pinned him from yoko shiho gatame too.
Master Eugene says I have good newaza and counter throws, but I have to attack more. I agree. It is a shame that my most successful throw so far in shiai is tani otoshi. I have a good seoinage but just can't seem to set it up well enough outside of practice. I'm not proud of my tani and must get better at the other throws.
