I just returned from competing at the 2016 IBJJF Masters Worlds. To answer your first question; no I didn’t, and in the thirty-year history of me competing in martial arts, i’ve never been so OK with not walking out with some hardware. To be clear, losing a match is never a pleasurable experience, and since IBJJF Tournaments (unlike most Judo tourneys) are all single elimination, meaning there’s no repechage, you lose your first fight…your done.
Why was this OK? Because in it’s totality the experience was so stellar, it helped me swallow the bitter pill of defeat, additionally…I didn’t get my ass kicked…I lost by a takedown (which should be embarrassing for a Judo guy, but I did my best to turn his charge into a big counter, it just didn’t materialize).
Seven of us from Alliance made the trek to Vegas…Rob, Joe, Zig, Melly, Long and Mike. Long has been to Vegas quite a few times, so he was our lead-man, he helped me navigate accommodations and I scored a nice “Parlor-Suite” at Vdara for Mike and I to double-up in. This years WM’s were from Thursday to Saturday. This ended up working out pretty good because based on our rank we were spread out evenly across the three days, it also allowed us to suit up and warm up our teammates for their matches. We gave each other an hour of warm-ups, and I’ve got to tell you, it made ALL the difference in the world. It wasn’t just an opportunity to loosen up and get warm, it allowed me to dump my adrenalin and get a kind of calm composure I’ve NEVER had before a match.
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