Day 1

I nervously shift my weight from one foot to the other. I’m restlessly stretching my arms across my chest. It’s 9.30am on the first day of the Jiu-jitsu world championships. I can feel the sweat beginning to flow on my fore head. The sun is shinning down, I can hear the distant hum of an LA new helicopter. I gather my composure… and step into the Jacuzzi.

I am at the hotel near long beach harbour, nowhere near the venue for the worlds. I’ve decided to head down in the afternoon to watch the blue belts. I don’t stretch before entering a Jacuzzi, I may have been sweating in the heat though.

The first day of the worlds was a day of revelations. First and foremost; I am a shit blogger. If you are expecting any videos, you will be disappointed.  I checked my cameras before leaving for the event and one had no space on the memory card and the other had one bar of battery. No time, No Camera, just used my phone. I was one of those people.  I judge people using their phones as cameras to film tournaments. I mean really, is the quality of your 3 mega-pixel iPhone movie going to be watchable? So I just took a few sneaky photos.

It was really busy, and I saw quite a few ‘jiu-jitsu’ famous people. I have concluded three things, which are undeniable facts.

1. If Gabi Garcia is not on steriods, I'm a black belt world champion.

Trust me, she's even bigger in real life, and stacked.

2. Andre Galvao is more closely related to ape than man.

3. Jiu-jitsu is addictive.

I decided to pick one mat and just follow those matches, as with 6 matches it was easy just to jump around and end up missing the good stuff. I did see someone get clock choked to unconsciousness.

The bracket I watched was probably blue belt lightweight. There were some really good fights. Someone who looked like JT Torres’ little brother was crazy flexible and I backed him to win... He lost in the semi finals when his back was exposed during a sweep and got caught in RNC. Can’t argue with that. The final was one by a sweep. It disappointingly ended in a 50/50 guard stale mate. The guy who lost was on top and unfortunately something happened to his knee about 30 seconds from the end. The guy on the bottom wasn’t actively going for a leg submission but something happened. Which is the danger of that position. I wasn’t aware that 50/50 was allowed at blue belt now, or did I mistakenly think that it wasn’t allowed until purple belt. Another area of my game that I need to develop when I get back on the mats.

I will be back on Saturday & Sunday to watch some of the Brown/Black fights.