#7 Austin Summer Open

Jul 27

* I strongly recommend listening to the song "Trash Flavored Trash," by The Blood Brothers, when reading this post. It's the song that was going through my head while on the podium. *

I was feeling confident going into this tournament.   I had one person in my bracket and was hoping for two other Master 4 purple belts to join us in the open class, but both ended up dropping out of the tournament.   So it would be just the two of us in open class too. Our first match was around 1:30pm on a 107 degree day. The heat is no joke in Austin!
I easily made weight at 148.8lbs, and that was with drinking water in the morning to fight the heat.
My opponent was much taller than me, which is another reminder that I should get down another weight class. My standup felt unfocused. I felt her get a strong grip on my lapel and was worried she was going to throw me so I pulled guard...very poorly.
She then easily passed my guard, had good shoulder pressure in side control, and eventually moved to a heavy knee on belly that hurt my ribs enough for me to tap. I was worried about getting hurt and not staying in the moment.

We both signed up for open class which was scheduled for 5:15pm. So about a 3.5hr wait. I left to get something quick to eat so I could make it back in time. Just being out in the heat again was draining.   Got back with plenty of time and waited and waited and waited. Eventually our mat time was moved to 7:15pm!   One of the last brackets of the day.
After a small nap in the stands it was finally time. I believed I could do better this second time. We started, and I was able to get an underhook during the stand up but struggled to close the distance. She eventually got a single leg, and I was on my back again. I defended better but only slightly.   She got to side control and had great shoulder pressure that covered my mouth and nose making it hard to breath. It felt like she was working a head and arm choke but wasn't on the correct side for it so I was expecting her to move to mount to get to the other side. She did and when that happened I felt a pull on my shoulder that had me tapping. Not a great performance, but at least better than the first match.
I left with double Silver, a feeling of disappointment that I repeated past mistakes, a strong need to fix my trash stand-up game, and an intense hunger for bbq, that was luckily quickly satisfied.
That night it was hard to find anything good about my game. It all felt like trash flavored trash. I repeated past mistakes with my bad guard pull and failed to stay in the moment. I was worried about getting hurt for Master Worlds and it had me looking for a reason to tap.

Key Takeaways
- After a few days of reflection and finally watching the videos of my matches with my coach, I realized I didn't do as badly as I thought. Yes, the guard pull was terrible, but the second match had some good things. I got an underhook standing, but felt I was too far away to do anything with it. So the next time I was on the mats, I explored this with my coach. I needed to cut an angle and use my head to control how my opponent moved. We also talked about the need to start building chains. I know lots of individual takedowns, but haven't worked on what chaining them looks like. My open guard in general is not great. So more work to focus on keeping my opponent in front of me and not accepting the pass.

Current goals

Win a bracket
Score a takedown

Restaurants I visted:

- I did a walking food tour which was a great way to explore food in the city. I wish I could have done it my first day insted of last day because the tour guide had lots osf suggestions for places to visit in the city. Places we visted: Vera Cruz Midas Tacos (my favorite stop), Jewboy Sliders, Juiceland, Ziki food truck, Cooper's BBQ, and Velvet Taco.

- Downtown Jos - Grabbed some coffee here, which was excellent.

- Morning Sunshine Breakfast Treats, Cedar Park, TX - Awesome place for breakfast and donuts. Regular espresso is a local Austin roaster, but was disappointed when I asked for decaf I got starbucks.

- Ramen Tatsu-ya, Lakeline, TX - This just wasn't good. I'm from Seattle and Ramen in Seattle is amazing. I should have known better than to get Ramen in another city.

- Terry Black's BBQ - Excellent BBQ. There was a line but it moved quickly. I got pork ribs which were super tender, the meat slid off and the bones easily broke apart. I also got some brisket, but prefer pork. Corn bread was great. Cream corn had a strong corn flavor that was excellent. Also loved the baked potato sald. Had banana pudding for dessert, which I didn't love, and the sweet tea was too sweet for me.

Places I visited:

Museum of the Weird - It was alright. We have simiar places in Seattle so nothing too new or interesting. They id have a great collection of Autin and Willie Nelson shirts, so I picked one up for my Dad.

Driskill Hotel - Walked around the hotel which is just a cool spot with a lot of history

Congress Street Bridge - Went at dusk to see the bats come out. Took 1.5 hours for them to finally come out. Many thought the extreme heat had delayed them. It was cool, but hard to see that late.

Upcoming tournaments:

Sept 1 Master Worlds, Las Vegas

September - Hystorectomy surgery that will take me off the mats for 8 weeks