Abu Dhabi World Pro Trials Malaysia - after the smoke cleared!

Well, it is now Sunday afternoon and I am laying in bed relaxing after a crazy day yesterday.

To quickly sum up my results, unfortunately I lost both fights that I had. The first fight was the one I really thought I had a chance of winning and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't control my nerves enugh to relax and fight sensibly. I started off implementing my gameplan perfectly, I dashed in and pulled guard before the other fella even really knew what was happening. I then struggled with him in guard - I couldn't break his posture enough and couldn't get his hands off my body to throw up the triangle or sweep. Eventually he broke my guard and the end started coming - I didn't tap to the choke, but the referee saw clearly it was too tight and tapped for me. I have no complaints, I knew it was tight but for some reason the adrenaline meant I didn't really feel it.

My second fight was against someone I know and I tried to tire him on the feet and hope he would pull guard. I saw the chance for a guillotine and went for it. I couldn't get the choke on the feet so I thought I would go to the ground and hunt for it there. Unfortunately, he tripped me as I went down and then got knee on belly. I defended an armbar on the left, then he transitioned well and got me with an armbar on the right, tap tap tap!

I have no complaints or regrets about either of my fights. In the first fight, I wish I had been a little bit cooler and able to display my BJJ a bit better but in the end it was a great experience and I did what I could. I didn't get my hand raised, but nor did I leave the mats feeling like I had wasted my time or let myself or my coaches down.

At the end of the day, the competition for me became more about the team and the event than my individual performance. My team mates did extremely well, producing the ladies' Absolute division winner and a number of medals. Leverage Combat Academy/Marcos Escobar BJJ won the overall team medal and I was very proud to see my training partners do so very well. It is a great source of pride and excitement to me that I will continue to train and learn from people that are consistently medalling in competitions and I will continue to be able to match myself against them and see how I stack up with them.

What was perhaps the greatest part of the day for me was watching my team pull together to produce this competition. Most of us had never even seen a competition before, let alone taken part in running one and I think we managed to step up to the task. We were, of course ably lead by Aaron Goh and Magdalene Tan with their various assistants (too many to name, thanks to all of you!) and I felt very proud and happy that competitors would come up to us and congratulate us on a smooth-running event.

I really enjoyed my day yesterday and I was so pleased to take part in the first competition in Malaysia. I t was really nice to meet so many polite, respectful, funny and downright dangerous people that all share a love of this sport and to be able to watch them do their thing. It was great to watch the quality of competition, as well as be able to really get stuck in and start to connect to the SE Asian BJJ community. It's nice to know that wherever I travel in the region there will be people I have at least met before and, as long as I bring a gi, I will be able to pass a few hours getting sweaty with them!

What will I take away from the competition? First and foremost, I was again reassured that I have chosen the right hobby. It was a genuine pleasure to spend a whole day in the company of so many people that love the same things that I do and it was an honour to be able to help out with the running. In terms of my jiujitsu, I know can see how I want to develop my game - I still want to play guard, but now I know that my guard has to be more threatening and come with more options. This will be my aim for development in the future. I also know that my adrenaline is something that needs to be addressed and I have to be cooler in future competitions.

Yesterday's competition totally fuelled my passion for the sport and makes me want to work harder and harder at it. It has made me feel even more blessed in finding Leverage Combat Academy and it has given me more drive to continue in this great sport and community. OSSS!

Finally, in this blog it just remains to thank all the people that made yesterday happen, from the organisers, to the volunteers, to the referees who all did an awesome job, to the spectators, to the weather (!) to the competitors - thanks for making sure Leverage didn't throw a party that no-one came to!! Thank you to my training partners. Thanks to all!!

When I find the cord to my camera, I will put up some of the photos I took yesterday, in the mean time, I have added a few I have stolen from others!

Competition time

Well, here we go, just about two days until my first competition. I've trained hard, feel confident about making weight and I have a gameplan of sorts - part of which includes faking an injury and heading for the bar if things head south!!

At this point, there isn't really much left for me to do. I have one more training session tomorrow night just to iron out a couple of kinks and make sure that I have everything in the right place, I won't say I'm 100% prepared, but I don't think you ever really can be. All I know is that I have tried to train hard, regularly and intelligently. I have tried to listen to my coaches and argue with them where I thought it necessary, or when I was being pigheaded (sorry!).

This being my first competition, I'm not expecting much from it, or at least, that's what I said when I entered. All I talked about was doing it for the experience. However, now, after all the hard work I've done, experience be damned! I want to leave the mats with my arms raised once - just once, that's all I'm looking for, after that, as the indomitable Mr. Goh says, 'it's beer and chicken wings!' I also want to make sure that I compete fairly, with honour and dignity and that I am as humble in a hoped-for victory as I will be in defeat. I hope I can show I am a martial artist, as well as a fighter!

So, how do I feel? To be honest, similar to my previous boxing match (lost by first round TKO if you're interested...), I'm not feeling much. I have been through most of my emotional ups and downs and now I'm just not thinking about the fact that I have to fight on Saturday. Right now, I'm trying to reduce it to an intellectual experience, rather than an emotional one as I think about my weight, think about my travel arrangements and think about the techniques I'm planning to use. Come Friday night and Saturday morning, I think that will all change of course and I'll desperately be looking for a plane to the farthest place from Kuala Lumpur possible! Right now though, I'm just glad there's not too much hard training or dieting left to do and that, win, lose or draw, I'll be having a few (or more than a few) beers on Saturday night!

All that's really left for me to do is what I can do on this blog. I want to thank each and everyone that has worked with me, rolled with me, shouted at me, laughed at or with me and encouraged me. I want to thank all the training partners that have taken the time to point out flaws in my game (often painfully), that have broken my confidence so I can build it up harder and stronger and that have not let me quit, even when I wanted to. I want to thank everybody that has taken the time to support me and spend some of their own precious training time with me.

There are far too many names to mention, but here we go -

Firstly, thanks to my wonderful girlfriend, Fatemeh, for putting up with me tired and for being understanding about the training hours - thanks honey, nearly there! (And of course little Sonia for helping with diets and general encouragement!)

huge, huge thanks must go to Aaron Goh, who has spent so many extra hours talking with me, drilling with me, going over gameplans with me and basically being a rock to support or, as needed, crush me - thanks bro!

Same to Ian Lee, who has run some excellent training sessions and, in his inimitable manner, has taken time to roll with me and give me plenty of feedback whilst crushing the breath from my body and bending my limbs in odd ways. He has also taken the time to add a few nice little touches to my arsenal.

Lim Fang Han, one of the nicest people to ever put on a gi. Thanks for all the drills and encouragement man!

Nikola Cicovic, my fellow 92kger for all the laughs, as well as the odd serious training moment!

Evan Chee for keeping me humble with his human spider act - technique does beat strength!

The Basics BJJ crew - 'Wild Zebra', Patrick Versace, Gunther and everyone else that started with me and has kept at it.

Mag and Su Ling for always being ready to roll and poke yet more gaping holes in my game!

Josep "Sexy White' for helping with so many little details of positions and subs, and being willing to let me practice my hamfisted attempts on his neck, all with amazing good humour and grace.

Of course, Professor Marcos Escobar, for being a constant inspiration and for providing us all with the opportunity to take part in this great sport - sorry you won't be there boss, I'll do my best for you!

Sorry that this has started to sound like some sort of farewell or victory speech, but I do think it's worth taking the time to say thanks now and again. I would just like to thank every single person at Leverage Combat Academy - too many of you to name one by one and I think you know who you are anyway - for everything. I don't promise to win, but I hope I can at least make you proud of me. Good luck to everyone else that's competing on Saturday - I hope our opponents are prepared, because we certainly are! OSSS!!