So. 2104 ended with me gaining a purple belt while 2015 started with an injury. A pretty good one as well, to the point it has relegated me to blogging about BJJ rather than doing it. I’ve been off the mats for about a month and will probably be at least another week before I can roll again, but that’s contact sports. What started with a tinge to my left knee’s medial healed into a collateral on my elbow and has finished as a ruptured calcaneo-fibular. Things seem to come in threes, so hopefully I will have a good run following this last stint.
Despite the shoddy start to the training season I’ve had a fantastic 2014. After getting back from the worlds I had a few weeks to breathe and then was thrown straight back into comp. It certainly felt like a coming of age as a blue belt and a huge learning curve on preparation. I’m no longer fearful of the comp atmosphere, in fact I quite enjoy it now. But conditioning and peaking seems to be something to work on.
As a competitor, the highlight had to be winning my weight divisions at the Aus Cup in Gi and No-Gi. I had eight or nine difficult fights and finished in most, which seems to be the key going forward. I also managed 3rd in the open, which was nice. Just got to work harder on my small guy jiu jitsu. Or perhaps put a bit more weight on. Keenan seems to be bulking which says to me that middle heavy is the place to sit for open weight victory. Not that i’m eyeing off Buchecha…yet.
However, I did win my first open weight competition, taking a neat little pay packet and a gold medal at the Melbourne Regional Championships. I had been working hard on my standing game in lead up to that competition so was really pumped when I hit a few fireman throws. It’s a shame that Judo don’t let you do those otherwise i’d be willing to have a go. Regardless, I think 2015 will see me wrestle more. Watching Caulf medal at the Asian Open affirmed to me that a good wrestling game is a must in modern day BJJ.
I also returned to the Pan-Pacs this year. It’s been a while, it was my first competition as a white belt, I remember six months in to my training heading along to MSAC, totally under prepared and over fed, but with all the gusto and confidence I have today. I had to grit my teeth for this tournament as I was well past my peak, in fact I had peaked two weeks prior, training at Marcelino’s in Noble Park and could feel my body winding down. So I was well out of touch and spent a lot of the day defending and waiting to score. My first fight was spent escaping a triangle. Not ideal, and it set the tone. It carried me to the final but physically I couldn’t find that little extra piece to take first and ended up second place for both. Still very happy and will look to win the tournament one day..soon.
Along with a few other little tournament wins here and there I feel i have made some murmurs in the blue belt division and hopefully shown of our brand of BJJ. I was honoured to receive Competitor of the year from the guys at Peninsula Extreme. Every time I fought I would go out in my mind representing the team and wanting to do something they could be proud of. I figure the guy on the podium is the pointy end of a lot of efforts (training partners and mainly coaches) so it was great to receive the acknowledgement but I would never have been as successful with out the time and support Jason Caulfield and Jeroen Lynders have given me since coming to the club.
However, I have moved which means a new training premise. Absolute will be my new home for 2015 and I will do my best to step up and work as hard as ever on my BJJ. I’m still an NU guy and will compete under this banner. The training is fierce and competitors are many, meaning i should be in good stead coming up a division. I have really started work on my spider guard and feel that this will be a central part to my 2015 game. See you at the WPJJ qualifiers!
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