Just got back home from the 2017 IBJJF NoGi World Championships in Anaheim, CA. The venue was right next to Disneyland, and it was a great place to host a tournament. I competed in the Adult Super Heavy Wt. division and the open class division. In the open class I won my first and lost 2-0 0-3 0-1 in the the round of 16 to Diego Ramalho. In the weight division I won 3-0 1-0 in the qtr finals to Steven Martinez and lost to Lucas Barbosa in the semi-finals. I finished with a bronze in the Super Heavy wt division with Lucas Barbosa, Joao Assis, Aaron Johnson, and myself on the podium.

The tournament was a good feedback opportunity. After a tough training prep for the ADCC championships in Finland and NoGi Pans in New York, I was looking to secure my place on the top of the podium and double medal in the tournament. That didn’t happen, but I gained some great insight on my training and preparation for the tournament. First, I focused on lower intensity drilling sessions 2 weeks before the tournament instead of high intensity rolling sessions. This was a little different and was my attempt to give my body time to “absorb” the training. On the Monday before the tournament we did 10x 7 minute rounds (5 gi and 5 nogi) and I found myself a little more vibrant during the rolling. The idea was to give myself a little break and come in with a more intense and aggressive “wanting to roll” mentality pre tournament. I think it was accomplished but I might need a few more drilling sessions to maximize my results on the “off” week.

Another change in my training after the ADCC and NoGi Pans was including more sessions in the Gi. I made sure to train NoGi, but made a majority of my training sessions in the Gi. This gave me some more challenging technical rolls. Although my drilling was focused on NoGi grips, I trained hard in the Gi to get different looks from all of the students at EDH Jiu Jitsu I think this worked out to be very productive. It allowed me to work on the ground more and gave me a better comprehensive training environment to train for the NoGi Worlds.

I significantly increased my drilling volume in preparation for the tournament. Another drilling session I had for a few weeks was with 2000 Sydney Olympian for Team USA in Greco Roman wrestling, Quincy Clark. Quincy is a great teacher with passion, charisma, and a technical knowledge that exceeds many. We focused on some standing and ground tactics based on my matches from the ADCC and NoGi Pans in preparation for NoGi Worlds. I plan to continue to drill with him a few times a month to help prepare and learn alternative strategies to attack from the feet. Thank you Quincy!

 

As I was talking with Quincy, in my Mat Mind 093, I began to change my approach to goal setting. I realized most of my goals were performance based and very few of them had concrete tasks goals in mind. Although it was very short to set task goals, I made a few in preparation for the tournament based on what I was training in preparation for the tournament. In some of my matches I was able to perfectly implement some of the task goals I had prepared. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do them in all of the matches. BUT THAT’S OK. The next step is to put things together and be able to think moves ahead and work my plan.

One thing I didn’t like was how tired I felt in general. I felt as though I was lacking “vigor” not necessarily as a result of the matches but even after tweaking my rest week to low intensity drilling, going in to some of the matches I just simply felt worn out. All I can think is that I need to be more mindful of the sleep I am getting during the week. After talking about that feeling, a friend suggested going into a match with over “arousal,” to the point where the hair on my skin starts to stand up. It’s a little different than my usual approach of being relaxed, but I think it might be worth trying.

One Body Pain & Performance, where I do all of my strength and conditioning also changed things up after the ADCC tournament. We started doing more work on the rings, tire flips, and plyometric type training that really built my body into a different state. I really enjoy this type of training and look forward to playing more on the rings and getting explosive with the ploys. Thank you Ty!