The world championships were very exciting this year. I drove down to coach Zack and Steve on Thursday. Zack lost the opening match, but we had a really good talk about how to structure our training while balancing our work, life, and family. Steve had an impressive showing taking Bronze! This tournament added fuel to his fire to train smarter and compete more! Congrats Steve!!

I entered the open division, which started on Saturday with my first match against Jeff from Brasa CTA. In our match we were warned after the first minute for lute. Soon after he jumped guard and I focused on the double under passing series I’ve been working on with the help of Coach Michel Miyashita and Coach Dan Lukehart. I recently discovered a transition that leads to a leg drag when they pummel their leg, something I started doing naturally and really learned with Coach Ben Baxter. I was able to make this transition happen and finished with an advantage as we went out of bounds. With about two minutes left on the clock we battled it out on our feet and I won by an advantage. (This match started about an hour ahead of schedule, and I think the same thing happened last year…. Be ready black belt open division competitors!)

In my second match of the absolute division I went against Marcus Almeida “Buchecha” from Checkmat. This was his comeback match after surgery from his injury last year at the world championships, and therefore was a rather high profile match. (For those not in the know, Buchecha is the reigning open weight champion, and  later went on to win the open class and his division). In the first minute, we were both warned for a lute call and we continued to battle it out on our feet. Buchecha was able to get in on an explosive single leg, which looking back at the video, I should have sprawled better to prevent his takedown. Regaining my position, I was able to come up on a sweep from the half guard and opted to drive him out of bounds for the advantage instead of the going for an upper cut single leg finish. (mistake #1: I should have kept it in the match area). We started back on our feet and Coach Dan Lukehart pointed out that Buchecha shoots without the grips. This was a big help for me, but I was taken down for the second time with the same single leg. I realize I need to go back to drilling my sprawls again. In an attempt to take my back from the takedown, I fought out of his attack and ended up on top. I passed his guard rather easily from an over under position and hesitated a little as he turned away. I remember thinking should I try to pressure mount and force the position or settle out to the side and play it safe. (mistake #2: I should have picked one and just gone for it.) That hesitation allowed him to go inverted and pendulum sweep me from the inverted position. I felt like such a light weight from this position. I gathered myself back to half guard and as I came up for a sweep time ran out. I had lost 6-0. This was my second time facing Buchecha at a tournament, we once had a match as brown belts where I lost 6-2. I guess we’ve improved at about the same rate since then… Nevertheless it was a fun match, and although I made a few costly mistakes, I was satisfied with my performance.

Later that afternoon the preliminary match to compete on Sunday took place. I made weight for the super heavy weight class, 222 lb with the gi. My first match was against Vitor Toledo from Atos. We had previously had a match in Las Vegas a few years ago and we both knew what type of game to anticipate. Not to make any excuses, but as the match began I felt I was sucked into playing his game. He scored a quick sweep that led right into a guard pass to score 5 points, and we ended up in the 50/50 position in my attempt to recover guard. This turned into a big disaster. I scored 2 points for the sweep and we sat there for a good time with me trying different ways to attack for a submission and get out of the position. I was finally able to escape from the position after we seesawed back and forth a few times, and began my attacks to pass. However, there was very little time left and the match ended with 7-4 loss. This match was very unsatisfying because I never felt like I was able to attack with my best skills. Getting into the 50/50 position ate up so much time and I think Vitor knew it was a favorable position for him since he was winning by 3 points. The 50/50 position can’t be something to settle into when losing on points because you will get stalled out or just exchange sweeps until time runs out.

I did a few things different this year to get ready for the tournament. Here area  few notes on what I did leading up to the championships:

Strength & Conditioning:
I prepared everything for strength and conditioning with Ty Silva from One Body Pain & Performance Solutions. We met for two, one hour sessions a week. We did the training in two phases one to lead up to the IBJJF Pans in the end of March and another phase to lead up to the IBJJF Worlds in early June. In the first phase we focused on deadlifts and plyometric movements, and in the second phase we focused on squats and cardiovascular endurance. Not only did we do strength and conditioning, but also lots of recovery work and injury rehabilitation. It was a one stop shop to train and heal! He also helped me plan my recovery phase leading up to the worlds taking the Monday to Wednesday off the mat and instead focusing on movement and visualization. On Thursday I trained really hard in the Gi and on Friday a little lighter to compete on Saturday. I can honestly say I’ve never been less injured and felt this strong going into a tournament.

Drilling:
I focused on the few things I did really well to score points and drilled them repetitively. This really helped build awareness for the position, and empowered me to get to that position to attack from in my matches. (I started calling this your “power positions”)

Sparring/Rolling:
I did much less actual 10 min rounds and instead focused on shorter rounds with explosive bursts. We did short rounds that lasted only 30 seconds and rounds that were about 3 minutes in length. This was really difficult to get used to in the beginning, but I emphasized getting to the power positions to attack as much as possible and helped reinforce the drilling and situational reactions and timing necessary to attack and score quickly. As a result of doing these short rounds with a focused intent on certain positions, I felt my understanding for those specific positions dramatically increased.

Visiting Schools:
This happened more out of coincidence than planning. I had two events on the weekends leading up to the world championships. First, the CA USA Wrestling Hall of Fame Banquet where my college teammate Derek Moore was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Thank you Caio Terra Academy in San Jose for allowing me to drop in for a great training session! Second, I had a bachelor party in Portland for a wedding I am in this summer. Instead of flying, I decided to break the trip up into three days driving up on Thursday to train at Rice Brothers in Redding that night ant the next morning. Wow! The training was great! On Friday I drove up to Springfield, OR to visit Performance Martial Arts led by Ben Baxter. Another great night of instruction and rolling. The next morning I got to do some 1 on 1 with Ben and pick his brain on training and a few technical positions. This was very helpful.

Weekly Training:
90% of my weekly training I did in El Dorado Hills. I’ve been so busy teaching Jiu-Jitsu, teaching Japanese, and doing a few other side projects, that I had very little time to train in Sacramento with Professor Marcos Torregrosa. I try to visit his academy on Monday & Wednesday in the 9am class, but this spring I’ve just been too busy. Hopefully I can make this happen as things slow down this summer.

Visualization:
I did much more intentional visualization leading up to this tournament. I did some post training visualizations as well as some sauna workout visualizations. I really enjoyed doing this and anticipate doing more of this in the future.

Reflection:
I have a few things I would like to incorporate into my routine. In preparation for some future tournaments.
1: Light jogging / jump rope / bike 15min x 3 week
2: Focused Drilling 30min x 3 week
3: Structured Diet Plan
4: Visiting a friendly school to train monthly
5: Gymnastics Strength Training
6: Yoga
These are additional things I do or have done in the past that have been very productive. I’ve had to compromise on some things just for lack to time and planning, but I know would contribute to a better performance in the future.

Things are exciting and definitely improving. I think the most important thing to take home from this experience is to understand the long term goal (my 4 year plan) and continue to make the short term decisions know that I’m on the right path.

A thank you to Armor Kimonos, Komainu Apparel, One Body El Dorado Hills, for their financial support and sponsorship. Thank you to Todd Jones, Bill Vella and the members of El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Marcos Torregrosa and the members of Yemaso BJJ,  Michel Miyashita of Bushido Jiu Jitsu, Omar Gaitan & Dan Lukehart of Brea Jiu Jitsu.  Lastly, my family. Thank you for allowing me to pursue my passion on the mat. I’m sincerely thankful to have your support to train and perform at the world championships.

Eliot Kelly