Winning and Losing: My First Tournament Experience

30. April 2010 by Don Ebuen.

Its been 2 weeks since my first tournament experience and really my first benchmark for Dojo Fightgear’s One Man’s Quest. After starting my training in January, I headed over to Murrieta CA for the Grappling X No Gi Tournament to compete. I went into the tournament confident of what I’ve learned under Coach Brian at West Coast Jiu Jitsu and more focused on the tournament as a learning experience and a chance to ‘get my feet wet’.

The Night Before
I made to Murrieta in about 4 hours. I drove out there with Merv from Elite Photography who helped capture my experience on ‘film’. We checked into our hotel and headed over to the Fight Lab for weigh ins. Around 7pm, it was official. Made weight and signed in for the tournament. I was stoked…and hungry.

Game time. Let’s Do This
Woke up excited and anxious for the tournament. Had breakfast around 10AM assuming I would get a little something to snack on before my first match. Brian called me around 1230 letting me know the West Coast kids did great. 2 silvers and a gold! I head out and get to the gym around 1PM.

Around 1:45 some of my competitors show up and Brian begins giving me pointers on what to do. I go into a separate room to stretch. A bunch of the other competitors start asking me questions. I get the vibe they’re worried about me already. This is good. I’m asked “Are you in the Masters division?” then “Beginners or Advanced?” and “What weight division?”…I just answer politely and I see relief on some of their faces.

Match 1: Christopher Gomez from Throwdown
Started off with Chris trying to muscle me around. Not having it. I shoot in, I take him down. We roll for a bit and I get swept. I escape and we square off again. I shoot in, he tries to guillotine me, I escape and pull guard. After 4 minutes, its a draw and the ref says 1 minute overtime. Brian instructs me to shoot in and mount right away. I do it and I’m up 4-0 in the overtime. He sweeps me but I pull guard as time expires and my hand is raised. Chris was a great TOUGH first match. I was happy to get the win but paid a price doing so. During one point of the match, I pulled my groin and if you’ve ever done that, it SUCKS.

So now I’m sore and EXHAUSTED. Brian takes me to the other room and has me lay on the floor and breath. After about 5 minutes, I hear my name being called. I’m up again!

Match 2: Curtis Brown from De La O Jiu Jitsu
It’s obvious from the start, Curtis is a wrestler. Knowing I am still burnt out from the first match, Brian instructs me to just circle around and wait for Curtis to shoot in and be ready to sprawl. After circling for a good minute, Curtis initiates a take down. I pull guard right away. He’s a heavy guy but I’m able to easily sweep him. We roll. In the end, I sweep Curtis again but he has my leg in half guard. The leg with the groin pull. All I can hear is Brian urging me to pull my leg out and mount. It sounded so easy but without being able to really pull my leg up, it turned out to be impossible and Curtis won by points.

I’m sitting on the side of the mat, totally spent and sore trying to get my wind back. I hear my name AGAIN. I’m up again already?!? Against Curtis again!!! I let Brian know I can’t continue. My groin is sore and I’m as useful as a sack of potatoes at this point. My tournament run is over.

Curtis and Chris go at it for 4 minutes and Chris expectedly wins. And with a 1-1 record for all three of us, Chris gets the gold, Curtis gets the silver and I get the bronze. I kind of felt cheated at the time considering I beat Chris but he sat 2 matches before fighting again and he won only one match and got the gold…..BUT, I am happy with the experience and it’s more important to me than a medal.

I learned so much from the experience. I know I can win. I know what it feels like to win. I know I will win again.

Lesson of Day:
There’s actually 2 lesson I’d like to share to anyone out there looking to compete for the first time:
1. Don’t forget to wear your protective cup! I was so anxious to get on the mat I forgot to put my cup on for my first match.
2. When you’re competing…GO FOR IT. Take risks. Go for your submissions. Brian has taught me so much and I know submissions but I only went for one…a Rear Naked Choke. I look at the videos and I kick myself for not just taking risks. Who knows…maybe I wouldve gotten beaten them by submission before having to go the full match. Either way, I will never know now.

The Quest continues….stay tuned.

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