Brazillian Jiu Jisu Breakdown - Caged 6, Fight City Gym 5/12/2021 - First Fight
One Sunday 5th of December I competed in my first Jiu Jitsu competition as a Blue Belt at Caged 6 in Fight City Gym London. It was also the first time representing London Fightzone.
The rules were No-Gi, 5 minutes, submission only, white and blue belt attacks allowed (no heel hooks, knee bar, toe hold, slicers etc) and if no submission it would go to a referee’s decision.
My category was small, I’m master 2 at 40 years old so they moved me up to Master 1, 73.5kg where there were more competitors.
I lost this this first fight to a refs decision. This fight was a banger, @everythingsk had subbed his first opponent in just under a minute and has done loads of competitions so I knew this was going to be a battle. He moves great and sets up submission attempts from all sorts of angles. I had to defend a guillotine, 2 D’Arce chokes, my back being taken and an arm bar. All credit to him, he’s definitely currently a level above me.
Emotionally for the fight I felt pretty calm all day and then about 15 minutes before the fight I felt my fingers start to get cold. This is a sign that my body was producing more adrenaline and bringing to blood into my organs in preparation for danger. I think initially I was a little slow off the start, feeling a bit foggy. It will take some more competitions to get used to this feeling again.
Things I learned from this fight-
I need to be more active on my wrestling, switching from high to low more. I’m slowly gaining confidence in this level changing but theres loads of scope for development. I shall continue to embrace the grind of wrestling classes.
I could have been more aggressive to connect my hands on the double under-hooks. If I had done this I would be able to use a body lock takedown which I am reasonable effective at. @jshnrth classes at Fightzone will help me improve these two points.
My Guillotine defence was good but when I escaped I should have keep a connection to slow him down and take the attack to him rather than creating so much space & squaring up in guard.
I need to improve my turtle escapes, shouldn’t have waited so long and let him take my back.
As soon as I excepted the D’Arce choke attempt I should have switched my half guard to offence and looked for a sweep or submission.
My posture was too high when he suceesfully completed the second double leg takedown on me.
Overall I was happy with my survivability.
Guard retention is definitely improving a lot, inverting has become much more comfortable and I’m framing better rather than grabbing my opponent or going for a sub in a bad position.
Second fight will be posted soon.
Really grateful for the support from my team as many of them came down to watch.
I’m happy for any feedback in the comments, I’m here to learn.
