I Finally Tried NoGi This Weekend - And Won Advanced!
I went to the BJJ by the Bay tournament this weekend in CA. It was fun, and I met a 10th Planet student or two there. As always, 10thP guys are always friendly and nice. I entered Men's Adult Blue Belt in the Gi, 154 lbs. They combined Intermediate and Advanced Nogi, so even though I only ever did nogi once (as a starting white belt), I entered advanced (149 lbs).
I won 2/3 gi fights by quick sub, losing in the semis against an 18 year old kid I know. He was up on pts, and I could have won, but his knee loudly blew out, and the only way to score in the last minute would have been to smash hard through his busted knee in 50-50 to try to pass and take the back. Small tourney, ad he's a good kid - no point crippling him, so I just eased off and let him have it. I beat the gold medal winner in my first nogi match, so I think I would have won this too otherwise.
Then I did advanced nogi. Had a war with the previous gold winner, but I won a ref decision by clearly being the attacker the whole match. I should have gotten like 3 advantages and 2 sweep points anyway. Then I easily walked through the other matches, taking the back within a minute each time. I guess I can handle advanced nogi - who knew?
So one bronze, one gold. There is no doubt that the 10thP techniques I have studied helped me win, both in actual techniques, and general understanding of nogi. I really can't wait to find time to visit Denny's place, as well as HQ when I can. I think I'm going to start doing more nogi tournaments. Anyone know of some coming up in norcal?
