I'll start off by saying this was by far the best tournament I have competed in. Zach and JM ran a fantastic show for the competitors but more importantly for fans of fast paced and exciting grappling. I really believe in what those two are doing in Bethlehem and think that this tournament is the start of something huge. I feel very fortunate to have been invited to compete in a tournament that really did feature some of the best talent on the east coast. All of the matches were very exciting except mine...lol
In my first match I was paired up with Thiago Abud. Thiago is a brown belt from Sao Paolo who trains at unity with the Miyaos and Murillo Santana. Thiago is a great grappler and I was really excited for this match. It was kind of surreal fighting a dude that had murillo and miyao in his corner, but I was very confident in my preparation and was ready to go to war. However, that is not what happened. I believe I got schaubed, if that is what we are calling a grappler that runs from engagement. I remember after our second engagement, I thought to myself I'm going to beat this guy and that is when all engagement stopped. Its like he thought the same thing and he just stopped coming in. Every time I came forward he went backwards. He was literally backing up into the crowd and into walls, he was going everywhere except forward. Our match went into the ebi overtime rounds and we both escaped all three times, but he escaped fastest and won. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to drill the ebi deadzones like I needed to due to a broken finger and a torn UCL. So next time I will make this a priority regardless of injuries. My advice to anyone competing in an EBI like event or EBI itsself is to drill the shit out of those positions. Here is the match. If you make it all 15 minutes then you must be trying to sleep.
All I can say is that it was a very odd match. I have had dudes not want to engage but not to that level. In the end, I am not sure exactly how to feel about my performance. I just wish I could have shown what my jiu jitsu is about. However, I know what I need to work on for next time and I will come back better from this experience. Really looking forward to competing again and putting on a show at the next tournament.
In my first match I was paired up with Thiago Abud. Thiago is a brown belt from Sao Paolo who trains at unity with the Miyaos and Murillo Santana. Thiago is a great grappler and I was really excited for this match. It was kind of surreal fighting a dude that had murillo and miyao in his corner, but I was very confident in my preparation and was ready to go to war. However, that is not what happened. I believe I got schaubed, if that is what we are calling a grappler that runs from engagement. I remember after our second engagement, I thought to myself I'm going to beat this guy and that is when all engagement stopped. Its like he thought the same thing and he just stopped coming in. Every time I came forward he went backwards. He was literally backing up into the crowd and into walls, he was going everywhere except forward. Our match went into the ebi overtime rounds and we both escaped all three times, but he escaped fastest and won. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to drill the ebi deadzones like I needed to due to a broken finger and a torn UCL. So next time I will make this a priority regardless of injuries. My advice to anyone competing in an EBI like event or EBI itsself is to drill the shit out of those positions. Here is the match. If you make it all 15 minutes then you must be trying to sleep.
All I can say is that it was a very odd match. I have had dudes not want to engage but not to that level. In the end, I am not sure exactly how to feel about my performance. I just wish I could have shown what my jiu jitsu is about. However, I know what I need to work on for next time and I will come back better from this experience. Really looking forward to competing again and putting on a show at the next tournament.
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Originally Posted by Jarrell Garcia
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