My matches from today. Lost twice. :(

[Jason Hyatt]

This was at the St. Croix Valley grappling games 4/14. No-gi, blue belt, 2-5 yrs exp.

I haven't competed in almost two years and I haven't done very well in the past at tourneys. I have one awesome highlight and bunch of me getting smashed and gassing hard.

I started training for this comp six weeks ago so this was my gut-check six weeks out from the East Coast 8-man. I went in with a submission-only mindset and two major goals: stay aggressive and don't gas. In the past I have always hesitated a lot, disengaged, and played very defensively. My conditioning has also always been a limiting factor. So my plan was to keep pushing forward and keep looking to attack even if I wasn't on top. Always be thinking offense. Not gassing was about staying consistent with my workouts.

My takedown defense continues to need work. From crackhead I was looking for the Duda but two of my fingers were caught in his rashguard and I had to wriggle out. His elbow was inching across and just as I got it in the middle and got the deep hook in, he pushed out the back. More squeeze -- these dudes are slippery.

I don't know why I didn't keep driving and finish the single leg. I could have ended up in side control. Gotta stay aggressive. The guillotine attempt looks a lot more threatening on the vid.

At first, I was looking to to step over the omoplata attempt and then decided to roll through. He was ready for me. Tim had just had us working on that triangle escape; I was walking around and thought I was gonna get the pass when it got dark.

Any additional critique is most welcome. The whole point of the tourney was to find out where I was at and get to work.

[Jason Hyatt]

Match #2. Lost by Von Flue choke. Gotta give the guy props for staying tight in side control.

In the past I have always hesitated to look for a takedown or stay aggressive on the feet. I wasn't successful there today, but I kept an offensive mindset and kept looking for opportunities instead of dancing around waiting for my opponent to take me down. I was looking for the ankle pick a few times but I can see now that I didn't get him moving forward enough or snap down hard enough.

That was just an awful sprawl. It felt like I was driving with my hips but I can see that I wasn't. Gotta work on that takedown defense.

I also failed to realize while in "dogfight" that we weren't really in dogfight. I thought he had my right foot trapped but it's clear that it wasn't. There is a hip throw from there that's sort of like harai goshi that I love and use often that Coach Herzog taught; I thought my foot was still trapped. I tried to get a hold of his far arm anyway and that was a fail.

I'm disappointed I couldn't get the hook in once he got side control. I've had success in rolling with getting that far hook in, establishing the grapevine, and finishing the twister from there. I was very unhappy when I lost that hook -- which is probably why I wasn't paying attention to where my left arm was in time to stop the Von Flue. By the time I started trying to get my arm out of there he was already sinking it in deep. Once again, it got dark. I tapped this time but my vision was gone and my ears were ringing.

[Tim Gillette]

I'm glad you have good video of both matches. I'll watch them a few more times and look for other things to work on. Right off the top of my head you did the right thing in match 1 by stepping over the head when in the omaplata. His arm was trapped because he continued to hold the overhook so you had a clear path. Your balance is what made you fall to your back and scramble to your knees and right into the triangle.

The triangle escape looked like you were heading in the right direction but maybe didn't drive your elbow of the arm trapped against his hip enough to give you some blood flow. A little pause when bringing the elbow to the mat and driving it against his hip may have given you some space to add a few more seconds of awake time to work the escape.

Match 2 really came down to him pulling out of your guard and getting to side control. We'll work on retaining the guard when things go wrong or knowing when to release an attacking position in order to stay in a safe position.

Great job competing today! Getting back on the tournament scene after a couple of years off is always a reminder of how different it is from rolling at the gym in practice. See you next week!

[natekleinfeld]

Good job today Jason!

[Puchetta]

Stong effort. Takes balls to just step out there. Many stay at home on the couch