Competition day.
I had a pretty horrible sleep the night before the comp. We had a live band downstairs in the bar and on top of that our bedroom is above the kitchen so I heard the clunking and clanking of the employees cleaning up downstairs.
Whenever you sleep 2 or 3 kilos dehydrated you never really sleep to well and you are always wondering whether you have sweated just enough while lying there so you start thinking you could afford just a sip of water.
Trial weigh in was at 6am so we were up at 545am and ready to go I weighed in at 60kg on the dot so no water for me before weigh in. Brownie and I the night before made ourselves some pasta for breakfast and we had that along with a stack of powerade with a dang lot of salt in it to help hydration.
My warm up was pretty good besides the fact the warm up areas were inside a squash court, it was very steamy in there that’s for sure.
My first fight was against a guy from New Zealand and I beat him by a hold-down. He turned in for a drop seoi nage after about 1 minute of feeling each other out. I stepped to the side and threw him over with a sumi gaeshi and ended up in a half guard. Then I wrapped up his head and shoulder with his gi and got my leg out and held him down in side control (yoko shiho) to win the fight.
My second fight was against a guy from China, he was chiselled to the bone, young probably only no older than 20. I started off playing him quite well but started getting very tired in my arms after around 2 minutes. He was a lefty and so so fast with his lapel snapping but I just kept breaking grips and working for a sumi gaeshi but wasn’t committing enough with my attacks, especially on the ground.
He ended up throwing me for a drop seoi about 20 seconds in and although the referee said matte because we were off the mat, about 40 seconds later the referee’s commission looked at the video and gave him a waza ari. After about 3 minutes of so I followed him right onto a seoi nage for ippon.
My fight for 3rd was against a local guy from Samoa. He had some alright attacks on my but I dominated grips and ended up throwing him with a right drop seoi for ippon.
Then I had to get drug tested. Because I was so dehydrated it took me about an hour and a half to wee. And even then it was still very very yellow and dehydrated. Drug testing is so so annoying, but It needs to be done.
Finally after drug testing we had the official function where all the teams got together and there is speeches and everything and then a buffet with a stack of food. I was so hungry because I hadn’t eaten a proper meal for days and the dinner for me was a bit of a letdown.
We got home around midnight and I was absolutely stuffed, getting up at 545am with a crappy sleep to begin with plus warming up and fighting for 3 fights really does take it out of you.
Today we didn’t really get up to too much. It is a Sunday here so all the Samoans are at church and don’t work on Sundays. So we luckily enough found a taxi who took us to a place called sliding rocks, it’s just a place where there is a waterfall and its nice scenery. Then we went to MacDonald’s no we are having a rest before training this afternoon.
Regarding the new judo rules the competition was very good but many penalties were given due to leg grabs and direct attacks. The positive out of this tournament in particular was no fight went to golden score. Not one fight. On Saturday ALL fights were won with ippons. No fight went the full distance. So the rules are definitely here to stay.
I think I really struggled with the new rules. This is the first tournament we had with the new rules and I did feel a little hesitant with some attacks but after a few more months of training and competing that should be fine.
As always after every competition you always have heaps to learn from and practice in order to get better. In Australian tournaments you don’t notice as much because you can make mistakes and not get beaten. In international comps 1 mistake is 1 mistake too many. So I have had a talk with Gavin and Daniel Kelly regarding what I need to work on and now I feel like I have a new goal in working on new techniques.
Today the training camp starts we are doing 2 sessions a day and its going to be so so hot. One of the coach’s from Bath university will be running the sessions so I think there will also be some technical sessions as well. I’m keen to fight alot of people and develop my strategies alot more.
Well I’m off to have a snooze
Catch ya
Matt
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