Princeton Judo Inventational

I went to the Princeton Judo Invitational on Sun. It was a good little tournament that ended up being bigger than I thought it would be. I weighed in at 192 and fought men’s 198 and masters. I wanted to fight 198 and 220 but they dint have any 220 guys. All of their heavy weights were 220+. I have been in a bit of a Judo slump lately so my goal for this tournament was simply, WIN MATCHES! I know it sounds silly because winning matches always the goal, right?

Well not really, not for me anyway. I try to win my Judo matches with throws instead of ground work. I have come to the realization that relying on my ground work to win Judo matches has been holding back my standup a little. In the novice divisions there are lots and lots of bad throw attempts that lead to groundwork. However, in the advanced division most throw attempts are at least "good attempts" and often end up with either a score or an ippon.

Yesterday was different yesterday I was willing to win ugly as long as the result was a win.

Men’s 198 Division

Match 1 - My first match was against a yellow belt that was killing guys in the novice division. He was around 6'5 or 6'6 but very skinny and wiry. I watched him fight I think everyone was underestimating him. At first glance he looked very vulnerable to O' Ochi Gari or Kosoto Gake. But I saw three different people try those throws on him and each ended the same way. He did a "mini sprawl" and used his long arms to leverage the guy over and land him flat on his back. So when we fought my strategy was drop Seio Nage. I surprised him a little with the drop but he didnt go over cleanly. Once on the ground I turned toward him, over hooked his outside leg with my right hand, and blocked his other leg with my left hand essentially double legging him over. Once on top I finished with a pin. I actually get this move quite a bit in Judo. It does not look very technical but I am setting it up and doing the moves in a particular order going for a particular finish. So technical or not it gets the job done. Lex has a video of me on you tube doing this exact move during the Beltsville Open.

Match 2 - Second match was against a Brown belt from Liberty Bell Judo. He was ok, he liked to throw Tai Otoshi from both the right and left side. We were going back and forth for a while before he hit me with a left sided Tai Otoshi. I didnt think it should have been an ippon I thought it was a wazari. The head ref actually called Yuko, but the two side refs called ippon so that was that. The left handers continue to give me trouble, but I am working on a game plan for them. The truth is this was one match were I should have just thrown Hari, Hari, Hari, Hari, instead I was playing to defensively so I deserved to lose.

Match 3 - My third match was against a Shodan. I was watching his other matches and I noticed he played with a weird stance. Most of the time he played a standard left sided stance (great another lefty) but he would occasionally switch to a left sided stance with right sided grips. I also notice he didnt really attack, instead he waited for his opponent to attack and then he would drop his ass and counter them backward. I was not having any of that countering crap so I decided right off the bat, Hari and no Uchi Mata. Everything was going to be drop Seio, Tomo Nage and Yoko Tomo Nage. When the match started he went right into his standard left sided stance so I went for the Yoko Tomo Nage I have been working on specifically for lefties. It actually worked perfectly!!! I dropped in, he lowered his base and then his back leg popped out from under him and he spun right to his back. The only problem was they didnt give me a score for it, not even a Yuko! To make matters worse while I was waiting for the score to be called I didnt get up and get on top of him so I missed my opportunity to pin. I was pissed but would not be deterred. I spent the rest of the match relentless attacking with drop Seio and Tomo Nage. I tried to set up the Yoko tomo Nage again but after the first attempt he played with a very squared up stance and refused to give the far sleeve when grip fighting. At this point I was pretty tired.
Even thought I am describing this as my third match it was really my 5th match of the day. I already had my master division matches at this point. This match was my third match in the mens division. Despite being tired I continued to push the pace and frustrate him. The match finally ended with no score, but I got the decision victory. I thought I clearly earned the decision, I think he had one lame Uchi Mata attempt the whole match.

Masters Division

Match 1 - First match was against a Shodan. He scored a VERY questionable yuko early in the match. I thought the throw started out of bounds and I landed on my stomach. None the less they gave him the small score. He spent the rest of the match playing defense on his feet and literally running out of bounds every time we went to the ground. I had two really good opportunities on the ground but couldnt capitalize on either. I had 1 arm bar attempt from close guard that I turned into a belly down armbar than transitioned into the Jui Gatme turnover. Everything was going perfectly until the end of the turnover when he yanked his arm free (crap). Second opportunity was when he tried to flat turtle. Originally I was attacking his up turtle so he transitioned to a flat turtle thinking he was safe. I immediately tried my flat turtle reversal but I was very rushed. The refs weren't giving me any time on the ground so I really did not have a chance to properly set my position before attempting the reversal. I went for it anyway and I almost got it but not quite. He was really taken off guard by it. After the flat turtle reversal and almost armbar he wanted NO part of the ground. Whenever we went to the ground he would instantly jump up or quickly crawl out of bounds.

This is one part of the rules I really disagree with. If it is a penalty to run out of bounds on your feet it should be a penalty to run out of bounds on the ground. Breaking a hold by going out of bounds is one thing, but sprinting out of bounds to avoid the ground game is an embarrassment to the sport. After all it is a grappling art. He ended up winning 1 yuko (and one shido for stalling) to none.

2nd masters match was against a young guy who was very good. They just found someone willing to fight and made the division even though he was nowhere close to 30. The tournament director asked me if it was ok and I agreed to it. He was very good, I overheard his coach talking about his matches at the junior Olympics.

The only comment I am going to make about this match is that his gi was the stiffest gi I every felt. It took 3 false attacks just to pull it out and I was never able to get the left lapel out. It was like trying to grab a flat piece of cardboard. I am not accusing him of cheating I am just saying….What’s with the stiff gi dude, did you pick that up from the armory on your way to the tournament?