Hey folks, I got an idea that I hope will make sponsoring this movie fun and exciting!
As you should know by now, "Redemption" is being screened at the NY State Grappling Championships this Saturday, July 17th in Fishkill, NY. Well, I've been inspired by walk-a-thons to set up a plan that will encourage me to fight harder than ever before!
All you have to do is decide on an amount of money you would like to pledge for every point I score in the tournament. Then, when the event is over, I will post the video of the matches, and you can see all the points I score. Then you can go to Indiegogo.com and donate your pledge. You will notice that each pledge there comes with a collection of "perks" commensurate with your level of contribution.
Now I have a 2-32-2 record in competition and I don't think I have scored even as many as a dozen points in my entire career, but I have been working out, training, and improving, as you can see by this video...
...so you are taking a gamble by pledging here. Can you handle it?
The minimum pledge is 25 cents a point. And just to put as little more competition in, the person who pledges the most will receive a copy of the preview DVD screener, a copy of the finished movie, and a copy of the all-original soundtrack CD once it is all done!
Here's the way scoring will work at the tournament, according to the rules posted at the Acom Sports website:
Scoring Points: To gain points for any move or position, the competitor (aggressor) must show clear control for a 3 second
count by the referee – this is the key in point scoring for ACOM-SPORTS – TOTAL CONTROL FOR 3 COUNT TO EARN POINTS
1. Takedown or Throw: Land on Top in Guard or Half Guard= 2 points Land on Top in Side Mount or Full Mount= 3 Points
Note: Points will be awarded separately for Full Mount after an additional 3 count of control.
2. Sweep with Legs (from Half Guard or Full Guard) or Arm Drag from Open Guard to Turtle: 2 points (must hold for 3 count to
be awarded). NOTE: Inversions (Power Rolls from Side, Full or North/South are NOT considered Sweeps & will not awarded any
points or advantages
3. Passing the Guard (open or closed) - 3 points (must hold for 3 count to be awarded points) – MUST CLEAR ARMS & LEGS
4. Mounted position (both knees on the ground): 4 points (must hold for 3 count to be awarded)
5. Back Mount with Leg Hooks (or Knees on the Ground with Opponent Flat on his Stomach): 4 points (must hold for 3 count to
be awarded)
In addition, for the purpose of this pledge drive, if I win by points, that's worth 5 points plus points scored in the match.
Should I get so lucky as to win by submission, that will count as 10 points, plus points scored in the match.
Thanks in advance, those of you who will be contributing. I look forward to doing my best and living up to the confidence you have put in me!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
On TV this morning! Redemption movie screening next weekend!
This is an old post that I had left in "draft" form. I am publishing it now because I want to.
Hello friends, I’ve got some big new! I’m on TV again this weekend, my movie is screening next Saturday, and I ACTUALLY WON A GRAPPLING MATCH! ON CAMERA!
First off, the TV show “Toni On! New York” is rebroadcasting its episode of “Weird New York” in which they visit the Big Apple Comic Con and interview Yours Truly, Captain Zorikh, and display cartoons I drew of the Toni On! Team as superheroes. Tough I did not find out about this until just now, you can tune in (or set your VCR or TiVo) at 11:30 AM tomorrow morning, Sunday, July 11.
Next, that grappling movie I have been working on for the past year is having a big screening at the Acom Sports NY State Grappling Championships next Saturday, July 17th. I will be competing in this tournament, after which we will screen the movie. This will be at the Fishkill Recreation Center at 793 route 52 in Fishkill, NY. Registration begins at 8:00 AM, matches begin at 10:30 AM, and the movie will be shown when the matches are done, probably around 4:30 – 5:00 PM. For more info, go to http://www.acom-sports.net.
I’ve been editing the film down a bit, making it more concise, and also am going into the studio with the brilliant musicians Ash Gray and Jeff Webb to record a whole new soundtrack! You here's a rough demo of one of the new songs:
Finally, what makes next Saturday’s tournament especially exciting for me, is that all my hard work, training, and persistence has been paying off! In addition to being in some of the best shape of my life, I actually won a grappling match at the NY Submission Open two weeks ago! You can see parts of the match in this highlight video of the event:
So now we’ll see if I can pull out another win on the occasion of the screening of my movie!
I hope to see you there!
Hello friends, I’ve got some big new! I’m on TV again this weekend, my movie is screening next Saturday, and I ACTUALLY WON A GRAPPLING MATCH! ON CAMERA!
First off, the TV show “Toni On! New York” is rebroadcasting its episode of “Weird New York” in which they visit the Big Apple Comic Con and interview Yours Truly, Captain Zorikh, and display cartoons I drew of the Toni On! Team as superheroes. Tough I did not find out about this until just now, you can tune in (or set your VCR or TiVo) at 11:30 AM tomorrow morning, Sunday, July 11.
Next, that grappling movie I have been working on for the past year is having a big screening at the Acom Sports NY State Grappling Championships next Saturday, July 17th. I will be competing in this tournament, after which we will screen the movie. This will be at the Fishkill Recreation Center at 793 route 52 in Fishkill, NY. Registration begins at 8:00 AM, matches begin at 10:30 AM, and the movie will be shown when the matches are done, probably around 4:30 – 5:00 PM. For more info, go to http://www.acom-sports.net.
I’ve been editing the film down a bit, making it more concise, and also am going into the studio with the brilliant musicians Ash Gray and Jeff Webb to record a whole new soundtrack! You here's a rough demo of one of the new songs:
Finally, what makes next Saturday’s tournament especially exciting for me, is that all my hard work, training, and persistence has been paying off! In addition to being in some of the best shape of my life, I actually won a grappling match at the NY Submission Open two weeks ago! You can see parts of the match in this highlight video of the event:
So now we’ll see if I can pull out another win on the occasion of the screening of my movie!
I hope to see you there!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
My dream this morning: Michael Jackson, dead bodies, zombies, and electrified fences at the beach
So I found myself looking at some photos I had taken of Michael Jackson (the late singer, not the alcoholic beverage expert) at a concert. I somehow wound up at a MJ concert. After the show, MJ was outside, near his car, doing something very special and personal for a fan (perhaps autographing a magazine, I forget) while a female TV entertainment new reporter was covering him. The reporter said “Michael, there are lots of your fans here. At the very least you could acknowledge them with a wave or something." MJ waved and smiled and the crowd cheered.
Bu the car was parked in a bad spot (loading ramp or something, maybe a truck was coming through, I forget) so it had to back down the street. MJ and the reporter followed (at this point in the dream I was like the camera of a TV show, watching, but not actually present). When the car got to the end of the street, Mj was getting in and the reporter gave him something (the pictures I had taken, I think) MJ was getting in at an awkward angle (facing the rear of the car) lost his balance and fell. The reporter tried to help, but was not sure that she should actually touch the men. , so she went looking for his bodyguards.
There was one not far away and he came over to help. At about this time in the dream I shifted from being non-existent to being present. I found a dead body in a doorway across the sidewalk from the car.
I’m not quite sure of the transition here, but somehow this made me think of zombies, as in the movie “Zombieland.” I got to thinking about failed methods of zombie prevention, specifically electrified fences at the beach. I thought back to how four drunk people riding a golf cart on a beach tried leaving the beach and wound up driving right into the electrified gate of the electrified fence. (Zap! Zap! Zap!). I went back in time just a little, to before that incident, and I was hanging out with the bunches of people on the beach behind the electrified fence that separated the beach from the city, but I realized that a crawling zombie could just crawl under the gate (the gate was higher off the ground than the rest of the fence).
This beach happened to be a half a block from the doorway where I had found the dead body. There was another doorway right next to it, and inside was an artist studio for an art school, with easels and paint all over the place. I’m not quite sure what happened there, but I was having a conversation with one of the art students as an occasional person went in and out.
Then I woke up.
Bu the car was parked in a bad spot (loading ramp or something, maybe a truck was coming through, I forget) so it had to back down the street. MJ and the reporter followed (at this point in the dream I was like the camera of a TV show, watching, but not actually present). When the car got to the end of the street, Mj was getting in and the reporter gave him something (the pictures I had taken, I think) MJ was getting in at an awkward angle (facing the rear of the car) lost his balance and fell. The reporter tried to help, but was not sure that she should actually touch the men. , so she went looking for his bodyguards.
There was one not far away and he came over to help. At about this time in the dream I shifted from being non-existent to being present. I found a dead body in a doorway across the sidewalk from the car.
I’m not quite sure of the transition here, but somehow this made me think of zombies, as in the movie “Zombieland.” I got to thinking about failed methods of zombie prevention, specifically electrified fences at the beach. I thought back to how four drunk people riding a golf cart on a beach tried leaving the beach and wound up driving right into the electrified gate of the electrified fence. (Zap! Zap! Zap!). I went back in time just a little, to before that incident, and I was hanging out with the bunches of people on the beach behind the electrified fence that separated the beach from the city, but I realized that a crawling zombie could just crawl under the gate (the gate was higher off the ground than the rest of the fence).
This beach happened to be a half a block from the doorway where I had found the dead body. There was another doorway right next to it, and inside was an artist studio for an art school, with easels and paint all over the place. I’m not quite sure what happened there, but I was having a conversation with one of the art students as an occasional person went in and out.
Then I woke up.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
My dream this morning: Video rentals, invisibility, alien Nazis, and Bayou Bushwhackers
My dream: morning of June 6, 2010:
I was a friend of the local video store, and they had a “rent 5 get one free” policy, but occasionally the manager would let me borrow a VHS tape for part of a day, and I would go lay back on a lawn chaitr on the sidewalk and watch it and takje a nap. One time, thoughI got back to the store and one of the other countermen was actually a little upset about me borrowing them, but checked with ththe manager by phone and foundout it was OK.
Somehow this turned into a movie where Ian McKellen plays an old Nazi undercover in America. I was at some sort of hotel/convention center where a big international conference was going on. A Sarah Douglas type was trying to catch me because I was sneaking around and really shouldn’t have been there. She had the power to turn invisible, and I discovered that so did I. This was fortunate because at one point I found myself without pants (hate it when that happens) and my blak t-shirt was just barley long enough for decency’s sake.The invisibility enabled me to escape, but it didn’t last forevere, and when two girls say me., I found out it had worn off.
I ran around a corner and somehow found some pants in time to duck into a large ballroom where the results of the US election were being announced, and the winner was the Ian McKellen Nazi. As the announcement was made, the picture of the Great Seal of the US and the slogan “Justice for All” and the Stars & Stripes banners were replaced by a picture of the guy in his uniform and hat and a slogan about the supreme rule of the dictator and banners of his symbol (much like a combination of McKellen’s “Richard III” and the Ridley Scott Apple Computer Super Bowl ad) appeared. I thought this was just wrong and started singing “America the Beautiful” real loud, and the Americans in the room (this was, after all, and international conference) started singing along (very “Red Dawn” like).
When we were done I started with “The Star Spangled Banner” and was hustled from the room. Somehow I escaped and would up in the Louisiana Bayou. It turns out that these Nazis were aliens from outer space, hey were about to attack this gathering of US resistance fighters, and we were preparing to resist. I was concerned with our level of fighting effectiveness as compared to regular troops. As everyone else was putting on helmets and hats with leaves stuck in them for camouflage (and I was struck by the image of all these people, their faces obscured by the leaves in their hats and helmets, around the bayou, getting in boats, cleaning their weapons, on the march, etc), I looked through the 3 camo outfits I had brought with me, which were hanging up in a densely packed rack of coats, jackets, and jumpsuits/coveralls), I had brought some Swiss alpenflage, some German fleck camo, and somehow I had gotten some hunter’s woodland camo (the kind that has actual leaves in the pattern). I pointedly remembered that I had no US woodland camo. I asked the local bushwhacker which pattern would be best for the area. We weren’t able to decide for sure (although it was thought that a one-piece jump suit might not be the best, rather a jacket-and-pants combination), but the Nazi aliens were about to attack…
…and then I woke up.
I was a friend of the local video store, and they had a “rent 5 get one free” policy, but occasionally the manager would let me borrow a VHS tape for part of a day, and I would go lay back on a lawn chaitr on the sidewalk and watch it and takje a nap. One time, thoughI got back to the store and one of the other countermen was actually a little upset about me borrowing them, but checked with ththe manager by phone and foundout it was OK.
Somehow this turned into a movie where Ian McKellen plays an old Nazi undercover in America. I was at some sort of hotel/convention center where a big international conference was going on. A Sarah Douglas type was trying to catch me because I was sneaking around and really shouldn’t have been there. She had the power to turn invisible, and I discovered that so did I. This was fortunate because at one point I found myself without pants (hate it when that happens) and my blak t-shirt was just barley long enough for decency’s sake.The invisibility enabled me to escape, but it didn’t last forevere, and when two girls say me., I found out it had worn off.
I ran around a corner and somehow found some pants in time to duck into a large ballroom where the results of the US election were being announced, and the winner was the Ian McKellen Nazi. As the announcement was made, the picture of the Great Seal of the US and the slogan “Justice for All” and the Stars & Stripes banners were replaced by a picture of the guy in his uniform and hat and a slogan about the supreme rule of the dictator and banners of his symbol (much like a combination of McKellen’s “Richard III” and the Ridley Scott Apple Computer Super Bowl ad) appeared. I thought this was just wrong and started singing “America the Beautiful” real loud, and the Americans in the room (this was, after all, and international conference) started singing along (very “Red Dawn” like).
When we were done I started with “The Star Spangled Banner” and was hustled from the room. Somehow I escaped and would up in the Louisiana Bayou. It turns out that these Nazis were aliens from outer space, hey were about to attack this gathering of US resistance fighters, and we were preparing to resist. I was concerned with our level of fighting effectiveness as compared to regular troops. As everyone else was putting on helmets and hats with leaves stuck in them for camouflage (and I was struck by the image of all these people, their faces obscured by the leaves in their hats and helmets, around the bayou, getting in boats, cleaning their weapons, on the march, etc), I looked through the 3 camo outfits I had brought with me, which were hanging up in a densely packed rack of coats, jackets, and jumpsuits/coveralls), I had brought some Swiss alpenflage, some German fleck camo, and somehow I had gotten some hunter’s woodland camo (the kind that has actual leaves in the pattern). I pointedly remembered that I had no US woodland camo. I asked the local bushwhacker which pattern would be best for the area. We weren’t able to decide for sure (although it was thought that a one-piece jump suit might not be the best, rather a jacket-and-pants combination), but the Nazi aliens were about to attack…
…and then I woke up.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Captain Z Competeing at Renegade Grappling League this Weekend!
Hey friends, if you have been following my Facebook announcements and YouTube channels (Captain Zorikh and CZRedemption) you know what’s going on this weekend. For the rest of you, here’s the news.
I have recovered enough from the injury I suffered at that grappling tournament where I won my first match to consider myself ready to re-enter the ring. I’ll be doing so on Sunday, April 25 (tomorrow) at the Renegade Grappling League even!
This went will take place at John’s boxing gym at 436 Westchester Ave in the Bronx. It’s just one block from the 3rd Ave-149th St. stop on the 2/5 train.
It will be a round-robin, open-skill level tournament (anyone at any skill level may compete with anyone else) divided into 6 weight divisions, with an open weight tournament also.
If you want to compete, it’s only $35 (the cheapest tournament fee around). Spectators are free, just walk right in.
There is an event announcement on Facebook with more details and I posted an event announcement on Going.com as well.
I hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it, wish me luck and safety!
Captain Z
Zorikh@juno.com
917-865-1214
http://www.captainzorkh.com
I have recovered enough from the injury I suffered at that grappling tournament where I won my first match to consider myself ready to re-enter the ring. I’ll be doing so on Sunday, April 25 (tomorrow) at the Renegade Grappling League even!
This went will take place at John’s boxing gym at 436 Westchester Ave in the Bronx. It’s just one block from the 3rd Ave-149th St. stop on the 2/5 train.
It will be a round-robin, open-skill level tournament (anyone at any skill level may compete with anyone else) divided into 6 weight divisions, with an open weight tournament also.
If you want to compete, it’s only $35 (the cheapest tournament fee around). Spectators are free, just walk right in.
There is an event announcement on Facebook with more details and I posted an event announcement on Going.com as well.
I hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it, wish me luck and safety!
Captain Z
Zorikh@juno.com
917-865-1214
http://www.captainzorkh.com
Monday, March 1, 2010
My first grappling victory!
I finally scored a victory in a grappling tournament match! And I am not going to feel bad about it! Here’s how it happened…
I had signed up for the Long Island Submission Tournament in Port Jefferson, NY some weeks ago, and had done what I could to train and prepare for it while editing my movie and working for the NY Comic Book Marketplace event. I had been watching instructional videos, drilling moves with the Twin Towers Wrestling Club, and reading up on Musashi’s “Book of 5 Rings. I had also competed in the Renegade Grappling League’s first tournament. I fought well there, but still failed to secure my first victory.
A friend of mine from Twin Towers was supposed to go with me, but when I called him early in the morning to catch the LIRR, he bailed, so I was there on my own. Several people recognized me from other tournaments that I had been at, though, such as NAGA and the NY Submission Shootout.
The event was held in a gymnastics school, and there was a pit filled with foam blocks. I swore that I if won a match, I would do a flip into the foam pit. In fact, I had been envisioning what I would do if I won all week, and this seemed just too outrageously perfect.
I realized once I was there, though, that I had forgotten my protective cup. This tournament did not have any dealers set up other than the refreshment stand, and the nearest sporting goods store was miles away. There was, however, and Karate/MMA school right across the street, the United Martial Arts Center. Their Shihan, Andrew Stigliano, was kind enough to help me out. They had a small store of martial arts and training supplies, and he gave me a brand new cup.
At this tournament I weighed in at 177.5 lbs, about what I weighed at the last one, and about what I’d expected. Due to the number of competitors and the structure of he tournament I was placed in a division defined as “middleweight, 168 – 177 lbs.” I signed up as a “beginner” (more than a novice, less than intermediate).
My record going in stood at 0-19-2.
There turned out to be four people in this division, and I had the first match. Not surprisingly, my opponent was short and stockier than me. I went into the match with the intention of “treading him down,” like Musashi says. We engaged standing, and I fought to push his head down, looking for a guillotine (something I had worked on). After a few moments of that, all I accomplished was being able to control the rate of descent after he got underhooks, and establish half guard with him on top of me. He passed the half-guard and moved into north-shout, going fo a choke which I blocked with my arm, but he crushed my shoulder into my chest, forcing me to tap.
I lost. My record now stood at 0-20-2
I do believe that is where an injury occurred. As I am typing this there is a pain in my chest that remains after the general soreness of the tournament has gone away. I will look into it later. But at the time my adrenaline was still up, and I was still ready to play.
The way the bracket was set up, they guy who beat me would fight the winner of the next match, and I would fight the loser. The match went on for the full five minutes and into overtime. Of course both competitors were totally gassed, so they held an “exhibition” bout between two teenagers to let them recover. I suggested that I could fight a bye or a gauntlet to match my opponent’s fatigue, but nothing came of it.
So my next match would decide the third-place finisher of the division. I was faced up with a fellow who must have been the smaller person in the bracket, meaning I outweighed him by almost 10 pounds. He was also about a foot shorter than me, but he appeared to have some cauliflowering on his ear and carried himself klike an experienced fighter, so I did not have any reason to expect, going in, that this match would turn out any differently than any other match I had ever been in.
Again I went for pushing down his head, treading him down, and again he achieved the top position in the takedown.
Sadly the guy holding my camera only got the first two seconds of the match, and a lot happened, so I’ll try my best to reconstruct it here.
I found myself on my knees defending the neck from a guillotine choke. I couldn’t feel any slack to get our either side, but he spun around to take my back faster than I could spin with him. I kept a tight hold on at least on of his arms the whole time, and looked to dump him over my shoulder (one of the first tricks I learned, but I recognized that the grip he had on my left arm would put him in a great place for an arm-bar, so I was being very cautious about it. He got leg hooks in. I tried clearing one leg out, and he tried flattening me out. Neither of those things worked. He pulled me back, and was working on the rear naked choke, when the referee called time out.
Apparently there was blood coming out of a cut on my head. While they were getting something to staunch it with, I asked the guys at ringside how it looked, and they said it looked pretty horrendous, so I chanted “ECW! ECW!”
We restarted in the same position. He was able to get his right arm around my neck and was in the process of locking his left arm over my head, when I remembered the defense for that (something they taught at Renzo Gracie’s the month I was there). I pulled his left arm down over my shoulder and attempted to get a submission lock on his elbow.
I didn’t get the lock in, but the distraction gave me a chance to adjust my position in his leg hooks. I forced myself around to face hi, and thought that I would then me in his guard, but he didn’t close his legs around me, allowing me to attack him from something side-mount-ish. I grabbed one arm, his friends warned him to watch out for the arm-bar. I switched to the other side, and as I tried to put knee on belly to take mound, he grabbed my left leg with the intention of an ankle submission.
Something switched on at that moment in my brain. I don’t like leg submissions. They are fast, painful, dangerous, and at my skill level, not used often. From my limited experience with them I knew that I had to get moving, quickly, in order to save my leg, and that’s when I realized, this is a fight. This is not a show, an exhibition, a practice roll, or a cooperative exercise, this person is trying to do things to my that could break me, and the only way to make him stop, is to do it right back to him. Suddenly the time lag between thinking of a move and doing it disappeared, and each move was done with more strength than before.
I extracted my leg and found myself over him as he turtled. I spun to take his back. He semi-blocked me but I was able to get my left arm around his neck. I stuck my right leg into his leg (gaining a hook) and pulled him back. As I fought for the other leg hook, I remembered a training video that showed rear naked choke technique. Rather than grabbing my bicep and swinging my forearm down behind his head (easy to block), I slid my right hand over my left as I snaked it behind his neck until my right bicep reached my left had. That was probably the best rear naked choke I have ever applied.
I realized then that I actually had a chance to with this thing. This was a realization, and a sensation, I had never had before. All I had to do was keep on squeezing tighter…and tighter…and then I felt that gentle tapping on my left shoulder.
I won! My record now stands at 1-20-2! The streak is over!
I jumped up, raised my hands in the air and shouted “First win ever!” I turned to give my opponent a hug, and he had turned away. I felt kind of bad about that, but the ref turned him around and I hugged him and shook his had.
Then, as I promised, I ran to the foam pit and did a Geronimo flip in. High-fives and congratulations all around. I recorded a little piece for my YouTube channel and looked for the guy I defeated so I could shake his had again and tell him how much this victory, first after 22 tries, meant to me. I couldn’t find him. I kind of felt bad about that.
But wait a minute here. Yes, I was a foot taller than him. I outweighed him by almost ten pounds. I’d had a short match and a long rest; he’d had a long match and a short rest. These were all advantages for me.
But I am certain that he trains more often than me, fights more often than me, and has less bodyfat. The order and matching of the bouts was essentially random. Having the endurance to do multiple matches in short order against different sized opponents is part of the game.
So dammit, I am not going to feel bad about winning!
One final thought: Earlier in the day there were kids’ matches, and some of the kids took losing pretty hard. I was speaking with the fellow next to me and he said there is no reason to get upset about losing, because you always learn something from losing, you never learn anything from winning. I told him I’d have to get back to him on that. Well, here’s what I say: I did learn some things from winning. I learned that I knew how to execute a rear naked choke. I learned that I have a fighter’s mentality when I want to. I learned what it felt like to win, and that is what a successful redemption is about. You take everything that you have, that you are, that is inside of you, and you cash it in and find out what you are worth. It feels good to know that you have what it takes to get what you want.
Now I have another tournament next week, the Long Island Grappling Challenge. Let’s see if I can get that second win, and get it on camera this time!
I had signed up for the Long Island Submission Tournament in Port Jefferson, NY some weeks ago, and had done what I could to train and prepare for it while editing my movie and working for the NY Comic Book Marketplace event. I had been watching instructional videos, drilling moves with the Twin Towers Wrestling Club, and reading up on Musashi’s “Book of 5 Rings. I had also competed in the Renegade Grappling League’s first tournament. I fought well there, but still failed to secure my first victory.
A friend of mine from Twin Towers was supposed to go with me, but when I called him early in the morning to catch the LIRR, he bailed, so I was there on my own. Several people recognized me from other tournaments that I had been at, though, such as NAGA and the NY Submission Shootout.
The event was held in a gymnastics school, and there was a pit filled with foam blocks. I swore that I if won a match, I would do a flip into the foam pit. In fact, I had been envisioning what I would do if I won all week, and this seemed just too outrageously perfect.
I realized once I was there, though, that I had forgotten my protective cup. This tournament did not have any dealers set up other than the refreshment stand, and the nearest sporting goods store was miles away. There was, however, and Karate/MMA school right across the street, the United Martial Arts Center. Their Shihan, Andrew Stigliano, was kind enough to help me out. They had a small store of martial arts and training supplies, and he gave me a brand new cup.
At this tournament I weighed in at 177.5 lbs, about what I weighed at the last one, and about what I’d expected. Due to the number of competitors and the structure of he tournament I was placed in a division defined as “middleweight, 168 – 177 lbs.” I signed up as a “beginner” (more than a novice, less than intermediate).
My record going in stood at 0-19-2.
There turned out to be four people in this division, and I had the first match. Not surprisingly, my opponent was short and stockier than me. I went into the match with the intention of “treading him down,” like Musashi says. We engaged standing, and I fought to push his head down, looking for a guillotine (something I had worked on). After a few moments of that, all I accomplished was being able to control the rate of descent after he got underhooks, and establish half guard with him on top of me. He passed the half-guard and moved into north-shout, going fo a choke which I blocked with my arm, but he crushed my shoulder into my chest, forcing me to tap.
I lost. My record now stood at 0-20-2
I do believe that is where an injury occurred. As I am typing this there is a pain in my chest that remains after the general soreness of the tournament has gone away. I will look into it later. But at the time my adrenaline was still up, and I was still ready to play.
The way the bracket was set up, they guy who beat me would fight the winner of the next match, and I would fight the loser. The match went on for the full five minutes and into overtime. Of course both competitors were totally gassed, so they held an “exhibition” bout between two teenagers to let them recover. I suggested that I could fight a bye or a gauntlet to match my opponent’s fatigue, but nothing came of it.
So my next match would decide the third-place finisher of the division. I was faced up with a fellow who must have been the smaller person in the bracket, meaning I outweighed him by almost 10 pounds. He was also about a foot shorter than me, but he appeared to have some cauliflowering on his ear and carried himself klike an experienced fighter, so I did not have any reason to expect, going in, that this match would turn out any differently than any other match I had ever been in.
Again I went for pushing down his head, treading him down, and again he achieved the top position in the takedown.
Sadly the guy holding my camera only got the first two seconds of the match, and a lot happened, so I’ll try my best to reconstruct it here.
I found myself on my knees defending the neck from a guillotine choke. I couldn’t feel any slack to get our either side, but he spun around to take my back faster than I could spin with him. I kept a tight hold on at least on of his arms the whole time, and looked to dump him over my shoulder (one of the first tricks I learned, but I recognized that the grip he had on my left arm would put him in a great place for an arm-bar, so I was being very cautious about it. He got leg hooks in. I tried clearing one leg out, and he tried flattening me out. Neither of those things worked. He pulled me back, and was working on the rear naked choke, when the referee called time out.
Apparently there was blood coming out of a cut on my head. While they were getting something to staunch it with, I asked the guys at ringside how it looked, and they said it looked pretty horrendous, so I chanted “ECW! ECW!”
We restarted in the same position. He was able to get his right arm around my neck and was in the process of locking his left arm over my head, when I remembered the defense for that (something they taught at Renzo Gracie’s the month I was there). I pulled his left arm down over my shoulder and attempted to get a submission lock on his elbow.
I didn’t get the lock in, but the distraction gave me a chance to adjust my position in his leg hooks. I forced myself around to face hi, and thought that I would then me in his guard, but he didn’t close his legs around me, allowing me to attack him from something side-mount-ish. I grabbed one arm, his friends warned him to watch out for the arm-bar. I switched to the other side, and as I tried to put knee on belly to take mound, he grabbed my left leg with the intention of an ankle submission.
Something switched on at that moment in my brain. I don’t like leg submissions. They are fast, painful, dangerous, and at my skill level, not used often. From my limited experience with them I knew that I had to get moving, quickly, in order to save my leg, and that’s when I realized, this is a fight. This is not a show, an exhibition, a practice roll, or a cooperative exercise, this person is trying to do things to my that could break me, and the only way to make him stop, is to do it right back to him. Suddenly the time lag between thinking of a move and doing it disappeared, and each move was done with more strength than before.
I extracted my leg and found myself over him as he turtled. I spun to take his back. He semi-blocked me but I was able to get my left arm around his neck. I stuck my right leg into his leg (gaining a hook) and pulled him back. As I fought for the other leg hook, I remembered a training video that showed rear naked choke technique. Rather than grabbing my bicep and swinging my forearm down behind his head (easy to block), I slid my right hand over my left as I snaked it behind his neck until my right bicep reached my left had. That was probably the best rear naked choke I have ever applied.
I realized then that I actually had a chance to with this thing. This was a realization, and a sensation, I had never had before. All I had to do was keep on squeezing tighter…and tighter…and then I felt that gentle tapping on my left shoulder.
I won! My record now stands at 1-20-2! The streak is over!
I jumped up, raised my hands in the air and shouted “First win ever!” I turned to give my opponent a hug, and he had turned away. I felt kind of bad about that, but the ref turned him around and I hugged him and shook his had.
Then, as I promised, I ran to the foam pit and did a Geronimo flip in. High-fives and congratulations all around. I recorded a little piece for my YouTube channel and looked for the guy I defeated so I could shake his had again and tell him how much this victory, first after 22 tries, meant to me. I couldn’t find him. I kind of felt bad about that.
But wait a minute here. Yes, I was a foot taller than him. I outweighed him by almost ten pounds. I’d had a short match and a long rest; he’d had a long match and a short rest. These were all advantages for me.
But I am certain that he trains more often than me, fights more often than me, and has less bodyfat. The order and matching of the bouts was essentially random. Having the endurance to do multiple matches in short order against different sized opponents is part of the game.
So dammit, I am not going to feel bad about winning!
One final thought: Earlier in the day there were kids’ matches, and some of the kids took losing pretty hard. I was speaking with the fellow next to me and he said there is no reason to get upset about losing, because you always learn something from losing, you never learn anything from winning. I told him I’d have to get back to him on that. Well, here’s what I say: I did learn some things from winning. I learned that I knew how to execute a rear naked choke. I learned that I have a fighter’s mentality when I want to. I learned what it felt like to win, and that is what a successful redemption is about. You take everything that you have, that you are, that is inside of you, and you cash it in and find out what you are worth. It feels good to know that you have what it takes to get what you want.
Now I have another tournament next week, the Long Island Grappling Challenge. Let’s see if I can get that second win, and get it on camera this time!
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