After recovering from injuries at the California V competition and stabilizing my life after a career change, I wanted to do another competition to see where I was at. At California V I felt overpowered, something I intended to fix this time around. I did a dedicated strength and hypertrophy program leading up to the competition and it paid off.
Not only did I feel stronger, I got better results this time around. Let’s look at the matches.
VS. Ché Duran
Sooo because of outstanding camera work, most of this match will have to be in your imagination.
Right at the outset, I establish my grips and attempt an O-uchi-gari that he successfully stops. Based on his low stance, I kind of assume he’s a wrestler. At :10 seconds, you see me drag him over to my corner so I can hear my coach, Jon Budd, better. Then I leave my left leg out, hoping he’ll shoot for it. At :15 seconds, he does.
A little trick I use on wrestlers is to bait them with my front leg and underhook their far arm as they come in. You can see my right arm sneak under his left armpit right before we fall out of frame.
From here I worked on a shoulder lock, but Ché is built like a brick shithouse so he wasn’t going to tap to that. In the attempt, though, I think I tired him out a little because he raised his head long enough for me to sink in a triangle choke. It took me another 50-60 seconds to finish, but ultimately that’s what I got him with.
You can’t SEE if of course, but that’s what happened. Then they cut the camera before the arm raise, but you can see the record on my JJWL profile.
VS. Nick Piccorillo
My match against Nick Piccorillo is a bit more exciting, if only because you can actually watch it.
From the get-go, Nick pulls guard and I work a pass. His retention is fantastic, and I struggle to make any ground until he gives up and goes for an ankle lock. Not gonna lie, it was tight. I probably should have tapped, but I didn’t. As he’s wrenching on my foot, I see an opportunity for an Estima lock and take it.
This is enough of a threat that Nick transitions away at about 1:10, getting me out of immediate danger. He transitions to my back and I shoot for some Possum Guard shennanigans, but he’s not falling for it. I avoid his hooks, preventing him from getting any points.
At 2:15 I roll into a re-guard, hoping to attack his leg and turn things around. So far I’ve been playing defense.
He easily steps back and sinks into side control out of bounds, which resets us.
At 2:44, we start up again and Nick gets a knee-on-belly for what I think was not enough time before the ref gave him points but whatever. From here it’s pretty much downhill for me anyways because I am GASSED. At 3:10 he mounts me and I’ve got nothing left to get him off. I try some gi shennanigans, but the jacket comes right off and the ref has to stop us.
At 3:50 he mounts again, way too easily, and I just lay there like a fish. At 4:03 I try one of my bendy-guy techniques, but Nick does a great job of keeping my heels away from his armpits so I can’t gain any ground. I try more gi tricks, to no avail. Nick is rock solid.
I finally flip us over at 4:37 but by 5:12 he’s already got me back down. I ride out the rest of the match huffing and puffing, while Nick walks away cool as a cucumber.
Nick won the match with 9 points, leaving me with a second place medal for my efforts.
Final Results
Second place is better than third, but it’s not what I hoped for. I felt stronger this time, which was good, but I gassed out way too fast. Nick barely broke a sweat and I couldn’t even stand up.
If you read my post completion analysis of the last one I went to, I had a similar problem. Clearly this needs to be fixed if I plan to compete at a high level.
My Closing Thoughts
Between cutting weight, the adrenaline dump, and my admittedly shit cardio it’s not a huge surprise I keep gassing out. I was at 3.9% body fat, which is probably too low. According to my scale at home I was right on the money, but according to the scale at the event I had four pounds to spare.
I’m going to focus on conditioning for San Diego XVI in a couple months and maybe get gold the next time around!
Overall, Nick and Ché were cool dudes. Happy to get beaten up again by either of them.
There was another guy in our bracket that I didn’t meet, but I’m sure I’ll see him around because our competition pool is relatively small.
Time to go do some cardio.
