Things I learned at De La Riva:

210 pound women can in fact do Jiujitsu. I went in thinking I wouldn’t have to fight women much bigger then I am… but I was wrong.

Philip Richardson is the worst camera man.

I need to work on take downs.

Competitions are not as scary as I made them out to be.

Bring extra batteries for the camera, and extra tapes for the camcorder.

Don’t let go of your submission until the ref says so… even if you think the match is over.

I also learned I am not just a squishy mommy, and I really do have the best instructors ever!

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My first fight was against a girl who has 68 pounds on me, and almost two years more experience.Our match was 10 points to 10, and the ref gave me the advantage, and called the match with me as the winner. The girl, and her corner disagreed with the calling, and they decided to do a one minute over time. In the over time, I got the girls back, and was going for a rear naked, but since there were two matches going on, and they called the other match, we both thought thewere calling ours and I let go. At that point, they should have restarted us on the ground with me on her back, but they stood us back up, and she took me down and got the points and ended up winning the match. I was a little disappointed, I felt like I should probably should have won, but I ended up taking third instead of second. Honestly though, I don’t care. I held my own against a girl with almost 70 pounds on me, more experience, who also happened to be married to a black belt who runs his own school. I was proud of myself for that fight.

My second fight was no-gi against a girl named Tanya, who was exactly my same weight. She has been doing Jiujitsu for about 8 months and also kick-boxes. She was really good, and very nice. I got her in a guillotine from standing, and jumped guard, but she was able to escape, and ended up getting me in a triangle. I thought it was a pretty good match, and I lost to her fair and square. I’d like to run into her at another competition some day. I liked fighting her, and would love to do it again in the future…. Even if she triangles me again. =)

I ended up fighting the big girl again, I have no idea what her name was because she never said a word to me, and she got me in an arm bar. I could have defended it, but I let her take it, planning to roll out of it so I could get out from under her. I could NOT roll her off of me, or hip out enough to get out. I mean, she got my arm, I didn’t give it to her, but once she had it, I let her take it. In my first match against her she got my arm, and I rolled out and got her back. I was hoping to do the same thing in no-gi, but the ref stopped the match while I was rolling out of the arm bar. So, I lost and ended up 4^th for no-gi. They stop matches for kids once they land a submission, but they should not have done that for an adult match. Either way… I’m not ashamed of myself for my performance. I’ve been doing this for three months, and that girl was huge!

I am really glad I went though; I learned a lot had a blast and it was great to get in a competition before NAGA.

The day was more emotional than I expected. It was more stressful watching my friends fight then it was to fight myself, and it bothered me more to see a teammate lose then it did to lose my own matches… and I had to watch a lot more matches then I fought.

Fabio Novaes Brazilian Jiujitsu!!!!

Here are some pictures from my first match. My camera died after this one, so I only have video of the rest.

I'm in the blue gi.