I might not have won a gold medal, but I think everyone was totally jealous of my guns, my socks, and my super cool crew, which included my husband Joe, a couple of MMA stars- Kristy and Julian, and my daughter Skyler (who is not pictured, because she took all the pictures. The socks also belong to her).
Tournament Recap
Gi match (italics indicate what I was thinking at the time):
I start with a failed attempt to throw her with tomoe nage. It was half-ass, I didn't commit at all.
Okay, fine, I will just pull guard. Oh snap, she picked me up! I'm gonna monkey boy around to her back and choke her out!
Joe: Choke her!
Me: I want to, but I can't because she has a hold of my sleeve!
(Note to self: Stop talking back to your coach while you are competing. This is not the first time you've done that.)
Hey, we're on the ground in half-guard, how the hell did that happen?!
Joe: You need to get to full guard!
No, right now I need to stop her from mounting me! She will not mount me, she will not mount me, she will not...
She didn't mount me!
Hahaha, she's never going to get that arm lock.
She didn't get that arm lock! (afterward she commented that I was "very flexible"). You can't tell on the video, but she tapped me out with an ezekiel choke...one of my favorite and most successful submissions. Damn the irony.
No gi match:
This match went a little better, but once again, I didn't get the take down. Yes, my hip and elbow are bruised from when we went off the mat. Before I went to the tournament, my teacher Amy told me that if I went for a sub and it wasn't working, to move on to something else. I attempted an ezekiel, a gogoplata, and a triangle (hmmm...all chokes...go figure), before being submitted with a perfect arm lock (which you also can't really see on the video. I think it was an Americana). It was put on so fast and so well that my tapping was completely involuntary. The ref (who btw, if you will notice, was a LADY!) even asked me if I had tapped because she wasn't sure. I was like "Oh, hell yeah!".
Once again I would like to say thanks to my wonderful crew, my guns, and Skyler's socks. Especially the socks.