If you haven't competed yet, kick some ass. If you have, I hope you did well and I look forward to hearing about it.
I try to compete a few times a year and feel it's important to understand and feel the difference.
Man, thanks for holding me to task on that one!
So, the tournament was today. I took first in my weight class (ultra heavy blue belt). Before anyone gets real excited... Here's the story.
For those that don't know, there aren't a ton of big dudes floating around the BJJ world. I am not huge by any means, but I walk around about 205. Initially, I was a heavyweight in my newly-minted blue belt division.
There weren't any other blue belt heavyweights. Or super heavy (up to 225). There was, though, one ultra heavy (226 and up, no weight limit). Dude's name is Cam, and he rolls at my home gym. He's truly an inspirational dude, started off close to 300 and over a year at the gym has lost 50 lbs and has basically changed his life thanks to BJJ. So the Gracie Barra team tried to come up with a way to get myself and Cam some other people to roll against.
There just wasn't a good answer. There weren't any heavy/super/ultra purple belts, and the white belt division was a couple guys that have been rolling for a couple months that Cam and I both outweighed.
The solution was that Cam and I would roll against each other in a best 2 of 3 match set. I let him play his game too much in the first match, but won 12-0 on points. The second match I felt great about my roll, and hit him with an armbar about a minute in.
It was a great experience, and we have 2 more local GB events this year I want to hit, along with a couple no-gi events.