My first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament

It is very difficult to find tournaments where there is a division for 40+ white belts in #bjj. Since I started training #bjj, I told my Sensei, Jordy, that I would like to do some tournaments. Jordy told me that we need to be and stay realistic on this matter since there are not a lot of tournaments for 40+ white belts.

I created an account on Smoothcomp to keep track of the upcoming competitions. I emailed a couple of competitions and unfortunately I received the response that there isn’t a Masters division. Jordy suggested that I look into #ibjjf, and so I did.

On October 8th my membership was approved by IBJJF and I registered for the Amsterdam International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu 2019 that took place November 9th 2019. I registered in the weight division light-feather as I weigh between 62 kg and 63 kg.

Funny thing happened though. I was the only one registered in my division for a couple of weeks, and all of a sudden another participant registered. I was happy and nervous at the same time because finally there is someone that I can compete against. 2 days before the tournament I logged in to see if there was anyone else that signed up in my division. Surprisingly I saw that I was the only one in my division again and the participant that was in my division moved up to feather weight. I got into my car and drove to #GracieBarraMaastricht to show my Sensei what happened. I logged into my #ibjjf account on my phone and showed Jordy. He looked at me and said; “your moving up also”. So I registered as a Feather weight.

The day of the competition I picked up Jordy at the agreed meeting point and drove to Amsterdam. Actually it is at Topsportcentrum Almere. Very nice facility. It was a 2 hours drive, and during the drive my Sensei and I caught up on several subject. I got to know him a bit better. We were 5 in total. Jordy (Sensei) Andy and Daan (black belts), Felip (brown belt), and I (white belt).

We got there around 10:00, and my fight was at 13:00. During the time that I was waiting for my fight, Daan and Jordy won gold medal. Andy won bronze, and Felip had to wait for the open class late in the afternoon. Before I tell you how my fight went, my Sensei has been telling me for a few months that competition is NOTHING like training. The mind set is totally different. With that said The time came for me to weigh in and what to be called on the matt. Before I stepped on the matt, Jordy was telling me - “get into the zone and play my game”. We stepped on the matt, we bowed to the referee and than to each other. The referee called “COMBATE” - than as mu opponent stepped towards me, I did something that I never did in all my martial arts years, I stepped back. He shot in and I got into the take down defense mode; I can hear Jordy telling me to get my hips to the ground. By the time I realised what was going on I was on my back, trying to defend so he can not pass my guard. Once he did, I knew that it was all over. He pinned me to the ground and forced his forearm into my neck and lean into it. I tapped out!

I was pissed at myself, but not demotivated. Up to the next I told my Sensei afterwards and he gave me a high 5!

Remember he told me to play my game? Well my game is actually a combination of De La
Riva with transitions into Spider guard and sweeps. (pretty basic but effective when executed well)

My first IBJJF medal

Since it was my first #bjj competition, I bought everyone a beer. afterwards we drove back home. I am thinking about competing again. I am thinking about the #IBJJF European in Portugal in January 2020. If I go, my wife might come with me.

Jordy, already told me; “just do it!”

From Left to Right: Me, Felipe, Jordy (Sensei), Daan, Andy

Amsterdam International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu 2019