Match 1:
Got the double udnerhooks early, was working for an inside trip when he tried to throw me. From top-half I worked to pass slowly, with a deep underhook and a half-guillotine (instead of the more traditional head and arm control). Its a combo im starting to get a lot of success with. Once I passed, the position of his near arm allowed me to step over for a farside armbar.
Match 2:
Takedown clinic. His guard was extremely frustrating and difficult for me to deal with. I REALLY need to work on controlling the hips more. In the end, the heavy wresting approach won through when he got too tired to keep up the crazy.
Match 3:
My best match I think, or at least the one in which I was most able to implement my game. Early clinch takedown to top-half. After a bit of a scramble, I had to fight my way out of an anaconda. From there, I took him down from the knees, wore him down with my weight and worked to knee-slide mount. Once there, it was all low mount and squeeze, working head and arm control to set him up for a keylock or a arm-triangle. After a few attempts I pulled it off. Im really happy with this, Drysdale helped me a lot with this strategy.
Match 4:
I injured myself in either the second or the third match - my left knee was already swelling up, so I couldnt really wrestle properly. The plan was to just defend and defend while avoiding the clinch, then try to counter. I managed to get an early bodylock and get him down. I even got the gift wrap, but then totally messed up the backtake - I have messed this up a bunch of times, and I really need to speak to my coaches and do some work on this position. After standing for a bit, he managed to double leg me briefly, but I rolled out of it and in the scramble took his back briefly before moving to mount. With limited time left I just collected the points and took the win.
Felt really good to win my first match at 73kg (lightweight) after moving up from 67kg (flyweight). Definitely carrying a bit of chubb currently (15-16% bf), but so long as I keep working out, I should be able to get down to 12-13% by the time the major tournaments start to roll next year (March). Definitely felt really strong in all my matches, despite moving up.
Tuesday, 13th December
531 Military:
5 x 25kg
5 x 30kg
3 x 37.5
5 x 40kg
5 x 40kg
7 x 52.5kg
531 Squats:
5 x 47.5kg
5 x 60kg
3 x 70kg
5 x 77.5kg
5 x 90kg
14 x 100kg
Like a boss.
