It was Saturday January 14th at 7 am, I had to wake up, eat breakfast, and get ready so I could leave home by 8 am. The competition started at 9 am but the competitors had to be there early to get set up. Soon my family arrived, as well as Mr. Burney and Ms. Ahrens. It was so cool to have all those people there to support me! Once things got started, I waited for other competitors to get through their brackets. Then it was my turn to go up against the three competitors in my bracket. I did one round against each person. One of the rounds was four minutes long, which doesn't sound very long but it sure is when you are competing! This was a submission only competition; all the competitors had to get the other person in a specific position to win. However, if no one got a submission, the winner of the match would be decided by a referee.
In my first round, we got to 3 minutes and 57 seconds. I only needed three more seconds to earn a referee’s decision, but I was being choked so I tapped to be submitted. Fortunately, I had a few minutes before my second round so I could recover! Round two went all four minutes with no submissions so by referees’ decision the other person won. At this point, I was pretty locked in; I was having so much fun and was learning the ropes! As my last round, round three, approached, I walked up to the referee to get ready for the start. Just then, I found out my last competitor got hurt a few rounds before mine, so by referee’s decision, I won! This didn’t feel quite right to me, but one of my friends, who is a referee said let’s just have fun. We had fun for a few minutes then got called off the mats for someone else’s turn.
If you are wondering what Jiu Jitsu is, it’s a martial art that focuses on grappling and ground fights. The core of Jiu Jitsu is survival. I have only been doing Jiu Jitsu for about four months; I started in mid-September. Although I didn’t win a match at this competition, I got to see what I messed up on so I can fix it and get better. I learned that you don’t always have to win, you can just do your best. My coaches are helping me every day to improve! I have three coaches, two of them are black belts and one is a brown belt. If you have any questions, please come ask me. I’d love to share my Jiu Jitsu experience with you!
Written by: Carter Haynes
