Sunday 21 April 2013

Pressure Makes Diamonds.

The weekend saw the Manchester open 2013 take place, And Checkmat were there in Force ready to Fight it out for one of those medals.

Competition training at Checkmat South shields started at the back end of March for this comp with plenty of drills and sparring. Working on some take downs, and passing guard, half guard & Spider Guard and anything else you can thing of to pass!

It's been a pretty tough few weeks of training and pretty full on but they say Pressure makes diamonds and it certainly did at Manchester.

I had entered in for the  +63kg division as Grab&Pull had decided to have free entry for the females but then reduced the weight divisions to either -63kg or +63kg for all female belts. which was so good of them, it meant more females would enter and you would get a few more fights rather than entering the same local comps and always end up fighting the same person. GOOD CALL G&P! :)

There was 4 of us in my division, which may not sound a lot to you but when you have spent the last year fighting the same 2 people every time in an open weight, this amount of people in a weight division was great.

All together there was 25 female fighters entered from white belt to Purple belt with the majority of them entering a comp for the first time!

I was called to the mat for my first fight, tapped hands and off we went. i went straight for a single leg and then for the pass, pretty much what i had planned out, after that i went with what i felt comfortable with whilst trying to maintain my top position. have a look at the video below and see for yourself.

Video Uploading......


I had won and got to the final! My nerves had gone and i just wanted to get back on the mat and fight again.

My final fight was called. i stepped on the mat tapped hands and tried my hardest to get the take down, i hate jumping guard, i have never jumped guard in a competition and i never will. its a chance to test yourself so why waste it!
The girl i fought was strong and neither of us could get the take down, eventually she sat down to her back and i went for the pass and she caught me in half guard.
I could hear my Coach and team mates shouting that i had 30 seconds left and i had to pass to win.
I kicked my leg threw to get side control and controlled my side position to get my points before time time ran out!!
Not the best of fights, a bit disappointing as i know i can do better, but overall i was happy with how well i had done!

I had just won my First Gold Medal for my New Team CHECKMAT!!



I'm pleased i took part and it was great to see so many new female faces at the comp, this is what the sport needs to grow, and with the help of people like Grab&pull more ladies will start taking up the sport.

My team mate Danielle Also competed in the female -63kg white belt division and fought 3 great fights winning her first in 20 second by Arm bar, Lost in the second to minimal points and won her 3rd by omaplata. she showed some great Jiu jitsu and controlled all her opponents well and went on to win Bronze in her Weight.


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