My First Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Competition! |

This past Saturday, March 18 was my first Jiu Jitsu competition and it was a lot of fun! It was the Winter Compnet competition at Desert Ridge High School in East Mesa.

Despite being 44 years old, I competed in the regular adult division because I wanted to see where I stood. It was about what I expected.

My first opponent no-showed so I was automatically in the semifinals.

That match, my first match, I won by a choke submission. Below is the video.

Everyone told me not to burn out in my first match because then I wouldn’t have anything left after that. Well, that’s what I did! I don’t think there was any way to prevent that honestly. I sprained my knee two weeks earlier, so I couldn’t train nearly as hard and my cardio definitely suffered for it.

The finals match I lost by an armbar to my 18-year-old opponent, but I was down in points 0-8 anyway. Still, simply being able to compete in the finals was an amazing feeling.

Below is the finals match. Excuse the video veering off at times… January was really into the match and rooting for me!

All in all, I can’t complain. A silver medal for my first competition is nothing to hang my head about and the experience was a blast. But I certainly needed an adjustment afterward!