My experiences this past month of travelling/competing 1/2

so im sitting against a pole in Denver, Co waiting to board on a connecting flight to Atlanta, then one to Fort Lauderdale.

I feel that nows a good time to make a post about my experiences the past month or so of travelling and competing.

In the past month of travelling i have had some all-time high's and some unfortunate lows in competition.

On March 24th i flew out to Krakow, Poland to compete in the 3rd FILA World Grappling Championships as part of the Usa national grappling team. I didnt know what to expect, i just reminded myself that being part of this tournament and this experience is huge already. FILA's ruleset for Grappling will most likely be the ruleset that will be the official olympic rules once Grappling becomes an official olympic sport. So when FILA hosts these world championships, countries from all over the world come out to fight. This year there were a record number of countries attending this year. One fighter from each country fought in each weight class. My division was 65kg gi, which wasnt an easy weight for me to make. But i made it with the help of Coach Sheldon. I weighed in Friday and was scheduled to fight on sunday so I decided to scout my competition saturday during the no-gi day. It was amazing to see how this sport has really separated itself from jiu jitsu and american wrestling. There were fighters from all different walks of grappling arts. You had high level Sambo guys catching Jiu jitsu guys. Catch wrestlers footlocking the shit out of sambo fighters. It was nice to see and it openned my eyes to the possibilities of this young sport. When sunday came around I was obviously nervous, not sure how things would turn out but a big part of me knew I had the skills to go out there and perform to the best of my abilities. I saw my buddy and training partner Din lose his 1st fight right before my 1st fight and it kinda woke me up about how careful i gotta be with the rules and etc. The ruleset could fuck over jiu jitsu guys if they arent careful. So i stayed sharp and my first fight was against a tough Sambo fighter from Azerbaijan. I stayed sharp and won the fight a couple minutes in. Between fights i chilled in sitting split with my chest on the floor, its a powerful yoga stretch my dad always has us do in his yoga class. I told myself that i need this and thought of all the positive energy my friends and family are throwing my way. When my second match came around against Mongolia, i felt dominant. Played a smothering top game, but match went to overtime. Was really close, i got the sweep in the last 20 seconds and won. Before the finals i remember listening to Minus the Bear - Throwin Shapes and the best part came on right as it was time for me to step on to the mat. I remember throwing the headphones off as I was walking onto the mat for the finals. My final fight was against Poland, which put together a tough team since we were in their country. The match starts and i get a point for a sweep right away and play more of my top game. It turns into a butterfly defense match. At one point i got caught in a slick armbar and scrambled harder than i have ever scrambled to get out of a armbar and survived and landed into side briefly. I rode this guy out and won in an intense as hell fight. Was my biggest win to date and it felt great. Afterwards while eatting with the team and etc i remember feeling more motivated than ever to improve and just perform 10x better next time.

After the tournament was done I stayed in Poland for an extra 3 days or so to see the city and etc. It was really nice, i stayed in a hostel which was interesting. I saw auschwitz which was something i knew i had to see if Im in Poland. Then i just hung around the city center and sampled all the tasty foods that Poland had to offer for me. I went shopping and got me some nice polishy clothes lol. I could of seen more sights and etc but I just wanted to relax and see the city and come home. I was real homesick, i just wanted to come home and celebrate with friends and family.

When i came back home i was thinking maybe everyone forgot about my win in Poland or something. That wasnt the case at all, everyone was real happy to see me and congratulated me. My instructor and training partners were all proud of me, and it felt great. I missed all my friends and family so much.