Alright now that I’ve got a chance to sit down In front of the computer, here’s the coaches breakdown of The Machado Tx Invitational weekend. First in the kid’s division was Shelby. Shelby showed a lot of composure, listened, and stuck with her game plan despite giving up size and experience to the boys she competed against. I have no doubt will be seeing her at the top of the podium in just a little time.
In the white belt division the guys from Conway MMA and Sherwood looked great. There was a lot of good position and technique being displayed by the group collectively, and they were able to stack some wins. Joel is doing some great things with the Conway group. The lost matches in this group came down to just simple experience, as the white belt division can have a big mix of experience. Some of the guys had only been training for three weeks, and were able to hold their own. I suspect with more upcoming competitions a lot of these guys will be winning their respective divisions. There’s really a ton of up and coming talent on the team.
One of the standouts in the tourney was Paul Fox. Paul has consistently performed better with each competition. He threw some awesome aggressive judo dominating the takedown in all his matches. He even had a big throw for a takedown with a wristlock in one of his matches. There has just been all around improvement in his game, and it shows he has a better understanding of the game from racking up experience.
Jeremy is one of our new guys, who’s just been with us a short time. He has great technical ability for someone with his time in training and was very composed on the mats. I suspect the more time he gets under his belt, we’ll be seeing a lot of him on the podium.
Scott took third in his division with very consistent game plan performance. He’s only been with us a few months, but he’s in training hard every night. He’s one of the most coachable guys on the team, which allowed him to place in his first tourney outing. He simply listened and followed the plan, which let him take advantage of all the hard training he’d been putting in at the gym. He even stepped up and done a couple of matches in the blue belt division to get the extra experience.
Jeau showed everyone what we already all knew; he’s got loads of talent. He has the greatest movement I’ve ever seen in a grappler under the elite black belt level. He swept the blue belt division executing his game plans to perfection. He even was competing a weight class above his and lighter than the rest of his opponents. Many people personally came to Jeau and congratulated him on his outstanding performance saying Jeau had defeated some really seasoned blue belts. Jeau then made easy work of the absolute division quickly submitting all of his opponents in short manner. Jeau has been working hard with 2 a day training season with Paulo and myself, and his jiu jitsu has really begun to mature. I think there’s no limit as to where his talent can take him, and we’re already back at work in the gym preparing.
Blake took third in Jeau’s division with some impressive matches of his own. Blake’s grappling is very well rounded, and this is the best I’ve ever seen Blake at. He played standup and top to bottom very well. He got a really bad judges call in overtime of one of his matches, which I can tell you he won. That’s how it goes sometimes though. Blake has really come into his own the last few times I’ve seen him fight, and I’m happy to see him doing so well. He’s trained a long time, and I think he’s found himself on the mats. We almost ended up with Jeau, Blake, and Scott sweeping the division for the team.
The final matches of the day belonged to Justin in the heavy blue belt division. Justin pretty much tooled every opponent they put in front of him, which is usual style. In the final Justin faced the winner of the looser bracket, whom he had beat early in the division. It looked to be a quick win for Justin as his opponent’s will collapsed quickly. Unfortunately Justin broke one of his ribs on a sprawl and had to stop the match. Justin got patched up at the hospital, collected his second place, and I’m sure will be back in action and on top the podium in short time.
Overall I have to say this is one of the best performances the team has had in competition. The blues are coming into their own, and the white belts are learning faster than ever before. It’s also great seeing LDMA all come together. The players are all excited about LDMA and what it’s bringing to the table for every individual. The camaraderie of the schools and team is an unbelievable and rewarding thing to be a part of.
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