Tournament Weekend

Oh. My. Word. What a week! In my last blog post, I told you that it had been a crazy couple of months. These last couple of days are no different. On Friday, we drove to the cities to see my daughter’s neurologist (I will tell you more about that in a separate post soon. I still don’t quite have my head wrapped around it completely). But, after the appointment was over, we took the kids to a hotel for the night. They were so excited to go swimming! They had a blast. I did have to make an unexpected swim to pull out our four-year old, but hey. He’s safe and now has a healthy fear of water, and that’s all that matters.

Anyway, we stayed in the hotel Friday night, and got up Saturday morning to head to my jiu-jitsu tournament. Do you remember from the last post that I told you I was pretty sure my collarbone was dislocated? Well, it was. I had been training hard for a week with my collarbone dislocated. Brilliant, huh? Maybe someday I will learn to listen to my body when it tells me that it needs a little attention.  I had it corrected this past Monday. I do think it hurt more after it was put back in place than it did when it was popped out. And it was REALLY out of place. But, all of that is sort of history now. I trained the rest of this past week and was able to compete Saturday. I do think that I will need to go back in to have it looked at again though. It is throbbing like crazy right now.

Back to the tournament talk. Honestly, the only thing I really cared about, was making weight for my division. I have five children. And with each one, it’s been harder and harder to get the baby weight back off. Kids really have a way of messing up your body! But, I’m not going to lie, they are totally worth it. Even when they make me want to completely rip out my hair. When I got to the competition, I was so completely scared that I wasn’t going to make weight. I had been working for months to get myself in better shape. I had been eating less (I usually eat like a pig). I had been eating more protein and cutting carbs. I had been exercising more and slowing down on sugar. I am currently in the best shape I’ve been in years. I was pretty happy with how far I’ve come in the last few months. But I was still nervous because I have been super close to the top of the weight bracket the whole time. I have been losing inches, but gaining muscle, so I hadn’t really moved the scale much. To say I was nervous, is a complete understatement.

As soon as I got there, I changed into my uniform and went to do a test weigh. I was .1 pounds below the weight limit!!! I made it!! I almost jumped with joy when I saw that number flash up on the screen. My coach knew I was nervous about the weigh-in, but when he saw me come back out looking relieved, I think he relaxed a little too. We had one other person who ended up doing an awful lot of running, sit ups, push-ups, and jumping jacks before his division was called. I think one less person to worry about dropping weight was a huge relief for him too! I was so nervous watching my teammate during his matches. I couldn’t stand still, but it actually helped me. I ended up losing another half-pound before my match started!

About 45 minutes before my match was scheduled to start, I put my uniform back on and went to check in for my match. I got there to weigh in and was told that my match was going to start in five minutes. Five minutes!! I said thank you and ran back to find my coach to let him know. He seemed surprised, but said ok. I went back to my check in spot and was brought to the mat for my match. The other competitor was already there and ready to go. I had absolutely no time to prepare myself mentally for the match. I doubt it would have helped much if I could have! I have only been a blue belt for about three months and this was my first tournament. I know absolutely nothing. My competitor, based on my social media searching, has been a blue belt for quite a bit longer than I have. But, I definitely learned some things, and now I know more about how things work. That, for me at least, is half the battle. I’m still not sure there will ever be a second time for me, but if I do decide to compete again, I have a tiny bit of experience with which to work.

Honestly though, with the way these last few weeks have been with my daughter’s illness, my collarbone, etc., I was just happy that I made it to the tournament. I made my weight, I competed, I made it the full five minute round, she wasn’t able to submit me, and now it’s over. That was all I was really hoping to accomplish. I had “won” before my match even started. Do I wish I would have done things differently?? Definitely. No question about that. I wish I could have fought way better than I did and actually made it a tougher match for her, but oh well. I did what I set out to do. That’s all I was hoping to do. Now I know what I need to work on and what to expect if I ever decide to compete again.

So, what is the moral of this whole story. Count each little victory as a win. Until these last couple of weeks, I never realized how even the littlest things can be a huge victory. Going into the tournament, I thought I was going to be devastated if I lost my match. But, guess what?? I wasn’t! I’m still more than a little annoyed with myself for not doing better, but life goes on. My biggest concern was that I was letting down my coach and teammates. I’m not going to lie, I was very nervous coming off the mat to meet them. But they were all smiles and happy for me! They kept telling me that I did a good job. I think they thought I would need cheering up. It all turned out just fine. I was much more calm after I was able to see everyone. This is why a team is so important. They become your second family, your biggest fans, your motivators. They become a part of you. All I can hope is that I’m half the teammate to them as they are to me. I love these people!!