Competition results and footage: Silver medal in gi tournament!

[Ivan]

Hey guys! I wanted to start off by thanking all of you for your help on my previous post where I asked for advice on dealing with stress before the competition. I found all of your advice extremely helpful and will continue to follow it for future competitive events. I was also very fortunate to have my dad accompany me to support me, hype me up, and help calm me down and recover between rounds or in preparation for matches with some breathing exercises. Today is the 5th of June, one day after my competition. I have sore muscles as expected, and a slightly swollen neck on one side from some delightfully nasty chokes
This competition was great, and I handled it better than all other competitions. It is my 4th competition, and it was the first time that I found myself fully in control of my actions, and much more calm and composed, on and off the mats. No doubts, no hesitations, just focusing on the current moment. I was able to stop and think and choose the courses of action that felt the most appropriate at the time. I feel that this community is a big part of the reason why I have come as far as I have, so I thank you all once again. I will split this footage into two posts, for gi and no gi, though I will place my finals match in the no gi post due to the media restrictions.

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I was hoping to ask for your advice, yet again, as I managed to record footage of my matches in the competition. I will embed all of them below, with a slight description of what I think went wrong/right. I know there are a lot of matches/videos to comb through, and some of them are quite long. Please don't feel inclined to comb through every millisecond. But any advice, whether general or specific is appreciated. I will include time frames to help save your time.

Match 1 - Gi, Victory by Armbar, wearing White Gi, Match winning sequence at 0:35

This was a great match all around as I got to apply some of the Judo I have been working on, able to land a good Yoko-Tomo-Nage. I was quite happy with it, but I am a bit disappointed at how easily my opponents are able to push me off of the mount position. I also noticed I missed an opportunity to lock on the triangle trap whilst my opponent was pushing me off, but I didn't see it in the moment. My dad was unable to record the start of this match, or the second match.

Match 2 - Gi, Victory by Spinning Armbar from side control

This match was good too. I initially tried to secure an underhook on the far side of my opponent so I could take a broken scarf hold position, but my opponent denied me the underhook. I then left my arm purposefully exposed so I could try and secure a Kesa Gatame position (normal scarf hold) but he didn't take the bait. I resorted to lifting his arm so I could trap it underneath one of my legs, and secure a spinning armbar, which I did successfully.

Match 3 - Gi, Victory by Triangle

This was a very stressful match all around, as right off the start my opponent was aggressive and I could tell how strong he was. I did eventually manage to get to mount position and lock on a mounted triangle. I attempted to finish it from there to no avail. I also attempted to finish him with a figure 4 wrist lock from that position, since they were legal in this competition, but he wouldn't tap to that either. At one point I locked eyes with the referee and I was sure he would disqualify me, even though it was legal. I had to roll around a few times, but eventually he tapped to the choke, just seconds before the match ended.

Match 4 - Loss via Guillotine choke

This was my worst match. I was placed in this match not 5 minutes after my last match and was extremely exhausted, so I was doing my best to be as conservative as possible. My opponent took advantage of this. I did beat him two times afterward, once in the Gi semifinals match and another in the No gi match. However, I feel a bit annoyed that I did not beat him by submission, but by points.

Match 5, Gi Semifinals - Win via Points

This match was crazy. I gained traction with points and I was determined to keep my advantage at any cost. I stalled in the closed guard for a bit which I am a bit ashamed of, but I did try to go for an armbar submission which he slipped out of. The very last minute is me desperately defending my guard to keep my point advantage.

Thanks for watching so far and thank you for your advice! Please check out the no gi thread for my gi finals and my no gi matches. Again any advice is welcome