My confidence was high and I felt great coming into this year’s Worlds. I was as prepared as humanly possible. My division was tough – I think there was no clear favourite, but there were about 5-6 girls that stood a chance of winning on any given day.
I won my first fight 17-0. It took me a while to get going, but once I got on top, I unleashed my pressure passing and felt good.
Photo by Erin Herle
Photo by Kenny Jewel
Photo by Lance Emery
Photo by Kenny Jewel
Photo by Kenny Jewel
I lost my quarter-final by an arm-bar from a scramble. I pulled guard, but I was unable to finish a sweep and we stood up again. I pulled again, but this time without the grips I wanted. I defended passing for a while and as I was coming on top in a scramble, I got arm-barred hard. I tapped about 6 times and also yelled pretty loudly, but my opponent didn’t let go for an extra 3 seconds. As a result, I still carry an injury, most likely with permanent cartilage damage. Understandably, I was pretty annoyed at that.
Photo by Kristensphoto
Photo by Kristensphoto
Photo by Kristensphoto
Caught in an armbar. Photo by Kristensphoto
So my 2014 campaign ended without a medal and an injury, which was pretty upsetting at the time. Admittedly, I had a little cry straight after my fight, but as pointed out to me by my friend, that’s ok, because I’m ‘allowed to give a shit’. I was definitely expecting more of myself, but I also know that I will come back better and stronger.
My favourite moments from 2014 Worlds included watching Lachie fight JT Torres, watching Michael Langhi give it his all with a torn ACL (which no one knew about), watching my Alliance team mate Andresa Correa win her second black belt World Title, the Michelle vs Tammi match, Lepri’s passing, Monique Elias winning double gold and receiving her black belt on the podium, Bernardo Faria’s war cries, Demi winning a bronze in blue belt, Malfacine’s speed, Sophia Drysdale becoming the 1st Aussie to medal at black belt Worlds, Alliance winning male and female team trophies and of course catching up with my Aussie and Brazilian mates. Once again, the Worlds was a reminder that it is much, much bigger than myself.
Photo by WVSN
After the competition was over, Jess, Demi and I jumped in a car and drove to San Diego for a couple of days. I absolutely loved the city and cannot wait to go back there. Of course, the plan was to not train, but when Monique Elias messages you that she wants to roll, it’s pretty hard to refuse. We were welcomed at Barum Jiu Jitsu, and had a ball training with Monique, Mario and all the girls.
Travelling in style!
So my amazing 8 month trip ended with a drive back to LA. I was excited, happy and sad all at the same time to come home, but Lachie kept reminding me of Melbourne’s coffee waiting for me, which lifted my spirits!
As always I would like to thank my amazing sponsors MA1 Apparel who made this years Worlds possible, Absolute MMA & Conditioning and Kristensphoto.
Also please check out the incredible and talented photographers who gave me permission to use their photos in this blog:
Kristen at Kristensphoto
Erin Herle at Graciemag
Lance Emery at Lance Emery Photography
Kenny Jewel at GrappleTv
6 Comments
Still feels unreal having you back in Australia. Feel bad for Alliance though cos they lost a great training bjj machine
Haha, Alliance have plenty of beasts, I am sure they are happy to not have to roll a spaz!
Glad you had fun and sorry about the injury. Hope you make it back next year .
Thanks Lance, of course I will be back next year… that’s what it’s all about 🙂
First I wanted to say thank you for writing your blog. You externalize yourself in a way that is familiar to my own thought process and that, in itself, is comforting. Maybe this is because it validates some of my own experiences/emotions/reactions to this crazy thing called BJJ. In fact, your post on your Worlds 2013 win resonated quite strongly with me and also provided me with a lot of insight while I prepared myself for the 2014 Worlds.
Head up that you didn’t win. As you said in the beginning of the article, there were 5 or 6 girls in the running for the gold… it only takes that one scramble or one shitty ref call to put an abrupt end to all your hard work for that year. There are so many people I know that have (IMHO) awesome jiu jitsu that didn’t get through the first round. Doesn’t mean their jiu jitsu is not as good as the guy who took the gold, just means it wasn’t their day. You are still a force, and you’ve probably already gotten heaps better since World’s… imagine how much better you’ll be 11 months from now!? You’ll be the one everyone is worried about next year.
Thanks Eric for such a thoughtful message. You seems like you are in a really good space.
This blog is an amazing tool to learn about myself and monitor my reactions and feelings.
I am definitely getting better at losing and better at winning and definitely much better at enjoying the process.
Best thing about BJJ? – Meeting awesome peeps like you!