Pan Ams 2009 Recap

Back in 2009 I trained the hardest I ever have for a competition, and competed at a world class level. Here's that story which was originally on Facebook but I am reclaiming here.

March 30, 2009 at 6:47pm

I already said the thank you's in advance. This note is just a recap of the whole experience because a number of people have asked for it, and I want to write it all down and capture it while the memories are still fresh.

I am back in Seattle now at my home with my wife and baby daughter (who is shaping up to be a future heavyweight), and I came home with a Bronze Medal, for Masters Blue Belt Super Heavy. There were 12 guys in my division, I won two fights and lost one in the semifinals to the gold medal winner. I went in with the expectation of doing my best, and I met it. Coming back with a podium and medal was amazing for me, and the entire experience was somewhat overwhelming.

I originally decided to do the Pan Ams, sometime in December. Cindy had come over for dinner and me and her and Erica were talking about it, and the weight class I should compete in. I don't recall exactly how much I was then, but I weighed in for the last Revolution in November at 245. I knew I didn't want to compete at the Pan Ams in the unlimited class, but the Pan Ams would be a large challenge just in terms of getting in the shape required to get into the Super Heavy, instead of the Ultra Heavy class. The weight for Super Heavy is under 221 in a Gi, and they weigh you less than 5 minutes before you first fight, so there is no cutting weight! I set a goal of 215 pounds, and set about tracking my status morning and evening in Google Docs (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p22ClOEN0WN97C84-3TorDA). I had a lot to lose, so I took a really aggressive diet approach, and upped my level of exercise. I would eat a package of quaker instant oats unflavored for breakfast, a 1 pound salad with a bit of chicken and a can of salmon with lemon juice for dinner. I would drink coffee and diet coke and water constantly, cut out 100% of alcohol (with a few legendary slip ups) and as much sugar as I absolutely could. Most weekday mornings 4-5 a week, I was up at 4:15 AM to hit the gym for 2 hours prior to work. I continued to lift weights aggressively, one body part per session, throwing in some cardio on either the stairs, bike or rowing machine for 15 minutes to half an hour. Lifting weights was important for me to keep doing, as I needed to lose as little muscle mass as possible. In the process of dropping down from 250 to 215, I lost a little bit of strength, but not much.

Evenings, I'd train BJJ at Gracie Barra Seattle, typically 6-8 PM 3-4 times during the week, then both Saturday and Sunday. I was also working in as many Friday nights as possible at Ring Demon (Eric Dahlberg's excellent gym) for some no-gi work with ultra heavyweights like Bobak and Serenity. On a good training day, I'd be spending 4+ hours out of the 24 working out. This kind of activity level with so little food meant a couple things. My body had no choice but to shed pounds, I got injured a lot, and I always felt weak, slow and like death and I had to force my way through it. My whole list of injuries I worked through leading up to Pan Ams included: pulled groin, pulled hamstring, dislocated patella, dislocated right ring finger, dislocated right thumb, hyper-extended left elbow, badly sprained right ankle, too many bruises to count, and cauliflower ear. I worked through all the injuries, and then got sick about a month before Pan Ams. I got a nasty chest cold that took about a week to get over, but never went quite away, and grudgingly admitted it wasn't going away on it's own 2 weeks before the Pan Ams, went to the Dr and found out I had a sinus infection and bronchitis. I ended up missing another week of training on anti-biotics that I didn't finish until 1 week before I was scheduled to go to LA. This was my biggest worry, I can fight through pain, but not if I can't breathe and am coughing and wheezing. I was also worried I wouldn't be able to make weight, because when I am sick, the diet goes out the window. This all ended up working out in my favor, after 2 days of Anti-biotics, I felt well enough to train again, and picked up where I left off with a renewed vigor.

My last training session was the Sunday before the Pan Ams, and I spent the week before I left on the trip wrapping things up at work and resting and watching my weight like a hawk. I didn't know how my body was going to react to not exercising, it was common for me to be able to gain 6-8 pounds in 8 hours from water, and then lose it all in two hours training. Weight worked out, and I left for the Pan Ams half a pound below the weight limit in a Gi. Perfect.

I took this picture after my last training session before the Pan Ams. I'm not typically the kind to take shirtless pictures and post them on the internet, but I worked my ass off and wanted to capture it as a pivotal point in my life. If you look closely, you can see my right ear drooping from all the abuse its taken.

I got into LA on Thursday night, checked into the hotel and went to sleep. Friday morning, woke up, lifted weights for half an hour at the hotel gym, did the elliptical trainer for half an hour, showered and headed over to CSU where the tournament was going on. I was competing Saturday but wanted to get the lay of the land, and some people from Foster BJJ were competing that I wanted to watch.

The whole process was professional and organized. 10 mats going at once, scoring tables, time keepers, a pit for the fighters, gi inspections, ring coordinators, an announcer calling out the divisions, and telling which fighters needed to see which ring coordinators. I got the general sense of how it all worked, watched some fights, and went back to the hotel around 10, to sleep. I ran into some friendly faces from up north, Gina & Jeff, and more of the Foster BJJ crew, who had a lot of competitors. I ended up hanging around with Fosters folks a lot as I was the only Seattle GB guy down there.

Earlier that afternoon I'd gotten a scale at Walmart to make sure there were no surprises. I was surprised, I weighed 213 in a Gi. Well under. My paranoia about making weight had meant that I had spent the past several days eating nearly nothing and drinking even less water. I made sure to have a big meal of two packages of lo-fat turkey and an entire package of xtra cheedar goldfish crackers, and plenty of water.
Saturday morning, I woke up with plenty of time to spare (I was fighting around 10:20). I spent 15 minutes in the hotel hot tub, stretched, did a few situps and showered. I had plenty of time and was getting ready to leave when I put my contact lenses in and dropped one. I spent the next 25 minutes frantically taking apart the drain in my room, dumping out the garbage, searching everywhere for the lens, when I finally found it in wedged into part of the crinkled up toothpaste tube. I popped it in and took off, very late. I was leaving at 10, CSU about 10 minutes from the hotel, and my fights starting at 10:20. I rushed there, rushed into the locker room to get changed.

I made the strategic decision of putting on my tighter, lighter Gi, knowing it would be boarderline to passing, but I had a backup in my locker. Leaving the Locker room they were calling, Nathaniel Lynch, report to ring coordinator #2. I rushed through the pit, found #2 and checked in. She took my ID, and gave me to the inspection crew, who measured my gi, checked it, inspected my fingernails/toenails, made sure I wasn't wearing a cup and didn't have any jewelry and passed me with a warning that this was my last tournament in this Gi. I was then weighed (218), they wrote an OK next to my name on the brackets, and I was lead out to mat #2 by the ring coordinator. In 30 seconds I was fighting. Thankfully I'd warmed up at the hotel and stretched.

I put in my mouthpiece, bowed and stepped onto the mat. I had no nerves. No time to have them, but it was more than that. I had spent years transforming myself from a tremendously depressed fat guy, 4 pack a day smoker, super heavy drinker headed quickly to the grave, to someone who was strong, mentally and physically, fit and well trained in Jiu Jitsu. On top of that, I'd spent months stepping up the effort in BJJ training, extreme diet, and just by the fact that I could qualify to step on the mat in front of all these people in this major tournament, I'd already won. All my work was done, now just my training and game plan would take over.

The crowd faded away, I shook the ref's hand, shook my opponent's hand and we started. My opponent was taller than I, a 4 stripe blue belt. We spent some time grip fighting, and he shot for a double leg takedown. I sprawled automatically and caught him with one underhook. I thrust my hips down and forced him to the mat face first. Using the underhook, I tried to quickly scramble to his back, but he managed to turn to get me to his half guard as I tried to cross face him and flatten him out. I flattened him out but was stuck in half guard. Everything was automatic for me. I pressured his chin with my shoulder, kept him from turning his head with mine close to his, had one underhook still and the other hand under his neck, gripping him tightly. I bridged up, while I pressed his arm over his head with my underhook, got my left knee past his half guard, and brought it to the ground. Shook my foot out, and went to a very tight side control, with his shoulder in my lap and cupping his opposite shoulder. I waited for my points, then transitioned to mount. Getting mount seemed easy and uneventful, I made sure to do it with a lot of pressure sliding my knee across his lower stomach and hook my legs under his, flatten him out and hold with all my force in my legs and arms to make sure he felt my strength and wasn't going anywhere until I got my mount points.
Once I heard that I had points, I started working. I sat in upright mount, slid up his chest, high, slipped my left leg over his arm, lifted his head and started a sitting on the chest triangle. The way I usually finish this is as I lock my own leg to close the triangle, I roll onto my back to finish the triangle. As I rolled, I loosened up just enough to give him some room, and he got his hand in the triangle, so I couldn't quite choke him out. We fought a bit from my back, he eventually ended up being able to stand up out of the triangle.

Now we'd transitioned to my favorite part, my open guard. I LOVE open guard, probably too much, and can consistently frustrate opponents trying to pass, and now I was getting to show it off at the Pan Ams. He was unable to pass, and at one point as he stepped in, he presented the perfect opportunity. I thrust my feet in his hips, grabbed his elbows, pulled down on the elbows, pressed up on the hips, and threw him over my head, somersaulted immediately backwards, following him and ended up in mount. I'd executed the overhead sweep to mount perfectly and was very pleased.

Apparently my opponent noticed also, the fight was still going on and he said holy shit that was nice. Then I was sure he'd given up. Fight ended with me in mount about 30 seconds later, and they held up my hand in victory.

I don't recall the score, but I was up double digits to nothing. I had destroyed and demoralized my first opponent.

I wasn't that tired, but had about 15 minutes to rest before the next fight. My next opponent was a stocky strong, short Asian guy. His name was Lord. Brendan and Clint had teased me that I was going to get to defeat "The Lord" in the second round, so I knew I had to, and knew I was going to win. Once again, we did some grip fighting for about a minute, he shot on me, I sprawled in the same way as fight one, caught him with a underhook, and turned him on his side. I got side control and worked his Gi lose, and started working with the bottom of his lapel to choke him. I got it wrapped around his neck, with him in my guard, and was choking as hard as I could. I thought I'd be able to choke him out, but I was wrong. He was determined not to tap out at the Pan Ams. My extreme focus on his neck caused my guard to weaken, and he managed to get to half guard. I tried a failed half guard sweep with his neck still wrapped, which turned into me rolling into his full guard, I still had his neck, and even though bad form, I figured he was close to choking, so I continued to choke as hard as I could. His face was purple, but he wasn't giving up. By this time, my grip was tiring, and I lost it, he pushed me away, and we stood up. We did grip fighting for roughly 30 seconds, I jumped guard and started trying to choke him again. He was standing for about 20 seconds with me hanging on his hips, and then slammed me to the mat. It didn't shake me, and I was ready to keep fighting, but it was illegal to slam, the ref stopped the match there with about a minute left and ended it. I was kind of surprised they stopped it, and for a minute thought they were just standing us back up to start again from the feet. I had my hands raised in victory, I was up in points 8-0 I think, and there was less than a minute left in the match. I'll take a DQ any day!

I had felt I dominated my first two opponents and was pretty pleased with myself.

I had less time to rest before my third fight, so I went into my third fight tired. I wasn't lucky enough to get a first round buy, but my 3rd opponent had. That meant he was on fight #2 while I was on fight #3, so I was fighting out of the hole. This was the semifinals, so if I won this I'd go into the finals, but I knew I'd taken 3rd place at least already. The fight started, and I had the same sense of calm and that this was where I belonged. He shot on me almost immediately, I sprawled and caught him, just like #1 and #2, but he kept driving and pushed me out of our mat area onto the next mat. The ref stopped it and stood us up again in the middle. He shot one more time, and this time my sprawl was slower, so he caught a single leg, and quickly did a single leg takedown to my side, and ended up in side control. He gripped me tightly and had quite a bit of pressure, so got the side control and takedown points. These were the only points he got. I had to spend quite a bit of time working out of his tight side control. He appeared to just want to hold me there for the rest of the fight. I fought to get an underhook, managed to transition to half guard then to full guard, so I succeeded in improving my position vastly but still hadn't scored any points other than "advantage" by getting out of side control. Time was down to about two minutes left, so from full guard, I tried a cross collar choke, but he wasn't falling for it. I then moved to triangle, pushed one arm out, one arm in, and pulled down on the head, but he was scrambling enough to try to lift the leg around his neck, and not let me hook my own foot to complete the move. We ended with me trying to close the triangle. The ref raised his hand in victory, and I congratulated him. He beat me fairly, but I didn't feel outclassed in the least, I could beat him on another day, if the fight had gone longer, or if I had ended up with the first points. I am sure I'll see him next year as after the fight he told me this was his 4th time at Pan Ams, and he won 1st last year also.

I never saw the gold medal match in my class, but surprisingly the second place guy had a first round buy as well, so both the guys in the finals, got there with -1 fight and good condition. A little bit of luck of the draw plays into any tournament and fight I guess.

I had to wait about an hour for my medal, but it was worth it. I've stood on the podium at the revolution before, but never at a tournament this big and prestigious. It was neat to see the crowd, all the mats and all the history in front of me. The medal was big solid and heavy, and very nice. No amount of cash can buy this medal, only a hell of a lot of determination, training, dedication, sweat & blood.

After I got the medal, I called a few people to tell them how I did, sat alone in the locker room for a little bit, reflecting, with tears in my eyes. I felt like a champion even though I had 3rd place, felt like I represented my Academy, my professors and my training partners and Seattle BJJ family well, and was amazed with what I had accomplished. I can't imagine I would have been happier with 1st place. It was my first time at the Pan Am's, this was two years to the month that I walked into my first Jiu Jitsu class off the street with Mamazinho and Rodrigo and here I was, with a bronze medal from the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation.

What's next? I want to quit my job, train twice as much as I do, and get in as much competition as possible before I am too old. What will I probably do? Keep my job, train about as hard as I always do, focus more on technique, fundamentals and theory, and surround myself with excellent people, excellent competitors and excellent training partners, and compete as much as I can. I may even consider dropping down another weight class, as I'm now positive I really can do most anything I put my mind to, and resolve to do.

Just briefly I wanted to say also, that the medal doesn't belong to me alone, the Academy has a part of it, my trainers and coaches, Rodrigo, Cindy and Jesse have a part of it, my training partners, Clint, Bobak, Griff, Animal, Jamie, Brock, Jeremiah, Tim & everyone that pushes me, chokes me, keeps me on my toes, has a part of it.

Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement. Many of you wrote some pretty inspiring things to me that I was reading while down in CA that kept me going, and kept me knowing that expectations were high!