Skip to main content

About Me

My photo
my many faces
My name is Romeo Barnes. I'm an author and a BJJ black belt with cerebral palsy. This blog is about my life balancing existence in two worlds. My latest book, My World is now available Amazon.com. Glad you're here, enjoy the journey.

US Grappling report

So I promised a report here it is:

I weigh-in Friday night around 6:20pm I weighed in 135 pounds don't ask how because I still don't know. That puts me in US Grappling's Roosterweight class. I had elected earlier in the month to just do my weight division in the only. I didn't want to do too much because this was my first tournament since my surgery. (I usually compete in Featherweight not Roosterweight, their scales were REALLY REALLY nice) There was only one other guy in rooster a guy I used to train with when I first started at Maguilla's.(Really long story) We start on the knees, he gets lapel and cross sleeve grips and pulls closed guard. I immediately drop levels to go for the Tozi pass I get to half guard, gaining an advantage. He gets back to full guard we do this for about 3 minutes, though it felt much longer. Then he attacks a triangle as I fail to re-pummel I stack pass effectively getting the 3 points. I'm up 3-0 at this point with lots of advantages. He escapes before I begin anything offensive. We go back to our closed guard/half cycle for about 1 minute while in his half this time I swept as I attempt to pass score:3-2. At this point I'm thinking " No knee on belly, no mount I did everything I could to crowd that space. Which is really hard to do without your legs just so you know. I scramble to top turtle then something happened and I fell thus ending on the bottom of turtle. I had to go for the takedown i couldn't play the slow turtle game and risk a back take. I couldn't get the takedown but I manage to off balance and get back to top turtle. With about 45 seconds left I attempted a darce choke but couldn't finish.

Final score:3-2 Result: Win

Pros: win

Cons: Stuck in half guard, no finish

Things to work on: Half-guard passing

BTW: Team Maguilla pulled 8 eight medals on the day

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

top vs. bottom

This is post that has been in my head since Georgette blogged her time at the Pan back in April over at her blog georgette's world . I don't quite remember the name of the post(just search her April posts) but in it she stated that sweep+submissions is better than takedown+pass therefore she implied unintentionally or not that playing the bottom is better than playing the top. Her reasoning being there are more options on the bottom which is completely true but thats only because you can transition to a different guard should the one you're using currently not be working not because the top player doesn't have submissions. Therefore, I must disagree with her statement. Firstly, if you pull guard and I knee-cut/step over into your half and flatten I get an advantage meaning all I have to do is stay there until time is up and I win. All leglocks can come from the top and in fact do especially the ankle lock. The toe hold and Heel Hook are the most common leg attacks from

Why Physical Therapy sucks

Years ago, maybe 2010 I don't actually remember, I posted a short post here called "Why." That post was about why I prefer to fight able-bodied opponents as opposed to fighting opponents with disabilities. To sum the post up, I do it to prove a point. In that post I mentioned that Physical Therapy(which will be referenced as PT for this post) sucks. This post will explain why. Let me preface by saying PT isn't bad and is in fact a necessary medical service as it's great for pre-surgery, post-surgery, and injury situations. That doesn't change the fact that PT is grossly misused. That's because PTs attempt to make your body work "normally"; what they should do is enhance the way your body already functions. Let's assume you're a cerebral palsy patient who has never walked on your own power and you use a wheelchair for mobility. Instead of putting you in a walker or on crutches and "going walking" around the room. They should p

Goals and Fights

Well one goal for 2010 has been accomplished, that's making purple belt. I got promoted Monday night. All that's left is publish Emotions Volume 2: Better Days, which is another blog post all it's own and win Mundials. Sadly, there's no way I can make the trip(medical bills+no sponsors=No Worlds). I'm having surgery soon(September) and I want to compete before I go under the knife for what has be 1,000th time. So I signed up for the GrapplersQuest US Nationals. I placed last year at this event taking 3rd place, having said that, last year was blue belt level, and purple is considered the lowest rank of the upper-class. A bishop with a black belt being king(for my chess players). What that means is this will be a whole different beast. I really wish I could compete on the IBJJF stage especially since I'm trying make a run for ADCC and ADCC Pro in 2011.(Someday I will) However, due to circumstances beyond my control GQ will have to be my IBJJF Worlds. I may do IBJ