Cheongju Open – the Korean competition experience

Before coming to Korea, I decided that I really wanted to compete in a local BJJ competition at least once while being here. I’ve done my research and I found this organization called Brajik – Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Association of South Korea. It’s basically a Korean copy of Ibjjf, when you see their logo, their website – it looks just like IBJJF – they also strictly follow their rules. And they had a competition coming up on April 12th - Cheongju Open.

I asked some of my teammates about the organization and they said it’s the biggest Korean organization and that the competition should be ok. Unfortunately none of my teammates was going but I figured it’s probably the only chance for me to compete in Korea, so I decided to register.

I usually compete as a featherweight (70kg), but when I checked my weight 2 or 3 weeks before the competition, it was around 73kg in the gi. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem to cut down back to featherweight, but with my eating habits here and exchange students lifestyle it would be really hard. I mean I mostly eat rice here (plenty of rice!!), we don’t have any kitchen or cooking facilities and I mainly eat in dormitory cafeteria, I can’t see myself cutting weight in these conditions. Therefore I decided to register as a lightweight (76kg). It would not only be my lightweight debut but also purple belt debut ( I got my purple in November and I haven’t had a chance to compete ever since).

I struggled with registration – it was all in Korean and I needed to transfer money from a Korean account – thankfully, with some help of my Korean friend I managed to do it.

When they published competitors list I was devastated – I was the only guy in the division… There were 4 guys in featherweight and 2 guys in middleweight, so I had no choice but move up to -82,3. I messaged the organizers and asked if I could move up the division. They agreed. So instead of moving up to lightweight I had to make my purple belt debut in middleweight – interesting.

Usually when I go to competition we go all together with people from my gym, unfortunately no one from my local was going. However some of my international friends wanted to join. Eventually I ended up going to Cheongju accompanied by three girls (Ola from Ukraine, Kristiina from Estonia and Ehlana from USA), who have no idea whatsoever what BJJ is all about – I knew it would be fun... (I had them record my fights, some of the comments are just Hilarious!!)

We left our dorms early to catch the morning bus to Cheongju. We arrived before 10 a.m in Cheongju, then we took the bus to local Judo Hall, where the competition would take place. We arrived at the venue around 10.30. I was supposed to have my first match at aroun 11.30 so I changed to my gi right away and started the slow warm up.

I was in a 3 men bracket and I had the first fight, so I would have at least 2 fights, I was really happy about it.

Around 11 I went to weigh-in. I was around 73,5kg, the guy at the table, who didn’t speak much English, gave me that look, to make sure if I’m registered in the right division.

Soon I stepped on the mat for my first fight of the day. I fought a guy whose name and gym I don’t remember, but when I saw him during warm-up I noticed he drilled some judo foot-sweeps, so I figured he might have had some judo background – not sure about it though. When the fight started I pulled closed guard right away, I stayed there for around 3 minutes. None of us was very active, I tried a flower sweep, a hip bump, but all those attempts were very floppy, he had a decent base and significant weight advantage. So after 3minutes I opened the guard, went to lasso half guard right away, from where I tried my favorite lasso sweep. The thing is that I didn’t really commit to any of those attempts... Soon I opened up a little bit too much and my opponent took advantage of that, moving to top half guard. Soon he managed to flatten me out, scoring an advantage. Towards the end he got a kimura grip from top half guard, but I managed to stay flat on my back, so there was no real threat. I stayed in the half guard till the end of the fight. I lost by 1 advantage.

Since it was a 3-men bracket, I had another fight 6 to 7 minutes later. In the second fight I was fighting another Korean, who had a purple belt with a red bar and 4 stripes on it. I know it’s stupid but it kinda got into my head… When the fight started we both pulled guard right away, no one decided to get on top so after 20 seconds we both got penalties. When the fight restarted we both pulled guard again, but my opponent decided to get on top this time, scoring an advantage. I went to de la riva, then to lasso half guard, from where again I tried my favourite lasso sweep, I got him off balance, I almost got the sweep, but he managed to get back. After that attempt my opponent switched to combat base, so I went to lasso/reverse de la riva, from where I tried an inside berimbolo. I managed to get on top from there, scoring 2 points. My opponent went to single leg x-guard, he intended to attack with an ankle lock, but before he did so, I managed to drag his inside leg, finishing in a very good position to take his back. Unfortunately I failed to get his back, and soon he managed to get on top. I was still up by 2 points. Unfortunately, around 1,5 minutes before the end, the guy went for the foot lock, it was more of a calf crank than a proper ankle lock, but I didn’t really want to risk an injury and I tapped. And so the competition was over for me.

Pawel's record in Korea: 0-2

Both guys fought in the final, with the second one taking ref’s decision if I’m not wrong.

Summing up I’m really happy I went there, I really wanted to compete in Korea and I did. I enjoyed the whole trip. Of course I’m not happy with my performance, because I feel that I could have totally pulled off a win against each of them. I'm aware that it may sound cocky, but rolling with some blue belts that keep smashing me in my gym I expected something more. Moreover it was my purple belt debut and I was competing two divisions above mine with almost 10 kg underweight. That’s probably why I subconsciously switched on this ‘survival mode’ instead of committing to every move I tried. Anyway, it was a nice experience, I’m really happy I went there and I got a nice loser’s medal as a souvenir...

After we left the venue, we went to downtown, where I had a traditional post-tournament meal – I had a Mega Mac set (it’s a double Big Mac! Big Mac with 4 burgers). Then we took a short walk around the city and decided to head back towards Daegu.

We arrived to Cheongju by bus – I didn’t want to risk being late for competition, that’s why we didn’t hitchhike, but hitchhiking was the only right way to get back! We got to the toll gates and we split into pairs, Ehlana went with Kristiina and I went with Ola. After around 15 minutes of waiting, girls got a ride straight to Daegu in a truck and ten minutes later we got a ride with some Chinese (we think he was Chinese) businessman. Around 21:00, we were back in dorms.

Here is a short highlight from the competition: