Cerebus at the Lei Tai

[cerebus]

Okay, we can't mention the other "Team EF" member at the moment (don't ask right now, give that a week or so), but here is what happened with my matches.

I fought the guy who went on to take the silver medal in my division and started out doing pretty well. I took the first round unanimously. I maintained my San Ti, kept my beng chuans driving in straight, executed a couple of decent throws and grabbed his kicking leg while punching him in the head a couple of times. Unfortunately, due to having to spend all my training time for the last month re-habbing my back, I had no cardio left.

As a result I gassed out in the second round, got a bit sloppy with my punches, caught his kicking leg but didn't have the strength or energy left to complete the throw, went into a clinch, and got hit with a hard knee to the solar plexus. I tried to stand, but my abs cramped up on me so that I couldn't even straighten my body up.

Anyway, the guy I fought was tall, strong (at least as strong as me) and tough as friggin' hell. I hit him with shots that shoulda dropped him, but he just kept coming. He told me afterwards that I had hurt him pretty good with those hits and that he was loopy for awhile because of them.

Because of the number of people in my division (6) and the way we were matched up, they asked me if I was okay to go on and fight for 3rd place. I said Hell Yeah! Unfortunately the guy I fought for 3rd place actually woulda likely beat the guy who took 2nd. Neither of them were using any high level of skilled fighting ability, but they were both tough, strong and aggressive. The second guy though was like a damn Terminator! Again I cranked him with some shots that shoulda dropped him, but he didn't even seem to slow down. And he was twice as strong and aggressive as my previous opponent. Whereas I think I would definitely have beaten the first guy if I'd had more cardio conditioning, even with the cardio this second guy woulda been really hard to beat.

He was AMAZINGLY strong and when he punched it was like getting hit by a damn dump truck! I did manage to hurt him and drive at him with a few punches sending him back, but he recovered and came right back. Anyway, he landed a punching combo to the head that dropped me. I got to my knees and tried to stop the world from spinning, but it wouldn't, and I was counted out.

So... more training for me. And I'll do MUCH better next time....

[chud]

Cool man, good on ya for competing.

[CaliG]

Right on Troy!

I figured you were just going to wait until next year.

You might not have gotten the gold but at least you got some feedback on your skills.

[qiphlow]

did you see brian? (fan the madman)

[nianfong]

troy, do you want this in the main forum, or the events forum?

[cerebus]

troy, do you want this in the main forum, or the events forum?

Uuuummm... either one is fine...

[ashe]

video or it didn't happen...

[cerebus]

video or it didn't happen...

[Darthwing Teorist]

Congratulations for competing. It takes lots of guts and it sounds that it was an interesting experience. You did pretty well under the conditions, IMO.

[cloudz]

Well done for giving it a go, especially with the bad luck preparing. A lot of guys would of dropped it.

[cerebus]

Thanks guys. No, Brian Phillips wasn't there (at least not that any of us were aware of). Video will be forthcoming shortly...

[JessOBrien]

Right on Troy! Good experience for sure. nothing like the intensity of a competitive match, it sure changes the game.. In any given format it usually takes a few times before you get comfortable with it, so your next Lei Tai match will surely be much less stressful.

-Jess O

[neijia_boxer]

In his first round, Troy kept perfect to his Hsingyi game plan and did everything according to our pre-fight run through. He clearly won first round no question. The knee to the body in the second round happened right at a ref breakup in the clinch so it was questionable if it was a late hit.

The first round vid is impressive. Troy knows what to be ready for next time.

[cerebus]

The pre-fight drills that Matt did with me helped alot. Working combos, striking, ducking, blocking on the focus mitts and kick catching. And that's basically what I used in the first round. Though I must I admit that I was a little TOO focused on offense, and let myself get hit with some punches that I saw coming and should have avoided.

[dragontigerpalm]

Congrats for taking the challenge and coming away with more than you went in with in terms of knowledge and experience.