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Tuesday April 12 2022 - Submission Wrestling Weekend in Sherbrooke	Wrestling event
After a 4 year hiatus, I finally attended a full-fledged wrestling event just last week-end. It was called "Submission Wrestling Weekend #2" and it was hosted by Fighting4Fun at his home in Sherbrooke where he has a basement full of mats that are very nicely laid out, ideal for competitive submission matches. By the way, Sherbrooke is a small town between east of Montreal and west of Quebec city. I think this is the first time I'm attending an all-out submission event. Events I've attended in the past or either pro, hybrid or one-on-one hotel room events where the type of match is really up to your opponent. Anyhow, I wasn't sure if I was ready for this, because I am currently carrying a shoulder pain that lasted since a couple of months. I made the mistake of racking someone above my shoulder's tolerance, but all in all, I think it went pretty well. Friday April 8 2022 I had an agreement with Fighting4Fun who came to pick me up in Montreal to drive to his house in Sherbrooke. Once we reached our destination, my host kindly made me a tour, showed me his marvelous basement and we took the opportunity to warm up just us two to prepare for the upcoming onslaught or beatings that I was going to get. 😅 Our last match together was 3 years ago. Obviously, been an MMA expert and having won numerous medals around the world, each time I see Fighting4Fun, he just gets better and better. Mind you, he's 61 now, but age is just a number: with his experience, knowledge and skill, he is still the best among all of us. In addition, he became a teacher now of a dojo, training students and sparring his students almost on a daily basis, which kind of makes him now an unstoppable force. Fighting4Fun has this methodology where he toys with his opponent, he lets them think that he has the upper hand and then he'll make you tap when he feels he gave you enough freedom. 😜 That is no exception for me.. however, he was kind enough to let me put on my ankle locks, my body scissors and my leg scissors on him without him resisting back every once in a while. It's basically the only 3 holds I know how to use in submission if I can't use my arms or if I determine that my opponent's arms are stronger than mine. Anyhow, Fighting4fun gave a couple of free taps, but not without him making me tap a hundred times fold the legitimate way afterwards. 😂 After all, there is a price for free submissions... All I can do when he goes in attack mode is to defend and delay that inevitable submission. Armbars are the hold (or weapon) of choice and I'd have to say I have never received as many armbars as I had this week-end. After an hour of sparring or so, our host Fighting4Fun kindly prepared my bed so I can rest up for the full array of matches that's waiting for me tomorrow. Saturday April 9 2022 My host prepared a nice breakfast for me, the usual scrambled eggs and bacon and we continued a brief hour of sparring. I was supposed to meet up with one of Fighting4Fun's top student (apparently, M4st3rP), but he canceled due to family obligations. I was thinking "Thank goodness", because there's enough matches lined up that I would have been dead or zombified after dueling a UFC-style fighter that has a hundred times my level of experience. Around 1 pm, the remainder of the roster showed up: it consists of Kicksands, Sunny_DeLeon, CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry. The event could host 8 wrestlers, but 7 was already more than enough as we went overtime over Fighting4Fun's planned schedule. CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry had to leave shortly after arriving because they had already planned a match with another wrestler in Sherbrooke in a AirBNB. Their main objective of this first visit was to drop off the other wrestlers since they car pooled. Hence, Kicksands, Sunny_DeLeon, Fighting4Fun and myself started doing round-robin submission matches. I had already wrestled Kicksands in October 2019 in Ottawa. Back then, I was able to be in control of him in the sense that I could make him my jobber... sort of. He'd try to defend, but I felt that I had an easier time dragging him left and right. Kicksands reminded me that I made him submit to the most basic hold in wrestling: the bearhug. I actually forgot about that and looking back at the blog entry I wrote for our Ottawa encounter, I never mentioned it in order to preserve some respect and dignity for Kicksands. 😅 It really doesn't matter now anymore, because since then, Kicksands attended martial art classes regularly in a gym, training fiercefully to become an absolute beast of a fighter. He completely redeemed himself: when we fought in our submission match, I could tell that he was no longer the same wrestler that I had fought in 2019. Kicksands' strength, skill, agility and movements skyrocketed 🚀 and I realized that I was facing an opponent that is almost as equally skilled as Fighting4Fun. The big difference is that Kicksands is younger, faster, has more stamina and has this urge, an aura of determination or revenge, call it what you want, this undying sensation to teach me a lesson for the terrible treatment I gave him 3 years ago. I could latch on my ankle locks, but his fighting heart only showed me that it takes much more than a weakly pathetic hold to beat him. He fought back, showing me that with his stronger arms and technical knowledge that he can toy with me and make me submit with armbars, chokes and a dozen of other holds I can't even name. To make a long story short (too late), I was no match for the much stronger and superior Kicksands. As we will see later on, Kicksands is the 2nd strongest fighter in our group, right after Fighting4Fun. However, give him a little bit more time (maybe a year or two?) and he will probably manage to give Fighting4Fun a very good and challenging run for his money. I also sparred with Sunny_DeLeon. Our last match was in October 2021, but our fight this time around was also different. When we met in October, he was already exhausted because of a similar submission event he attended. He was simply letting himself being a jobber because he had no strength to fight back, having already being subdued by a dozen matches. I toyed with him back then in a give and take session where I would lock on him hold after hold. Well, in an submission environment setting like this one, Sunny_DeLeon showed his true inner strength and I saw his fierce burning fiery heart: he is no longer a passive jobber. Still, he was easier to tangle with. I think our levels were quite a bit more evenly matched, but ultimately, Sunny has better training, skill and stamina than I did, so he eventually managed to make me submit quite a few times. At this point, I think I had 40% of my fuel reserves left for the day, starting to feel the exhaustion of back to back bouts, not to mention I had to spar with Fighting4Fun in 1 or 2 more rounds that I was destined to lose. This is where I realized that I need to wrestle in a "Defensive Passive" mode, otherwise, I would have no energy left for the remainder of my match-ups. "Defensive Passive" is a mode where you just let your opponent attack you while still defending to prevent and delay a submission, but if you do see an opening or if you opponent is also defensive passive, then you strike an attack. The other guys (CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi and Zodikry) came back from their private AirBNB fight and we started wrestling in long-sleeve spat shirts and long sleeve pants. Spats are the stuff that lots of bicycle bikers wear when they do long stretch biking circuits. The point here is to simulate oil wrestling... without the mess of oil. When you were these types of pants and shirts, your arms and legs are in a sense slippery because your hands will slide on this fabric, forcing you and your opponent to use different strategies to make them submit. My upper portion of the spatz (the long-sleeved shirt) was smelling a bit of sweat-to-skin from probably a previous owner/wearer. I didn't have one and I was given one, but I think someone forgot to put it in the washer before handing it out to me. Eventually, I traded my upper spatz with just a t-shirt. Anyhow, regardless of the difference in this style of fight, I believe Sunny and Kicksands made short work for me. You can see here Sunny finishing me off with some sort of choke/scissor combo. I had no chances of survival. 😭 Then I had my first tango with WrestlinBoi. He seems shy, and reserved, but also intimidating. When he finally reached the mats and we locked up, this is where I saw him express himself wonderfully: he is skillful and playful, he has great power in his scissors and strong arms to back them up. You feel safe when you wrestle him. He'll smile and at this point, I just melted and I only wanted to keep him near me and make the match last as long as I could. 😂 Sunny and Kicksands mentioned that this would be "The Battle of the Scissors" ✂✂ because WrestlinBoi sports a very strong one in his pockets. We shared the body scissors and WrestlinBoi was kind enough to let me have the title of a stronger scissor. You can see me here trying to resist WrestlinBoi's crushing thighs while trying to escape from his arm grasp as well. I actually taunted him to squeeze harder, sharing with him my fondness for scissors and that this liking allows me to resist scissors easily. Regardless, he was still able to beat me up at the end of the match using an armbar or a variant of it. I also had a spatz match with Zodikry, who is WrestlinBoi's partner. Zodikry is stronger, but has less technical skills. However, he is very expressive and a big giggly.. a bit like me I guess 😅 I took advantage to catch him off-guard in this match by putting him in an ankle lock that he did not suspect. This was probably one of the few wins I had this week-end. Zodikry and WrestlinBoi complement each other: While WrestlinBoi is shy, reserved and introvert, ZodiKry is outgoing, talkative and extrovert. They are an extremely nice wrestling couple. They both live in Winnipeg and they occasionally spar with Sunny_DeLeon as well, who also lives in Winnipeg. We broke out of submission in very few short lapse of moments in between sub matches, so I was able to get this full nelson body scissors on Zodikry that I usually can't get in a real submission competitive match. This particular image is quite a bit unusual because it feels like Zodikry is enjoying the hold while I seem to be the one suffering from it. 😂 Last, but not least, I locked horns with CanWrestle. We've met again about 9 months ago in July 2021 and he is still is more skillful than I am. We then all went for supper and when we returned, we went into our singlet matches. My memory is starting to fail me now, but I do remember that even after a meal refill, I was operating at 10-20% of my capacity so much I was exhausted. Luckily, both Sunny and Kicksands took a lot of pics to help me rebuild the images in my brain. Had they not being there, I don't think I would be able to provide the quality level of photography that they were bringing with my camera. I do remember having a 2nd bout singlet-style with at least every wrestler. Based on the photos, I guess Sunny got me in a side scissors and I seemed to have enjoyed it. 😁 It's either that or I'm trying to concentrate so hard so that I do not submit... or that I do not fart! 😅 At some point, Kicksands and WrestlinBoi were dueling, but CanWrestle ended up making a commentary that made both of them turn against him. So yeah, CanWrestle's snark comments earned him a double-teaming reward. 🏆 For more photos, you can check Sunny's Instagram, CanWrestle's Instagram, Kicksands' Instagram or WrestlinBoi85. I felt I needed to open up an instagram as well so they can link me, but I probably won't be as active as they are. I feel like a dinosaur 😅. My instagram is scissormtl. The only other thing I remember for this evening was that while the double-team was in progress, I jumped on Kicksands to give CanWrestle a fighting chance. Kicksands was surprised that I would shield and dared to attempt to save CanWrestle. I tried to argue that both Kicksands and WrestlinBoi have greater strength and skills over the defenseless CanWrestle... and I even later changed my reasoning saying that I just wanted to wrestle Kicksands... that I don't tangle with him enough. 😅 I wish I could include a picture here between me and Kicksands. I later realized that there are no photographs in our album showing any tangle between me and Kicksands. All the photographers were busy. 😢 Anyhow, I was defending against Kickands' attacks left and right when suddenly, CanWrestle freed himself from WrestlinBoi and came to my rescue, fighting again against Kicksands. At which point I was now facing WrestlinBoi. I manage to steal what WrestlinBoi refers to as a smurf kiss on his chest. I didn't know if I was out of line because Zodikry is his partner. WrestlinBoi later explained the terms of agreement with his partner and that my action were ok. Phew! 😅 Around 11:30 PM, we were all spent and we called it a night. Sunny and Kicksands stayed at our host. Zodikry, WrestlinBoi and CanWrestle went back to their BNB and I had reserved two nights at a local hotel called "Hotellerie Jardins de Ville" that was a 5 minute drive away from our host. There's even a bus system that connects to it. Sunday April 10 2022 We all needed our beauty sleep and luckily, our next match was not before 1:30 in the afternoon. Sunny, Kicksands, Fighting4Fun and I went to an Italian restaurant to start building our reserves. Sunny commented about my ankle locks: he didn't recall me using them the first time we met. I answered that there wasn't a need to. He was a jobber and back then, I was doing give and take of holds that I are usually enjoyable. There was really no need to use my unpleasant ankle locks that I usually reserve for submission fights. 😅 After we replenished our energies, we all met up around 2 pm and everybody was wearing a gi (the traditional uniform used for martial arts combat) and we got our first group picture: From left to right: WrestlinBoi, Fighting4Fun, Zodikry, Sunny_DeLeon, Kicksands, Loserboy and CanWrestle I almost skipped this portion of the event because I needed more time to recover from all the sores of sub matches. Luckily, the overnight sleep and the Italian Cannelloni I had really boosted me, so I was back on track. Also, I've set in my mind to use only 40% of my strength, with the occasional max if I manage to put one of my three holds. The gi format makes everybody start with a white belt. If you win a match, you get promoted to blue belt. If you lose a match while having a blue belt against a white belt, you trade belts. If you another match while in blue belt, you get purple and so forth. No holds are currently barred: you can use the gi to chose your opponent or you can even use the belt to tie up your opponent, but if you do, your opponent can do the same. Hmmm... I don't look half bad in a gi 😅 I have absolutely no training in Jujitsu or martial arts. The last time I wore something like this was a trial judo class where a girl 5 years younger than me placed me in a submission hold as I was squealing like a little girl for mercy. Hoperfully, this time around, this uniform will bring me luck... ... or not. I lost against Fighting4Fun, CanWrestle, WrestlinBoi, Sunny_DeLeon and Kicksands. 😅 I kindly asked Kicksands if I could have a freebie scissor because he was making me tap over and over even after our match ended... and because I was trying to cheat by jumping on him, but he always had his guard on and never allowed me to sneak in. He told me that I need to earn my scissors on him. They were not given for free. 😅 So no, I never made him tap a single time in this week-end... even as a freebie. 😭 My only win in git-format was against Zodikry. I feel like cheating. Just because of this win, I was promoted from white to blue belt. Yay! 😇 We tumbled left and right and Kicksands took this shot that I absolutely adore. It looks very sensual, but what's actually happening here is that while Zodikry is pinning me, he's scrambling to get out of the ankle lock I had on him... I think. Without the right context though, it looks as if he is about to lean down... and uh... kiss me. 😘 So that never happened, but I did end up biting for half a second his right nipple when I was able to flip him over and pin him down later on during this match! 🤣 Many million thanks to Kicksands for capturing this shot. He also beautifully captured this next shot at the end of the match where I scissored Zodikry. Here's another shot of Kicksands excellent photography skill where I was struggling against Fighting4Fun, trying to flip him over, but his stance and position allowed him to use my own weight as leverage, making him impossible to turn him over. After around 3 hours of gi matches back and forth and putting together the endless amount of combinations of wrestlers, we were due for another break and went to a distillery called "Siboire". During our dinner, CanWrestle commented on how our waiter has big muscles and in a kidding manner, CanWrestle told us that he'd like to ask the waiter if he can touch his bicep. Sunny, WrestlinBoi and me all dared him to do it, but he refused, so we've decided to do it for him. When the waiter returned to our tables, I was hesitant at first, but I look at WrestlinBoi's eyes and he signaled me with a gesture to do it. So I went with it and asked the waiter: - "Uh.. sir. My colleague here ... is wondering if he can touch your bicep. You have a very impressive build." Before I could even say the fifth word of the above quote, CanWrestle slapped me on the thigh with the back of his hand and I jumped a bit. He did threaten me to take my head and slam my forehead down on the table, but in practice, that would have been awful, so I'm happy with the compromise. I think our waiter laughed and he was probably ready to do it, but we were all so embarrassed that we all laughed it off. CanWrestle also said "No! No! No!" to the waiter and brushed it off. In return, most of us increased the amount of tip he was receiving because we left the waiter (and our whole table) in an awkward position. 😅 Both WrestlinBoi and Sunny explained to me that had I not done it, they would have done it instead, but since the waiter was only talking french, they would have a little bit more difficulty doing it. Hence, they gave me the priority. It was still nice to know that I had 2 backups that would have done this dare in my stead. This reflects and outlines the general positive mood, playfulness and happiness at our table. As we rode back home, I was in the car with Fighting4Fun driving, I was his co-pilot and in the back was Sunny_DeLeon and KickSands. I then noticed on the side of the streets a franchise selling fried chicken called "ChicKing". For some reason, the pun made me burst into laughter. KickSands commented: - "And that broke him. When I saw the name of the restaurant earlier, I rolled my eyes." I asked Fighting4Fun: - "Is the street we are driving on King Street? It's one of the main commercial artery of Sherbrooke?" Fighting4Fun replied: - "Yes it is. And there are at least three of those restaurant franchise on this street." It took me a while to contain my laughter, but I guess I can't resist a terrible pun. 😅 When we got back from the restaurant, the schedule changed. Everybody was tired. We probably ate too much, drank too much. There were some missing gi matches that still needs to be fulfilled, but they were all canceled. We shifted the planned schedule to a personal request zone. It was filming or photography time :) WrestlinBoi asked me if I could help him do a scenario where he pins me, flexes over his victory, gets full nelsoned by his partner and I gut punch him in revenge. Hey, compared to the stuff I've been doing, this is a very easy scenario to perform. I was more than happy to oblige. In return, he allowed me to perform on him and Zodikry a separate rack on each of them. He also lifted me in a knee backbreaker with gut punching... in which I farted for real. 💨 Hey, we just ate! 😂 CanWrestle and I also filmed a match up that he posted on WatchFighters: https://www.watchfighters.com/posts/canwrestle_vs_lb200-chvsswdd I know.. there's a price, but please support him. 😅 In the meantime, here's a camel clutch and a bearhug from the match. 😀 I didn't notice until much later how bruised I am in this picture. All the sub matches left marks on my skin, but it does add some form of realism to the pic. 😂 We took it easy for the remainder of the evening. The wrestlers mentioned how they get recording custom requests that they occasionally fulfill and all the intricacies of the different holds, maneuvers and interests they need to cover to realize those requests. I went back to my hotel feeling not as tired today compared as yesterday. I actually felt 50% less tired than the day before, because, throughout the day, I was able to pace out my stamina between my matches more carefully, slowly calculating when I should expense more energy and when it is best to preserve it, maybe give up a bit sooner to avoid that overflow that would have drained too much energy for nothing. I looked myself in the mirror and noted all the bruises. It does not hurt at all: I have a skin condition where my skin marks easily and it looks like I'm bruised, but I'm not. I guess it's sort of a sensitive skin reaction? Most of those simili-bruises are pressure caused by the Gi when it is aggressively pulled outwards or push inwards. If the simple soft fabric of a Gi can do this, then I guess you can imagine what pressure without fabric does. 😅 On my back, I had larger vertical marks. The wrestlers all thought I was getting whipped... by Fighting4Fun. Fighting4Fun defended himself saying that the marks on my back was there before we started our match on Friday.... so I finally figured it out afterwards that it was caused by wearing my knapsack for a long period of time. Either I get bruises from pressure or from prolonged wearing/carrying. Monday April 11 2022 We all met one last time at our host to exchange our goodbyes for this event. I gave everybody I could a bearhug. Zodikry wanted to give me one, but I caught him in one first. 😅 Fighting4Fun drove me back to Montreal and he spoke to me about his personal life and I shared mine as well. He is at his most humble and down to earth state among all the times I've seen him. He's still very optimistic about wrestling submission-style despite his age. His next goal is to travel to California or to Brazil to meet the many opponents that are waiting for him. He also suggested that I come back a week-end to wrestle him and his students. All in all, I had a wonderful trip. Despite being worried about the state of my shoulder, the wrestling I had was safe and it gave me a boost and signal that I am ready to attend future events. This still makes me realize that my days as a submission wrestler are numbered. I'll try to take advantage of it as most as I can, and people like Fighting4Fun and CanWrestle are there to show me that if they can still tangle competitively, so can I. Here's to hoping that I can attend new wrestling events soon and hopefully travel outside Canada. I went to see Lumber_Jack_G on my return to Montreal after the event and we had a small and light tumble. In his opinion, the bruises/scars on my chest and shoulders were making me a bit more attractive and a bit more believable as a wrestler. 😅
Blog ID 328

Date created:	2022-04-12
Date modified:	14:57:31.740668
Revision number:	62
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