Competition Conclusion: Cole

As the hour wait dwindled to minutes, and then to seconds, the excitement and joy from the club’s banter slowly turned to anxiety as the club leaders prepared for the last two matches of the day.

Despite the women’s division technically being first, due to the timing of the previous matches and small size of the tournament, a few of the men’s matches started before all of the women were finished.

Because of this, both the vice-captain and captain would be fighting at the same time. Although we theoretically could have postponed one of their matches in order to coach and watch both, neither competitor seemed willing to wait even another five minutes as their adrenaline and anxiety peaked.

Alix was given the role of coaching the captain as his grappling was superior, and in turn, I was set to coach the vice-captain in her match.

As the vice-captain and I entered the mats to the muddled cheering of our split group, I had very little advice to give from my espionage.

Since the tournament was focused on university students, the intermediates tended to be in the higher ranks of their clubs, forcing them to focus more on teaching during the tournament prep rather than focusing on their own practice.

The nearly identical builds between the two competitors also left me with little advice as she had no inherit weaknesses or strengths over her opponent based on body type alone.

This match would be determined by technical skill alone.

After reforming my thoughts into a semi-coherent pep talk for Madison, the two competitors walked to the center of the mat to begin.

I took the moment of breath to scan the other matches occurring, knowing that I wouldn’t have the chance to during her match.

Diagonally across from us, I could see the captain rushing down his opponent with a variety of Muay Thai techniques, being met with little resistance as his opponent relied on footwork and parrying to defend.

As my attention was dragged back to the vice-captain’s match, an unfortunate realization dawned on me.

The captain’s opponent knows judo.

From their stance to their positioning, they were deflecting his hits in order to look for an opening to take him down.

Even so, I unfortunately couldn’t watch the captain’s match any longer as the vice-captain was signaled to begin.

As the ref made space, neither opponent moved.

Both girls were staring each other down, trying to get a read on their opponent.

In a single unspoken instance, they both engaged suddenly.

After exchanging a storm of punches and kicks to little effect, Madison sprung her trap.

After throwing a feint, punching to the side of her opponent’s face, she turned her hand over to grabbed the back of her competitor’s neck. In doing so, she was able to turn into them and catch an arm that was extended from a previous hook.

After securing both a loose arm and her opponent’s neck, the vice-captain flipped her hips completely and landed a devastating hip throw.

With that attack, the second phase of the fight had begun.

The overall weak attack from standing made it clear to me that both of the fighters specialized in grappling. Unfortunately for them, it seemed that their fighter didn’t know judo, thus giving the early advantage to Madison.

As the ground fighting intensified, I had very little to say as the coach. Although I had more experience in fights, as far as coaching went, I was rather inexperienced. In place of telling Madison what to do, I instead decided to constantly warn her of her opponent’s plans.

Despite the fact that I couldn’t see exactly what her opponent was doing from every angle, I had an accurate feed of information being told to me by the competitor’s coach.

Any time the other coach would yell to attack a certain arm or attempt a certain escape, I would reiterate that to Madison, telling her to defend it or block it.

If the coach is going to be so loud and obvious, they should expect counter-coaching.

Madison continued to press her advantage from the initial throw, keeping in dominant positions and oppressing her opponent. From side control to mount to even back control, Madison was completely controlling her opponent.

It’s surprisingly easy to counter someone when you know what they’re about to do.

As the two fighters returned to the more neutral position of Madison holding guard, time was running out fast.

As I yelled for Madison to hold strong, I could see the desperation in her opponent’s eyes.

As the timer hit thirty seconds, and Madison became sure of her victory, disaster struck.

While fighting to keep her opponent locked in an open guard, the vice-captain overextended one of her legs past her opponent’s hips. Before I had the chance to yell for her to stop, her opponent had already noticed the fatal error.

Madison’s competitor, without missing a beat, took full advantage of her opponent’s extended leg and sinched it into her side, under her arm.

As the clock continued ticking down, the vice-captain engaged in a futile struggle against the ankle lock.

With only four seconds left on the clock, Madison was declared the loser by tap out.

For the first time this year, the outcome of out match wasn’t met with roaring cheers but contemplative silence.

As she walked off the mat, making sure to shake her opponent’s hand as well as the other coach’s out of respect, I scanned the mats in search of the captain’s fight, curious whether he won or lost.

He was nowhere to be seen.