Doug's 2nd Grappling Tournament

Doug went to Atlanta on Saturday to compete in his second grappling tournament. It's been quite a while (exactly a year) since he last competed and he was excited to take another stab at it.
As Madeline said when she saw the pictures, Daddy was on the "red team.":

The opponent:

This was the no-gi match, but Doug is wearing part of his gi. He said he was afraid he wouldn't have time to change back into his gi before the gi match (he signed up to do both). He said next time he'll make sure he's not wearing the gi pants for this match:

And they began...

Shortly after starting, Doug got him in a choke hold. He said he knew it wasn't a very strong one but he thought (hoped, but knew better) if he just held on long enough, the guy would tap. Even with his coach yelling for him to let go if it's not good, he just couldn't...he was convinced the guy would tap. He held him in this position for a looooong time, but eventually had to let go because he couldn't hold it any longer:

Doug said that between having no arm strength left from holding the choke hold too long, and the guy sticking his belly in Doug's face the rest of the time...there was just no chance:

At least Doug looks hotter:

Doug (left), Chris (middle, Doug's coach), and Chris (right, Doug's grappling buddy and work friend...they also carpooled to the event):

Carlos (left, grappling buddy and friend), Doug, and Chris:

Doug wanted to make a serious face for this picture, but Carlos kept flexing to get him to laugh, so Doug is in-between a serious face and a laugh:

He doesn't have any pictures from his other match, but he said he was doing great until he picked the guy up to slam him down, and he ended up slamming him out of bounds. They got set to grapple again, but I guess Doug's concentration was thrown off and he ended up losing to a decision. He did bring us home two pretty medals, but he wasn't overly excited about it. The weight-class he was in had very few participants so it was very easy to get medals. He's hoping to participate in the NAGA tournament (a much bigger one, the one he did last time) this summer.

Great job Doug!! We're so proud of you for working so hard to do so well. We love seeing something make you so happy. You'll always be our Gold Medal!

Love,

Megan Madeline and Ethan :)

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