WORLD OF RAWR

After visiting the Staten Island crew, I headed to catch a late train, ferry, and two buses to New Hampshire where I got to meet up with Rick from global.

This was to be the first match I had and a test of what I may or may not have learned between youtubing and laughing way too much and so many inside jokes (hiyah! hiiiiyah!).

After arriving in the evening, I talked with Rick and got a tour of the house. We ended the night with ice cream and the Kingsmen movie which was great. I slept and woke up the next day for a bit of breakfast. After I took time to write a few thoughts, it was mat time. Rick and I headed down the mat and he walked me through how to start collegiate style. I saw the wrestling shoes he wore and wanted to try on a pair. He had a spare, so he let me borrow them. These shoes are national treasures. They just feel comfortable. I need like three pair.

After showing me what the top and bottom positions were, we rolled for a bit where I learned:

1. I do better when I start from the bottom position, but the top works just as well (I'll be watching comments for jokes on this, so don't disappoint me).
2. I do really well defending on instinct.
3. I handle people above my size better than I thought, but size can make certain things very challenging.

That said, I came out of that match up 4-3. Some matches were won on sheer size, but I got two subs in with armbars. If Nick sees this, thank you for teaching me the technique. It got easier to glide around to apply them.

To be fair to Rick, he was at about 10% capacity, but considering he outweighed me by about 130 lbs. and had years worth of experience, the handicap made things about even: he did manage to get in two cradles and a headlock for a submission, after all.

We watched another movie (Looper), then I made dinner. After that, we had a more light-hearted set of skirmishes and I won those, so I took a shower and we wrapped up the night. I even managed to get a pair of wrestling boots out of the affair like these:

Allow me to say I'm excited about this.

The next morning, I got on a bus back to New York where I am now hanging out with my grandparents and loving every minute. From there, who knows what other wrestling things will happen!

As I imagined, some people are not able to meet up in spite of their wishing very much to be able to and that is fine as I have backup plans for my backup plans. I'll be in the city today. Maybe I'll get to have a bit of fun yet before my vacation takes me back to GA to relax and reflect.

Happy Lion is happy. RAWRRRR >:3