Last Saturday was the Annual GTA Classic. This is one of my favourite tournaments of the year. They have been hosting it in mid September or years and it's one I know a lot of people look forward to to kick of the back to school season. It's an OJA tournament, which meas it's consistent with a lot of the other tournaments in Ontario as far as weight classes, age divisions, and allowed submissions.
It also means they use the Mata Leao software to do the draws which is pretty sweet software. On two of the mats they had the new scoreboards running which use giant tv's and a laptop instead of the normal electronic scoreboards. It also recorded all the matches automatically. The one downside to this system was that is really slowed down the progress of the matches. It seemed like the table workers had to enter the names and division into the computer from the paper draw for every match which doesn't sound like it would take a long time, but it certainly delayed things since it had to be done in between each match.
The Acai Cafe was in attendance again. This was their second event and they have stepped up their game! They brought in a small size, which was great for kids, or weirdos who don't like a lot of acai and they brought in hemp seeds, cacao nibs, and shredded coconut. These added toppings were amazing and make the cafe even more amazing. They had to set up outside of the gym, which made them less visible, so I hope they still made lots of sales. You can check them out on facebook and suggest they add peanut butter for their next event :)
The tournament was scheduled to start at 9:30 and started around 9:50, not bad at all, considering they re-work all the kids brackets that morning because parents don't know how much their kids weigh and they never dq a kid for being over weight. I think that this is a great policy and I can totally forgive them for not starting on time because of this.
The kids turnout for this competition was great! I think, other then the ontario open, it was probably one of the biggest turnout for kids I have seen all year. The GTA classic does round robin for the kids, so they tend to get 3 or 4 fights. They also don't allow any subs for the younger ones, and progressively add subs as the kids get older and higher ranked. It's a bit complicated as a referee or coach, or even athlete to keep it all straight on what's allowed for which kid, but it generally keeps the kids safe while allowing them to do jiu jitsu.
It ran a bit behind, but it was running solid throughout the day. There wasn't many times, that I saw, where nothing was going on on the mats.
There was a break around 1:00pm for a special presentation. Professor Scott Shilling was presented with his third degree by Mestre Sylvio da Matta Behring which was pretty cool to see. Scott has been a very active member of the community and has produced some top notch competitors as well. You can watch the video of the presentation on youtube.
I was refereeing at this event, and was pretty focused on that for the entire time I was there. I reffed a pretty wide variety of matches from 7 year old white belts to coloured belt kids, to masters white and blue belts. It was kind of nice to have such a variety. I stopped a few kids fights for armbars before they tapped on Saturday. Every single one was pretty upset about it, "I didn't tap", but the look on pretty much every single coaches face was that of understanding and appreciation for me keeping their students arms safe. I had one kid in a triangle/armbar and It very much looked like they tapped, but when I stopped it, they said that they did not tap. Everyone else seemed to think there was a tap as well, so I stood by that decision to stop the fight.
I got to work with the usual skilled crew of Ontario referees, including Ontario's newest black belt Jason Chin-Leung who is a really great referee. New to the team was Matthew Isaacs who is quite young but has been around jiu jitsu for a few years now. I didn't get to watch him to closely, but when ever I had a minute and looked over, he seemed to be handling himself very well. I'm looking forward to watching him develop as a referee.
While I was refereeing, one of the other res came around to give me a break so I could get some snacks, but he told me it was all cookies and sweats, so I passed. I really appreciate a tournament that provides snacks and water and drinks throughout the day. It helps us out a lot, it just happens to be that I follow a very low carb "diet" right now and can't eat any of that. Then, the most amazing thing happened around lunch time. Tony came to my mat with a giant caesar salad with chicken! He remembered from past events that I try not to eat pizza and crap when I am not being a fat /depressed/glutton and made sure I got one of the salads!! Man, nothing makes you feel more appreciated then that! It's seemingly small gestures like that that make all the nonsense that we as referees have to put up with a lot more tolerable.
The GTA classic had pretty nice event t-shirts, which they gave to the first 50 people registered, I think they even extended that to everyone registered before a certain date. They also had sweet prizes for the absolute winners: Samurai swords, and tournament hoodies. They were really nice hoodies to, well built and great looking style wise. I wish I could have competed and won them! That sounds like I think I would have won them if I competed, which is not what I mean. There were some very tough looking purple belts that I watched for a bit between reffing and I think I would have had some very excellent matches if I had been up to competing.
On a semi related note... A whole bunch of new purple belts have just been promoted! I hope they all come out to compete soon! You know who you are ladies!! We need to work together and compete together to help grow the scene. The purple belt ladies divisions in Ontario could be realy interesting very soon! There are some matchups I really want to see like Caitlin vs Tiffany and Tushara vs Kaitlyn. Someone make this happen!
I had to leave at 3:00 to go work at the UFC event at the ACC. I didn't need to be there till 5:00, but with the Gardiner being closed, I wanted to give myself some extra time. It's a good thing to, what google mats said should take 50 minutes, took just over 2 hours, before I gave up and parked and walked the last 2.5KM. My plan was to take the 401 to the DVP and take that down to whatever road that was before it hits the gardiner, but when it was stop and go at Eglington I abandon ship and took the streets all the way down. I was on queen st for over an hour!
The UFC was a pretty great experience, as working MMA events usually is. I did not get an opportunity to judge, but since reading all the shit people have been saying online about my colleagues, I am actually happy that I did not. It's so infuriating to see people who have NO IDEA what the are talking about saying people were robbed and going on about controversy or blind judges.
Here is what I say to all of you. You sit through a 24 hour course, pass a 3 part 6 hour test that you need (IIRC) 85% on to pass, and judge a 5 round barn burner of a fight that you cannot get a single round wrong on. Then, shadow a judge for a few fight cards, and then actually sit in the judges seat and THEN, and only THEN can you say ANYTHING about how a fight was judged. Hearing people say things like round 4 should have been a 10-8 and that Gufstason CLEARLY won the first 3 is as maddening as spectators or coaches asking for points for back control when there are no hooks or when they get made when adults do ankle locks.
OK, enough about that. It isn't really jiu jitsu related, but I know a lot of people who follow jiu jitsu follow MMA so I had to get that out there. There was no controversy in the title fight on Saturday. NONE. The most controversial thing was Jon Jones corner trying to sneak Greg Jackson in as a 4th corner when the Ontario Commission only allows 4.
The Ontario Provincial Championship was announced this week! It's going down November 30th, in St. Catherines. I am undecided on wheter I like that it is in St. Catherines or not. I was quite looking forward to Kingston, which was the tentative location announced at the beginning of the year. I think that St Catherines is a very very long drive for anyone east of Toronto and I fear it will be the south western Ontario regional event with a few americans mixed in, instead of a true provincially attended event. That being said, it's a much shorter drive for me then Kingston, so I won't have to blow money on a hotel, which is always nice. They are giving away 4 trips to California, for the IBJJ Pans. That, in theory, should bring out some bodies! I'm a bit said it's 3 trips for the guys and only 1 for the ladies, but the numbers can justify it. Sort of. I think that there will be just as many blue belt girls and brown/black belt men and they should get their own trip, instead of being lumped with the purple/brown/black women.
This Saturday is the Return o the Zombie House!!! This is a great little event that is a completely different format from anything else out there. It's friendly but competitive and a great way to spend the afternoon. You can read about the event on their website, and on the facebook event. I am planing on heading down to body of our to check it out!
Grappling Industries has at least 2 more events on the Horizon. Montreal on October 5th, and Toronto on Oct 26th. In Montreal they are giving away 8 trips down the 401 to the big event on Oct 26th, where trips to California will once again be on the line. I won't be going to Montreal (firt One i've missed this year I think!) because I am getting in some much needed nature time with my sister. I will be at the Toronto event on October 26th and you should be to!
That's all for now! See you on the mats!
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
5 months
It's been 5 months since the Ontario Open, where I lost the purple belt absolute final (and a trip to California along with it) by kimura. It was pretty depressing at first, and frustrating dealing with the Ontario health care system. I tried to just rest it and hope for the best, since worlds was only 2 weeks after. But, that didn't work so well.
I saw my physio therapist the day before (I think, maybe 2 days before) we left for California to get a diagnosis and assessment and to see what his thoughts were on me competing. He is pretty down to earth, and understands what it is like to be a competitive athlete and whatnot. At that time, without any diagnostic imaging, he came to the conclusion that I had likely torn my rotator cuff and labrum. He said competing would be very risky, and unless I could control where my arm went, I probably shouldn't.
I left his office pretty bummed out, but still set on competing. I packed all my gis and gear to train and compete and we set off. I probably should have realized when I was struggling to wheel my carryon around that it was a bad plan. It wasn't until the first day training at AoJ that it really dawned on me that I was in no condition to compete. I wrote that really long blog post about being sorry and whatnot. I was pretty depressed and down for the entire trip.
When I got home, I went back to physio, got some exercises and put things in motion to see Dr. Levy to get to the bottom of the injury. It took a few weeks to see him and His assessment was about the same. Less concern about the rotator cuff, since it seemed to be healing. It was likely only strained/stretched/made angry. He ordered some X-Rays and an MRI.
In the mean time, at Buckleys they have Dr Jeff Weekes come in every once and a while to assess injuries and help the students out with aches and whatnot. He happened to be there one day while I was there so he had a look. He also suspected the labrum tear, but also a biceps tendon injury to go along with it. He stressed getting the MRI and gave me some surgeons names (not encouraging at all).
2 weeks after Dr. Levy sends in the form for the MRI, I finally get a call with my date. It's mid-august! I had a little cry when I found that out. I had already wasted like 6 weeks of training time with this stupid injury! To wait till August was horrible! I had a friend use some connections and I ended up getting an MRI in about week. That was an ordeal all it's own that took about 5 hours when it was all said and done and another 2 full weeks to get the results, but it was still WAY ahead of the mid-august original schedule.
I saw my physio therapist again the day the results came in to go over them. Small tear in the labrum, and a small tear in the biceps tendon. Dr. Weekes wins the injury pool! The rotator cuff bits were all fine, but there was evidence of "frozen shoulder" which I guess happens when you are injured and don't move your arm enough. Anyway, Rudy told me to keep doing my exercises and wait and see what Dr. Levy thought we should do.
Two weeks later I saw Dr. Levy and his associate/resident. Once again, they assessed it, and pretty much confirmed the MRI findings again. The worst part about all these assessments is, at the time, especially the last few, It doesn't actually hurt that much, it's about 20 minutes later, after I've left the office, that it really gets painful. Anyway, they thought, because it was still affecting my day-to-day activities (sleeping, driving, jiu jitsu) that I should see a surgeon to get it fixed. Dr. levy thought I would be able to see the surgeon in a couple weeks, and have surgery before the end of the year.
3 weeks later, I got a call from the surgeons office to set up an appointment, 2 days later. I guess they opened up an extra day so were filling it up. So I drove down to Georgetown and saw the surgeon. He went over the MRI, and x-Rays, talked about the surgery options and whatnot and said my shoulder didn't seem toooo bad (once again, not bad for the assessment, almost made me cry trying to drive afterword). Not nearly as unstable as it seemed in the past, the tears were small. yada yada. That being said, because of the quality of life factors (not sleeping and whatnot) he thought it was a fine option to do surgery.
So I was like "yea, let's do it" So, I go to the receptionist/appointment booker to start that process. Turns out the soonest date is Feb 4th. Ugh, I was gutted when she told me this. It was like getting punched in the solar plexus. That would be 11 months after the original injury, with a 6 month recovery before being cleared by the surgeon to go back to competition, that would be 18 months with no competition, 6 of those months not even being able to referee.
That was just under 3 weeks ago. Since then, I've done a lot of thinking and all things considered a lot of training(relatively speaking, compared to the previous 4 months). In the last week or two, I've been able to sleep on my left side without it waking me up and I don't wake up with it super sore either. Reaching up for things on the top shelves doesn't bother it anymore. I can change the laundry and I can bear walk (slowly) without any pain now. Getting crushed while on my side can sometimes be pretty uncomfortable still and I don't really want to test getting kimura'd again right this minute, but things, in general, are pointing towards it being manageable, without surgery.
I haven't canceled or postponed the surgery yet. I can wait till probably mid-December before I have to make the necessary pre-surgery doctor appointments and whatnot. I am going to make Dec 8th my deadline for myself to decide 100% what I am going to do. In the mean time, I am going to train as much as I can, go lift weights (kettle bells, and start the strong lifts 5X5 program). I need to get back to middle weight before I think about competing on the major scene again and I need to get my cardio back in shape before I think about the local scene.
It is going to be a fine balance between pushing myself to hard and re-injuring it and not giving excuses and using it as a crutch to be lazy. I'll probably be holding off on the overhead presses for a while still, but I need to whip this soft and squishy body back into shape. I think my mental state was deterring my healing progress and since I started trying to train more regularly and not making excuses it has been feeling significantly better. I have no idea if it's a mental thing or the extra motion and stuff is helping or what but it is really starting to feel like it might be ok.
So, that is where things are with all that. I've gotten a lot of refereeing in since May which is kind of cool. I think it will make me a better competitor when I finally am able to get back on the competition floor. I've also played a lot of xcom and watched a lot of stuff on Netflix to pass time time. That doesn't really make my jiu jitsu better, but man oh man is xcom every difficult. I don't know how I ever beat that game as a child.
Now you know, and you don't have to ask me about it when you see me ;) . I am on the road to recovery and there may be an end in site! That you everyone for your continued support and sympathy and hugs and encouragement over the last 5 months. It really hasn't been easy staying positive and focused and without all my teammates, and jiu jitsu friends I probably would have gone insane.
I saw my physio therapist the day before (I think, maybe 2 days before) we left for California to get a diagnosis and assessment and to see what his thoughts were on me competing. He is pretty down to earth, and understands what it is like to be a competitive athlete and whatnot. At that time, without any diagnostic imaging, he came to the conclusion that I had likely torn my rotator cuff and labrum. He said competing would be very risky, and unless I could control where my arm went, I probably shouldn't.
I left his office pretty bummed out, but still set on competing. I packed all my gis and gear to train and compete and we set off. I probably should have realized when I was struggling to wheel my carryon around that it was a bad plan. It wasn't until the first day training at AoJ that it really dawned on me that I was in no condition to compete. I wrote that really long blog post about being sorry and whatnot. I was pretty depressed and down for the entire trip.
When I got home, I went back to physio, got some exercises and put things in motion to see Dr. Levy to get to the bottom of the injury. It took a few weeks to see him and His assessment was about the same. Less concern about the rotator cuff, since it seemed to be healing. It was likely only strained/stretched/made angry. He ordered some X-Rays and an MRI.
In the mean time, at Buckleys they have Dr Jeff Weekes come in every once and a while to assess injuries and help the students out with aches and whatnot. He happened to be there one day while I was there so he had a look. He also suspected the labrum tear, but also a biceps tendon injury to go along with it. He stressed getting the MRI and gave me some surgeons names (not encouraging at all).
2 weeks after Dr. Levy sends in the form for the MRI, I finally get a call with my date. It's mid-august! I had a little cry when I found that out. I had already wasted like 6 weeks of training time with this stupid injury! To wait till August was horrible! I had a friend use some connections and I ended up getting an MRI in about week. That was an ordeal all it's own that took about 5 hours when it was all said and done and another 2 full weeks to get the results, but it was still WAY ahead of the mid-august original schedule.
I saw my physio therapist again the day the results came in to go over them. Small tear in the labrum, and a small tear in the biceps tendon. Dr. Weekes wins the injury pool! The rotator cuff bits were all fine, but there was evidence of "frozen shoulder" which I guess happens when you are injured and don't move your arm enough. Anyway, Rudy told me to keep doing my exercises and wait and see what Dr. Levy thought we should do.
Two weeks later I saw Dr. Levy and his associate/resident. Once again, they assessed it, and pretty much confirmed the MRI findings again. The worst part about all these assessments is, at the time, especially the last few, It doesn't actually hurt that much, it's about 20 minutes later, after I've left the office, that it really gets painful. Anyway, they thought, because it was still affecting my day-to-day activities (sleeping, driving, jiu jitsu) that I should see a surgeon to get it fixed. Dr. levy thought I would be able to see the surgeon in a couple weeks, and have surgery before the end of the year.
3 weeks later, I got a call from the surgeons office to set up an appointment, 2 days later. I guess they opened up an extra day so were filling it up. So I drove down to Georgetown and saw the surgeon. He went over the MRI, and x-Rays, talked about the surgery options and whatnot and said my shoulder didn't seem toooo bad (once again, not bad for the assessment, almost made me cry trying to drive afterword). Not nearly as unstable as it seemed in the past, the tears were small. yada yada. That being said, because of the quality of life factors (not sleeping and whatnot) he thought it was a fine option to do surgery.
So I was like "yea, let's do it" So, I go to the receptionist/appointment booker to start that process. Turns out the soonest date is Feb 4th. Ugh, I was gutted when she told me this. It was like getting punched in the solar plexus. That would be 11 months after the original injury, with a 6 month recovery before being cleared by the surgeon to go back to competition, that would be 18 months with no competition, 6 of those months not even being able to referee.
That was just under 3 weeks ago. Since then, I've done a lot of thinking and all things considered a lot of training(relatively speaking, compared to the previous 4 months). In the last week or two, I've been able to sleep on my left side without it waking me up and I don't wake up with it super sore either. Reaching up for things on the top shelves doesn't bother it anymore. I can change the laundry and I can bear walk (slowly) without any pain now. Getting crushed while on my side can sometimes be pretty uncomfortable still and I don't really want to test getting kimura'd again right this minute, but things, in general, are pointing towards it being manageable, without surgery.
I haven't canceled or postponed the surgery yet. I can wait till probably mid-December before I have to make the necessary pre-surgery doctor appointments and whatnot. I am going to make Dec 8th my deadline for myself to decide 100% what I am going to do. In the mean time, I am going to train as much as I can, go lift weights (kettle bells, and start the strong lifts 5X5 program). I need to get back to middle weight before I think about competing on the major scene again and I need to get my cardio back in shape before I think about the local scene.
It is going to be a fine balance between pushing myself to hard and re-injuring it and not giving excuses and using it as a crutch to be lazy. I'll probably be holding off on the overhead presses for a while still, but I need to whip this soft and squishy body back into shape. I think my mental state was deterring my healing progress and since I started trying to train more regularly and not making excuses it has been feeling significantly better. I have no idea if it's a mental thing or the extra motion and stuff is helping or what but it is really starting to feel like it might be ok.
So, that is where things are with all that. I've gotten a lot of refereeing in since May which is kind of cool. I think it will make me a better competitor when I finally am able to get back on the competition floor. I've also played a lot of xcom and watched a lot of stuff on Netflix to pass time time. That doesn't really make my jiu jitsu better, but man oh man is xcom every difficult. I don't know how I ever beat that game as a child.
Now you know, and you don't have to ask me about it when you see me ;) . I am on the road to recovery and there may be an end in site! That you everyone for your continued support and sympathy and hugs and encouragement over the last 5 months. It really hasn't been easy staying positive and focused and without all my teammates, and jiu jitsu friends I probably would have gone insane.
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Grappling Industries: Sunshine Blvd Sept 7th 2013 Recap
Grappling Industries was back in Toronto this past weekend for a smaller event then their past events. I didn't count the competitor list but it we ran 5 mats with about 90 matches per mat. In the past there have been as many as 14 mats but with less matches per mat.
First, I have to say, as a referee I LOVED the setup. The small mat areas they have had in the past has been the biggest negative for their events. They had very large mat areas, with a double row between for a safety area. I wasn't run into from a neighbouring mat area once! Only having a single row(of mat areas), Instead of two also allowed for better viewing for the spectators. Speaking of spectators, the fee was 15, which to me is pretty high, but they post what it is on the website so I can't complain to much, and as a referee I didn't have to pay, so it didn't affect me.
There are a few reasons why I think.the event was smaller then their past events.
1. The proximity to the GTA classic. This is a well established event that a lot of people really look forward to. It's a solid tournament that is always in mid September so people plan to attend it. Hosting an event only two weeks before will certainly make you lose some potential attendees.
2. Their last event in Toronto was only 6 or so weeks earlier. When the Ibjjf comes to a city twice in one year, its 6 months apart, not 6 weeks, they do that for a reason! They also have another event at the end of October, 6 or 7 weeks away again. There is lots of talk of an over saturated market, and I think they will feel the pain of it hosting 3 events so close together.
3. It was the weekend after everyone went back to school. Kids are just getting back into their school routines, post secondary students are settling into their school year homes and parents are dealing with kids who are back to school. The last thing on any people's mind this weekend is a Jiu jitsu competition!
So yeah, it was smaller, but it was well run, there was really good competition in a lot of the divisions and there was acai!
I love acai bowls. I discovered them when we went to Costa mesa for the first AoJ training camp is summer 2012. I had resisted trying them until the last day of the camp because I don't know why. Anyway, we.all went the the place just down the road from AoJ after class and waited like 40 min for the bowls, it they were amazing. Fast fwd to worlds 2013, we were in Costa Mesa for a few days before and I was really watching what I.ate for the first few.days because I was still disillusioned into thinking I could compete, but then I realized I could not,and ate a bowl the last day we were in Costa mesa, and then every day at worlds.
So anyway, a couple guys from Toronto Bjj have started the Acai Cafe and this past weekend was their first event! The bowls were simple, just granola and banana, it they were really tasty anyway. They seemed sweeter then I remember from California,but that could just be me. Hopefully next time they have a few more toppings like coconut, peanut butter and cocoa nibs. The prices were reasonable considering the costs to get acai packs up here. The bowls were smaller then California, it that's not terrible because the ones in California are almost too big. Just a side note, they will be at the GTA Classic next weekend, and also at the next Grappling Industries Toronto event as well.
Ok, enough about acai.
I got to referee some pretty excellent matches and I was also requested to not referee some other matches. This is a first for me, and I have to admit I was pretty shocked and sad when David came over to my mat and said someone wanted to have a different ref for their matches. This was a first for me and I didn't take it very well. I'm sure it's nothing personal, maybe they don't like that I ask the fighters to switch sides so I can raise their arm properly. Who knows. Anyway, after that, I sat around for a bit and got over it fairly quickly after I ate some pizza and acai.
One competitor stood out for me while refereeing the blue belt -154 gi division. The whole division was pretty stacked with some amazing fights, Myles Allen hit a pretty sweet triangle on Kevin Wheeler really fast, which was almost disappointing, because I was looking forward to seeing them really duke it out ya know? Props to Myles though, he has sick triangles.
But, That is not who I wanted to talk about, one of the competitors went 4-0 in the round robin, winning every single fight with a loop choke! Milkias, from Body of Four, has ridiculous loop chokes! It's scary how he sets them up, from almost any position. Standing? No problem, Guard? done, Getting guard passed? done. It's like Jon and his silly baseball chokes! I had an inkling about that he worked them a bit, when he was training at the redstar training a ways back. He hit it on a few people there. Those were good times, I hope we can do that redstar training again soon. Maybe I'll actually be able to roll this time! Back on topic: Loop Chokes are pretty awesome, and I think I might want to start working them into my game a bit. That's right, me... doing a choke, we shall see. I'll probably just end up using it to set up an armbar.
One other thing about refereeing that I wanted to talk about was how disrespectful a couple of coaches were to some of the referees. If you think you know the rules so well, put on the tuxedo shirt and bowtie and try doing the job yourself. Seriously. I know, as a coach, you want your fighter to win, but abusing the referees isn't going to help them.
One particular case that stood out in my mind relates to the infamous baseball bat choke. Fighter A had fighter B in his guard, fighter B passes, and fighter A sets up a baseball bat choke, but incorrectly his arms never crossed so fighter B, who is passing is never in danger of being submitted. The referee gave the 3 points and eventually fighter B ended up back in fighters A's guard, 3 points ahead. Maybe the coach didn't see that the choke wasn't being effective because of the angle, but that doesn't give him the right to make a scene and insult the referee the way he did. Even if the choke was effective, I've seen HIGH level referees(at IBJJF events) give pass and back points for competitors stuck in baseball bat chokes(I've seen points given to a guy as he promptly takes a nap) so to go off about how terrible the refereeing is because of a situation like that is even more ridiculous.
Personally, I had one case where I had the crowd pretty upset with the delay in giving an advantage. There was a scramble, I can't remember exactly what, and one guy almost gets the other guys back, he's got one hook in, and is controlling pretty well, but never get's that 2nd hook in. Anyway, the crowd is yelling for the advantage, but I am focusing on the fighters, and in my head reviewing how they got there to make sure I didn't miss points or an advantage for the other guy before I give the advantage for the back. It probably looked like I wasn't going to give the advantage so I can kind of understand why they were yelling for it. So I didn't let it phase me. I just hope that people didn't see the delay as me being influenced by the crowd to give the advantage.
The event started on time, as usual, and ran pretty close to ontime. Nogi did start a bit later then estimated, maybe by 1/2 hour or so, but there wasn't much a lull between gi and nogi so that wasn't to bad. I headed out a bit early, since I was going camping, but 2 mats were already shut down, and it was pretty much just absolutes running when I left at around 4:15pm.
As with pretty much every tournament I have attended as a spectator/competitor/referee/other there was some confusion about which techniques were legal and not legal for the various ages of kids. I was lucky to not have to referee kids, so I only had to keep what's legal for different belts straight and not worry about ages. You'd be surprised that adults sometimes don't even know what they are allowed and not allowed to do. Anyway, with the kids, guillotines are not supposed to be allowed and there were some matches where they happened. I don't want to blame anyone, but it sucks for the kids when they get guillotined(and the refs stops it before they even think about tapping) and lose, when that technique isn't supposed to be allowed for like 5 or 7 more years!
As referees, especially for kids, we really need to review the rules and know what is allowed and not allowed. Like I said, this happens all the time, not just at Grappling Industries but it's something, as a referee I know I even need to work on, because I was asked the next day, which subs are legal and which aren't and I couldn't nail down a solid list off memory. I usually have a copy of the rule book with me at tournaments (IBJJF Rules for ones that follow that anyway) so I can reference it before a match If I have to ref some kids of various ages and I think perhaps tournaments should supply an easy to read, clear, and detailed list of what is allowed at what ages/belts for the referees, but also for the coaches and spectators.
Grappling Industries is making some pretty major changes to their events for their next one in Toronto, On October 26th. You can read about the new changes to the format on the announcement post here. The highlights are: kids will be split between white and colour belts, and white belt kids will be no-sub, while colour will follow the IBJJF rules for allowed subs. Finally, they will be changing the weighins so that nogi will use the IBJJF nogi weight classes, and Gi will use the Gi weight classes and weighins will be done before your first match, instead of the night before/first thing in the morning.
I am a fan of pretty much all of this, except for the weighins not being first thing in the morning. I love the first thing in the morning weighins, it gets it out of the way, it lets you know who is there and who isn't and it keeps things running better throughout the day. Jiu Jitsu is pretty much the only sport that uses the right before the match weighin system and I don't know why it loves it so much. I know it's to combat weight cutting, but It generally just means people who are naturally close end up fighting hungry and dehydrated.
Coming up next (in my best Mike Goldberg voice):
The GTA Classic: Saturday Sept 21st in Toronto. There will be Acai, samurai swords, food bank donation collections and lots of Gi Jiu Jitsu. It's pre-registration only and registration closes sometime next week. I couldn't find the date off hand. I imagine it closes on Tuesday or Wednesday. You have to be a member of the OJA to compete and you can register through the OJA's website.
The Canadian Submission Expo aka Sub-X: Sunday Sept 21st in Toronto. This is a really cool charity fight show that will feature the absolute finals from Saturday's GTA classic as well as a bunch of other really great super fights. It's all for charity and well worth the trip to Toronto for the afternoon.
JCC GTA Invitational: Saturday Sept 28th. This is a kids/juniors only event put on by the OGA. These tournaments are unique in that it's kids only and they use simulated submissions for the younger/less experienced competitors (this means they only have to lock the submission on, not apply it). They've made some changes about what is allowed at what age/belt so make sure you check the rules before you go!
Zombie House Submission League: Saturday Sept 28th. This is a really cool event that has been fairly "underground" for the last couple years. It's basically sub-only matches that go 5 minutes, and you get as many subs as you can. It's a very chilled out atmosphere and very friendly. It's split up by weight classes not belt and there are handicaps applied to the various belts, so if a white belt subs a purple, it's worth way more then purple subbing a white. It's worth checking out on a Saturday afternoon.
Grappling Industries Montreal: HWY 401 Edition. Saturday Oct 5th They are moving up to the big gym at the same location, and using 5 big mats like this past weekend in Toronto. The last event in Montreal was pretty cozy, so this will be a great change. They are giving away 8 trips to the last Grappling Industries event in Toronto for 2013 (Oct 26th). If, you happen to be from the GTA, you can always cash out the prize. I like the idea of giving trips to Toronto, I hope it gets some more mixing of the Jiu Jitsu scenes in the two cities.
SAU: Autumn Jiu Jitsu Games. Saturday Oct 12th in Montreal. I still have not made it out to one of these events, and I don't think I will this time around either. But I have heard a lot of good things about it. They do a double elimination Gi tournament, and a subonly nogi event in one day. Worth checking out if you are in the area.
Ottawa BJJ Open:Saturday Oct 19th Sunday Oct 20th in Ottawa. This is a Gi Only event that should bring out a lot of the Ottawa area teams that don't often make it out to the GTA or Montreal events in big numbers. You need to be a member of the OJA to compete and it is pre-registration only.
Grappling Industries Toronto: Pans Edition: Saturday Oct 28th. This is the event I mentioned earlier with the format changes. Don't tell me I didn't warn you about the weighins when the time comes. They are giving away 5 trips to California for the IBJJF Pans. If they get 500 competitors, they will double that and give away 10 trips! That is absolutely crazy. I may just register and fight with 1 arm!
So, that is a busy time coming up. There are a bunch more events to round off the year, but I think that is enough for now. I'll probably be at all the grappling industries events, and any of the ones in the GTA. It's not really worth it for me to travel to the non-near by ones unless I have teammates competing so we shall see about Ottawa and the SAU event.
First, I have to say, as a referee I LOVED the setup. The small mat areas they have had in the past has been the biggest negative for their events. They had very large mat areas, with a double row between for a safety area. I wasn't run into from a neighbouring mat area once! Only having a single row(of mat areas), Instead of two also allowed for better viewing for the spectators. Speaking of spectators, the fee was 15, which to me is pretty high, but they post what it is on the website so I can't complain to much, and as a referee I didn't have to pay, so it didn't affect me.
There are a few reasons why I think.the event was smaller then their past events.
1. The proximity to the GTA classic. This is a well established event that a lot of people really look forward to. It's a solid tournament that is always in mid September so people plan to attend it. Hosting an event only two weeks before will certainly make you lose some potential attendees.
2. Their last event in Toronto was only 6 or so weeks earlier. When the Ibjjf comes to a city twice in one year, its 6 months apart, not 6 weeks, they do that for a reason! They also have another event at the end of October, 6 or 7 weeks away again. There is lots of talk of an over saturated market, and I think they will feel the pain of it hosting 3 events so close together.
3. It was the weekend after everyone went back to school. Kids are just getting back into their school routines, post secondary students are settling into their school year homes and parents are dealing with kids who are back to school. The last thing on any people's mind this weekend is a Jiu jitsu competition!
So yeah, it was smaller, but it was well run, there was really good competition in a lot of the divisions and there was acai!
I love acai bowls. I discovered them when we went to Costa mesa for the first AoJ training camp is summer 2012. I had resisted trying them until the last day of the camp because I don't know why. Anyway, we.all went the the place just down the road from AoJ after class and waited like 40 min for the bowls, it they were amazing. Fast fwd to worlds 2013, we were in Costa Mesa for a few days before and I was really watching what I.ate for the first few.days because I was still disillusioned into thinking I could compete, but then I realized I could not,and ate a bowl the last day we were in Costa mesa, and then every day at worlds.
So anyway, a couple guys from Toronto Bjj have started the Acai Cafe and this past weekend was their first event! The bowls were simple, just granola and banana, it they were really tasty anyway. They seemed sweeter then I remember from California,but that could just be me. Hopefully next time they have a few more toppings like coconut, peanut butter and cocoa nibs. The prices were reasonable considering the costs to get acai packs up here. The bowls were smaller then California, it that's not terrible because the ones in California are almost too big. Just a side note, they will be at the GTA Classic next weekend, and also at the next Grappling Industries Toronto event as well.
Ok, enough about acai.
I got to referee some pretty excellent matches and I was also requested to not referee some other matches. This is a first for me, and I have to admit I was pretty shocked and sad when David came over to my mat and said someone wanted to have a different ref for their matches. This was a first for me and I didn't take it very well. I'm sure it's nothing personal, maybe they don't like that I ask the fighters to switch sides so I can raise their arm properly. Who knows. Anyway, after that, I sat around for a bit and got over it fairly quickly after I ate some pizza and acai.
One competitor stood out for me while refereeing the blue belt -154 gi division. The whole division was pretty stacked with some amazing fights, Myles Allen hit a pretty sweet triangle on Kevin Wheeler really fast, which was almost disappointing, because I was looking forward to seeing them really duke it out ya know? Props to Myles though, he has sick triangles.
But, That is not who I wanted to talk about, one of the competitors went 4-0 in the round robin, winning every single fight with a loop choke! Milkias, from Body of Four, has ridiculous loop chokes! It's scary how he sets them up, from almost any position. Standing? No problem, Guard? done, Getting guard passed? done. It's like Jon and his silly baseball chokes! I had an inkling about that he worked them a bit, when he was training at the redstar training a ways back. He hit it on a few people there. Those were good times, I hope we can do that redstar training again soon. Maybe I'll actually be able to roll this time! Back on topic: Loop Chokes are pretty awesome, and I think I might want to start working them into my game a bit. That's right, me... doing a choke, we shall see. I'll probably just end up using it to set up an armbar.
One other thing about refereeing that I wanted to talk about was how disrespectful a couple of coaches were to some of the referees. If you think you know the rules so well, put on the tuxedo shirt and bowtie and try doing the job yourself. Seriously. I know, as a coach, you want your fighter to win, but abusing the referees isn't going to help them.
One particular case that stood out in my mind relates to the infamous baseball bat choke. Fighter A had fighter B in his guard, fighter B passes, and fighter A sets up a baseball bat choke, but incorrectly his arms never crossed so fighter B, who is passing is never in danger of being submitted. The referee gave the 3 points and eventually fighter B ended up back in fighters A's guard, 3 points ahead. Maybe the coach didn't see that the choke wasn't being effective because of the angle, but that doesn't give him the right to make a scene and insult the referee the way he did. Even if the choke was effective, I've seen HIGH level referees(at IBJJF events) give pass and back points for competitors stuck in baseball bat chokes(I've seen points given to a guy as he promptly takes a nap) so to go off about how terrible the refereeing is because of a situation like that is even more ridiculous.
Personally, I had one case where I had the crowd pretty upset with the delay in giving an advantage. There was a scramble, I can't remember exactly what, and one guy almost gets the other guys back, he's got one hook in, and is controlling pretty well, but never get's that 2nd hook in. Anyway, the crowd is yelling for the advantage, but I am focusing on the fighters, and in my head reviewing how they got there to make sure I didn't miss points or an advantage for the other guy before I give the advantage for the back. It probably looked like I wasn't going to give the advantage so I can kind of understand why they were yelling for it. So I didn't let it phase me. I just hope that people didn't see the delay as me being influenced by the crowd to give the advantage.
The event started on time, as usual, and ran pretty close to ontime. Nogi did start a bit later then estimated, maybe by 1/2 hour or so, but there wasn't much a lull between gi and nogi so that wasn't to bad. I headed out a bit early, since I was going camping, but 2 mats were already shut down, and it was pretty much just absolutes running when I left at around 4:15pm.
As with pretty much every tournament I have attended as a spectator/competitor/referee/other there was some confusion about which techniques were legal and not legal for the various ages of kids. I was lucky to not have to referee kids, so I only had to keep what's legal for different belts straight and not worry about ages. You'd be surprised that adults sometimes don't even know what they are allowed and not allowed to do. Anyway, with the kids, guillotines are not supposed to be allowed and there were some matches where they happened. I don't want to blame anyone, but it sucks for the kids when they get guillotined(and the refs stops it before they even think about tapping) and lose, when that technique isn't supposed to be allowed for like 5 or 7 more years!
As referees, especially for kids, we really need to review the rules and know what is allowed and not allowed. Like I said, this happens all the time, not just at Grappling Industries but it's something, as a referee I know I even need to work on, because I was asked the next day, which subs are legal and which aren't and I couldn't nail down a solid list off memory. I usually have a copy of the rule book with me at tournaments (IBJJF Rules for ones that follow that anyway) so I can reference it before a match If I have to ref some kids of various ages and I think perhaps tournaments should supply an easy to read, clear, and detailed list of what is allowed at what ages/belts for the referees, but also for the coaches and spectators.
Grappling Industries is making some pretty major changes to their events for their next one in Toronto, On October 26th. You can read about the new changes to the format on the announcement post here. The highlights are: kids will be split between white and colour belts, and white belt kids will be no-sub, while colour will follow the IBJJF rules for allowed subs. Finally, they will be changing the weighins so that nogi will use the IBJJF nogi weight classes, and Gi will use the Gi weight classes and weighins will be done before your first match, instead of the night before/first thing in the morning.
I am a fan of pretty much all of this, except for the weighins not being first thing in the morning. I love the first thing in the morning weighins, it gets it out of the way, it lets you know who is there and who isn't and it keeps things running better throughout the day. Jiu Jitsu is pretty much the only sport that uses the right before the match weighin system and I don't know why it loves it so much. I know it's to combat weight cutting, but It generally just means people who are naturally close end up fighting hungry and dehydrated.
Coming up next (in my best Mike Goldberg voice):
The GTA Classic: Saturday Sept 21st in Toronto. There will be Acai, samurai swords, food bank donation collections and lots of Gi Jiu Jitsu. It's pre-registration only and registration closes sometime next week. I couldn't find the date off hand. I imagine it closes on Tuesday or Wednesday. You have to be a member of the OJA to compete and you can register through the OJA's website.
The Canadian Submission Expo aka Sub-X: Sunday Sept 21st in Toronto. This is a really cool charity fight show that will feature the absolute finals from Saturday's GTA classic as well as a bunch of other really great super fights. It's all for charity and well worth the trip to Toronto for the afternoon.
JCC GTA Invitational: Saturday Sept 28th. This is a kids/juniors only event put on by the OGA. These tournaments are unique in that it's kids only and they use simulated submissions for the younger/less experienced competitors (this means they only have to lock the submission on, not apply it). They've made some changes about what is allowed at what age/belt so make sure you check the rules before you go!
Zombie House Submission League: Saturday Sept 28th. This is a really cool event that has been fairly "underground" for the last couple years. It's basically sub-only matches that go 5 minutes, and you get as many subs as you can. It's a very chilled out atmosphere and very friendly. It's split up by weight classes not belt and there are handicaps applied to the various belts, so if a white belt subs a purple, it's worth way more then purple subbing a white. It's worth checking out on a Saturday afternoon.
Grappling Industries Montreal: HWY 401 Edition. Saturday Oct 5th They are moving up to the big gym at the same location, and using 5 big mats like this past weekend in Toronto. The last event in Montreal was pretty cozy, so this will be a great change. They are giving away 8 trips to the last Grappling Industries event in Toronto for 2013 (Oct 26th). If, you happen to be from the GTA, you can always cash out the prize. I like the idea of giving trips to Toronto, I hope it gets some more mixing of the Jiu Jitsu scenes in the two cities.
SAU: Autumn Jiu Jitsu Games. Saturday Oct 12th in Montreal. I still have not made it out to one of these events, and I don't think I will this time around either. But I have heard a lot of good things about it. They do a double elimination Gi tournament, and a subonly nogi event in one day. Worth checking out if you are in the area.
Ottawa BJJ Open:
Grappling Industries Toronto: Pans Edition: Saturday Oct 28th. This is the event I mentioned earlier with the format changes. Don't tell me I didn't warn you about the weighins when the time comes. They are giving away 5 trips to California for the IBJJF Pans. If they get 500 competitors, they will double that and give away 10 trips! That is absolutely crazy. I may just register and fight with 1 arm!
So, that is a busy time coming up. There are a bunch more events to round off the year, but I think that is enough for now. I'll probably be at all the grappling industries events, and any of the ones in the GTA. It's not really worth it for me to travel to the non-near by ones unless I have teammates competing so we shall see about Ottawa and the SAU event.
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