Toronto Grappling: Italian Edition April 13th 2013

I just got home from Seneca College after a solid day at Grappling Industries: Italian Edition, where three trips to ROME were given away. Overall the tournament was a complete success. It started around 9:10, scheduled for 9am, so pretty much on time.   We wrapped up the last match around 4:15pm and had all the mats on the skids by 4:30pm. It really is an easy, fast job when there are 20+ people picking the mats up. I'm not sure exactly how many competitors were there today, but I believe gi and nogi combined was about 400. They ran 10 mats and they were pretty steady all day.

Some highlights of the day:

Jon putting 2 guys to sleep, and at least once the ref gave the guy pass/back points before realizing he was in trouble. This is not the first time this has happened, and I am sure it won't be the last. He is very sneaky with them. He also got subbed himself 2 times. I like his style, no f'n around, kill or be killed, it’s fun to watch.

My friend and team mate Brad got his first 2 wins at blue belt today! He's had a rough go at blue belt so far, but it's good to see him getting a few ticks in the win column.   He has won in "intermediate" nogi divisions, but he doesn't count them, for some reason.

Also going 2-2 were Josh and Stephen. I didn't get to watch any of Josh's fights, but he was fighting well and working the things we've been training, which is excellent.   It's good to see Stephen winning to, He's had a lot of stuff to adjust to, moving from the east coast, new training partners, new style, new home, new job, working nights.   All that crap will take anyone a while to adjust to and I'm so happy to see that he's getting there!

I wasn't the only female referee!! My friend Quincy was working today as well! She's a pretty new ref but from what I saw, she did a great job! It's nice to have some more estrogen on the team. There is far too much testosterone in bjj in general, and the refereeing side of things is no different, if not even worse.

As a referee today, I had the pleasure to ref a lot of great matches. The blue -168 gi division was pretty stacked and there was a lot of great finishes. I also got to ref 2 purple/brown divisions in gi, as well as the feather weight nogi advanced. These were all very exciting matches and It was great to test my skills as a referee. I know in one of the matches, I had a brain fart, and gave 3 for a sweep, but it dawned on me almost right away and I fixed it.

I also had the worst experience of my referee "career" today. In a blue belt match, the competitor was in a triangle and stood up. He eventually set him back down mostly nicely, about an inch or two of the ground before he wasn't holding the guys weight anymore. Then, shortly after, he stood up in a triangle again, this time, after a few seconds he slams the guy down. I immediately call parou and get ready to dq for the slam. The fighter goes on a cursing rampage, saying it's f'n bullshit, if I am going to be an f'n women about refereeing, blah blah blah, I stopped listening. If he wasn't already going to be dq'ed for the slam, he was after that. This kind of behavior is NOT appropriate for jiu jitsu. It doesn't matter if you disagree with the call, you can NEVER have outbursts like this. His coach and friends were also yelling and cursing,   also completely inappropriate and disrespectful.

This really soured what was a great day of jiu jitsu. Overall all the competitors were very respectful to the tournament staff, referees and each other. I saw so much good sportsmanship and class throughout the day. That is what the sport is about and it pains me to see such poor behavior from experienced competitors and coaches.

Anyway, enough about that, let’s talk about the trips to Rome!

The trips to Rome were award to the following winners:

Gi - Purple/Brown Absolute: Amir Yafawi won this division. He was on fire today and was pretty dominant. This is the 3rd trip he was won from Grappling Industries!!

NOGI - Advanced -168 absolute. Arther Chandramohan won this. Arther has the most ridiculous ankle locks on the planet. I never want to fight him. He won a bunch of fights with ankle locks, a triangle, and in the absolute he won on points/advantages. The absolute matches were all very close and very exciting to watch.

NOGI - Advanced +168 absolute. Jon-Taine Hall won this trip. Jon-Taine hit at least one ankle lock today, and won his absolute matches on points. He scored early in both matches and weathered a storm at the end of both as well.

Grappling Industries is constantly stepping up their game. This events improvement was the introduction of the belts and wristbands to help keep the fighters apart. This is something I've been harping on them since the first event I attended and I am glad they've added them. It makes the referee’s job much easier, and it helps the score keepers, and spectators as well.

I would really like to see them have bigger mat areas. They are too small, and it causes a lot of trouble with going out of bounds, having to stop and move the fighters and safety concerns when enthusiastic double legs go all the way across to the far edge of the neighboring mats. This happens at a lot of tournaments, but it is definitely more prevalent at Grappling Industries. I always recommend this, and I know there are logistic reasons for the smaller fight areas, but I think it needs to be made a priority. The other thing they need is noise makers or score boards that have a bell. The referee should not have to watch the clock to know when the time is up and a gymnasium is too loud to count on the score keepers to be heard.

Coming up Next:

New York Open: Next weekend, a car load of folks from Pura are heading down to NYC to compete at the New York Open. Brad, Steve, Alasdair and I are competing, and Jon is taking up space in the car and hotel. We are driving down Thursday night after everyone is done work, so we have Friday to recover from the drive and maybe see Times Square. Then we compete Saturday, and drive home Sunday.

Montreal Grappling: April 28th. This is on a Sunday this time, which is kind of nice. It means we don't have to take Friday, or 1/2 day to drive up, or get there super late. It does mean we will be getting home really late Sunday night, and having to get up early for work Monday might be a bit rough. Coming on this trip are Josh, Stephen, and Jon. Hopefully there will be someone to compete against for me. Whatever.

Ontario Open: May 11th and 12th. The biggest and toughest tournament in Ontario and the biggest tournament in Canada. This event is going to be Epic. I'll be making my middleweight debut (hopefully haha) and fighting in the absolute in hopes of winning a trip to worlds. Hopefully we get a really big team out from Pura for this.

Grapplers Quest and Fila May 25 and 26th. Grappler's Quest is giving trips to Las Vegas for their purple+ and advanced absolutes, so you know where I will be on Saturday. I have yet to win a trip to anything and I am going to keep trying until I do, and then keep trying some more haha. Fila is on Sunday and it is a qualifier for the Fila worlds in London later in the summer. Fila is weird, but hey, it sounds like fun.

Worlds aka Mundials May 24th - June 2nd. That's right. We are going to California!!! We are going a few days early and training at Art of Jiu Jitsu for a couple days before the tournament. I am so jealous of Alasdair, who is going up 5 days earlier than we are. He makes so many sacrifices to do jiu jitsu full time and I really admire that. Stephen is also planning on heading to California, and Jon says he will fight as well. Should be a lot of fun.

There are even more tournaments this summer, but I think that is enough to talk about for now. I'm going to watch the TUF Finale now, so I will see you on the mats!

Soluntion to the Grapplers Quest Vs Provincials Dilema

So... we've got two tournaments that want to be on the same day.  What a mess.    

Disclaimer:  I respect and consider many of the OJA and OGA people as friends. They are both doing amazing things for the sport in their own ways.  This isn't a personal attack on anyone. It's a discussion of a bad situation, that isn't really anyone in particulars fault. It is just a situation.  I'm not blaming anyone, and I'm not pointing fingers. I hope that this doesn't alienate anyone.

Late last night Grapplers Quest promoters announced that GQ is coming back to Ontario Dec 1st.  It was hinted at earlier in the week that they were coming back, early December, but had to wait to annouce the date until it was firmed up with the venue.

Throw in the mix on Wednesday, after someone asked in the OJA Facebook group where the provincials would be held, we all got a shocker that it wouldn't be the Nov 23/24th date that had been on the OJA website since very early this year, It "should be December 1st and 2nd".  But, like GQ. They couldn't announce anything until they had the venue confirmed.

So.  NOW WHAT?

Here's my soluntion.

Turn the 2 tournaments into ONE.  Co-Promote the Grapplers Quest.  Grapplers Quest North America, Brought to you by the OGA and the OJA.  Two organizations working together for the good of the sport and the competitors.  Can you imagine how amazing that would be?   No more short Staffed GQ.  No more lack of prizes for the provincials.   It's WIN WIN WIN WIN.  No one wins when we have 2 tournaments on the same day,  Even a week apart some people will choose one of the other. Some will do both.    As part of this Grapplers Quest North American Championships as they are calling it,  have the "Provincials Divisions" that are open only to residents of ontario.  and have the regular divisions to.  wouldn't add that much to the day. In theory.  Or don't I don't think provincials was going to be closed to Ontario only anyway.    Maybe put an Ontario flag on the medals or something. 

Give the people who have earned free entry to provincials, free entry to the grapplers quest.  That'll convince the gta people to make the trip down the 401.  Make it so if you have OGA or OJA membership your covered and don't need to pay any extra membership fees.   Have Both organizations sponsors present and advertised on flyers and stuff.  Work Together at all things, share the costs, and share the profit.

FOR THE GOOD OF JIU JITSU. WORK TOGETHER.  

It's time to put aside the blame game, the "I had the date first", the "You should have asked me", "No you should have asked me" .  Put the egos and politics aside.  Put your money where your mouth is, and do something for the sake of the sport.   

I know it won't be easy, it's far fetched, it's crazy But It would be AMAZING.  The OJA probably has a deposit on the venue, but it's not confirmed, so I can't imagine it's impossible to cancel.  Take that cost out of their contribution.  I'm sure there are complications about insurance between the two organizations, but there has to be a way to make it work. 

 London might not be Ideal for people on the far side of Toronto, but it's not a terrible drive, and it's a nice city.   It will be good for south western ontario athletes to not have to drive 3 or 4 hours to get to a tournament.