My New Project!

Hey Everyone!

So, I posted this on facebook last week, but I haven't posted it here yet.  Starting in September I will be teaching a ladies only class at Pura BJJ!!

Like it says on the poster, Wednesdays 6 to 7 pm, starting in September.  It's going to be free for the month of September as well!  After September, there will be a special membership, that includes the ladies only classes and the BJJ 101 classes.  Of course the ladies are welcome to getting a full membership but professor PJ wanted to give them some options to help with the transition and to make doing jiu jitsu easier for them.  

My friend Heather,  in the picture, is going to be at the classes to, so the ladies will have some experienced people to work with and help them along the way.  The class dynamics will be kind of weird at first, because it's going to be almost entirely new students.  They won't have the hierarchy of experienced students that most classes have.  I  ran into this when I was starting up a judo class years ago to.  I think there will be a few less egos this time around so it should be a smooth process.

I'm really excited for this opportunity.  I'm super thankful that Prof PJ is giving me the chance to teach some classes and build a army of jiu jitsu girls:)!   I'm really hoping a few catch the competition bug eventually but I'll be happy even if none of the new students ever compete to!   I just want to help them learn jiu jitsu and have fun!

We may run into some technical difficulties,  the ladies change room is quite small... There is definitely not room for more then 3 or 4 at a time in there.  We may have to commandeer the boys changroom.  That might be awkward though, because the class is gig to be right after the kids, which is a mixed class, and I think there will be a class after as well.... logistics are complicated hahah.  We might have to move some of the boot camp junk from the cubbies to, since there will be more then 1 girl needing to store stuff there at a time. 

I've been trying to come up with a little information handout type thing, with the class details, and bits of important information to give the ladies, but it's been so long since I was new to a class, I don't really know what would be to "DUH" and what is information that they really don't need for now.   Any ideas?

I've been trying to come up with idea for spreading the word about this,  it's posted on facebook, here on my blog. I'm not going near most grappling forums because they are full of assholes.  I wonder if Goodlife would let me put a poster up at the gym there... It's right by Pura, and they have business cards there already.  hmmmm  any other ideas?  Maybe I should post it on r/hamilton,  it's a pretty  quiet sub reddit, but they might like to know.

In other news...

At the time of writing this,  I still don't have the results from my MRI, my shoulder STILL hurts all the time, I can't sleep on my left side, I can't pick shit up with my left arm, and in general it's just plain shitty.  

My work is moving to hamilton in just over a week! I could bike to work, if I had a bike,  public transit is a pretty decent option, and if I was desperate, I could walk!   

Saturday is the IBJJF Toronto Open.

Then 2 weeks after that is the OJA Tournament in Sudbury, and Grappling Industries in Montreal.  Then, in September Grappling industries is back in Toronto, and the GTA classic is also back!   We will be making the trip down the 401 to the Grappling Industries event.

Can you believe it's August already?  holy crap, where on earth did summer go?  I would have thought that with my shoulder being useless time would have gone slow, but I have no idea what happened to June or July!  

There is going to be a camp at Art of Jiu Jitsu in November!   We had so much fun last summer I really hope we ca get to it.  I've got my fingers crossed that it will be over a weekend so It doesn't take to many vacation days and whatnot.

Oh!  How could I forget,  Rick Slomba from AOJ is going to be at Pura all week next week.  If my MRI shows my shoulder is toast, I'm going to train and deal with the pain.  If it shows it's not so bad, I'll probably sit on the side lines.  Either way, it should be a pretty excellent week.

That's all for now,  I'll have a report for you next week.  Maybe Monday even, but if I am anything like the MRI department at the general, it'll be 2 weeks.

OJA Sub Only July 13th 2013 (recap)

Today was the OJAs first sub only tournament.  They were supposed to have one in the fall(i think, maybe winter), but it didn't happen, trouble with finding a venue, scheduling, and who knows what else made it not happen.  It seemed like this one wasn't going to happen either.  It wasn't announced/confirmed util about 6 weeks before it, and information and details were slow to come out and sparse at best.

It was small, probably only about 50 competitors, but the ones that showed up fought hard and fought well.  There were no ladies fights (other then a couple kids who were in mixed divisions), and no brown or black belts.   The biggest division I think had 5 or maybe 6 competitors in it.  The ladies mostly showed up last weekend to the mat militia sub only show, it was free, and announced way before this one.

The tournament started on time, and ran on schedule and ahead of schedule.   There was 6 mat areas, but we probably could have finished the tournament just as quickly on 4.  There was a lot of down time on the mats due to the divisions being small, and the posted schedule fairly spread out.  It wasn't intolerable, and was actually a nice pace.

The kids divisions showed some great jiu jitsu.   They were only allowed to do arm bars, and chokes where the referee can see the other kids face, like RNC, triangles not pulling on their head, collar chokes, and so on.  Not a lot of kids came out, and I can totally understand kids(and their parents/coaches) not wanting to do the sub only format. I think they should probably not have kids divisions next time. That being said, I refereed Ever vs Liam, and these kids showcased amazing jiu jitsu, great cardio, and great heart.  I was really impressed with both of them.  There were also some younger kids on the match beside us that showed amazing transitions and flow. The future of BJJ in ontario is very bright!

There were some amazing fights in the blue and purple divisions to.  I didn't get to watch a lot of the white, so I can't say for sure.  But I did ref one between two guys who obviously knew each other well. They had a good fun match, probably should have focused a little more and chatted less. But it was cool to see the comradeship and whatnot.  I could have gone without the coach(err friend, who really knows if anyone actually considers Mike a coach) heckling and whatnot, but whatever.

The blue belt absolute had some crazy matches.  Myles triangled Sean Kent quickly in the 2nd round and everyone was in shock.  Myles has a ridiculous guard and I hope, for the sake of all the up and coming blue belts, he gets his purple belt soon.  The podium for the blue absolute was gold/silver closed out by Kevin and Kofi from gringos, with the bronze medals going to Matt from pura and Myles from united.

The purple absolute podium looked like this:
1 Alasdair Barr Pura BJJ
2 Greg Deniken Matador BJJ
3 Adam Blackadder Matador BJJ
3 Lonnie Warner Gracie Humaita

There was even a white belt absolute! Which the OJA doesn't usually do, but did anyway, I think because it was a sma turnout and we had time or it.   Here are the white belt winners:

1 Donnie Mckenzie BTT Canada
2 Dean Wheeler Kumo Jiu Jitsu
3 Mark Riley Bruckmann MMA
3 Nick Routier Gringo BJJ

Here are the complete results.


There were a few hiccups, of course.  This was the first event of it's type in ontario.  There have been other sub only events.  But they were invitationals, or open weight only, or more like shows.  This was the first tourament, open to everyone, with divisions and whatnot.  There were some complications which deciding and sticking with how long the matches would be, but it all worked out in the end.  If the silly boys had just listened to me when I said the original way they were doing a few things was unfair and didn't make sense, it would have saved me some headaches and probably others. But hey, it all worked out in the end, and no adult fights ended in a draw.  (any that DID have a time limit didn't hit them).

I think one of the really important things that kept the double dq from happening and got us home on time was the fact that you could lose by stalling.   We called staling pretty quick, and they stacked up like they normally would in a regular match. So there was no stalling out to rest or keep a dominate position.   I don't think anyone actually got dq'd for stalling, but knowing it was possible kept people active.

My team mates had a pretty good day.  We only had 3 guys out, but they managed to place second in the team rankings!   Yes, it's a small tournament, and gringos, at #1 was way ahead. but still,  there were a bunch of teams with the same or more competitors.


That's about it for this event, it was a short day, so it gets a short post!

Next weekend is the grappling industries summer havoc.  Round Robin, early weigh ins, and smooth running make this an event worth showing up to.  They did raise the prices, but there is no sanctioning/organization fee so it's basically the same as it was before.  They are giving away a bunch of trips to 2 different ibjjf events. Mostly for the guys, but 2 for the girls.  All you ladies need to get out to that event because it's such a good opportunity to get lots of matches, and maybe win a trip to a cool tournament in a new city.  I hate that I can't fight, but refereeing is going to give me more then enough trouble with my arm as it is.  Today wasn't to bad, because there was no points to give out, but when i raised one guys hand with it, he was excited and swung it way up fast, and that hurt like a mofo.  

Two weeks after that is the IBJJF Toronto Open.  This event was a bit small last year, but well run, and a good event.   I'm hoping it grows a bit this year, and we can one day rival the New York, Boston, or Chicago open (of course, the ontario open rivals them, but it's not an ibjjf event, but it's just as good as them).

A couple weeks after that is grapping industries sunshine blvd.  Then the GTA Classic.   I don't have a link for that yet.

Lots of good stuff going on in the GTA for the rest of the summer.

See you... around, mostly on the sidelines.

In case you are not up to date on my shoulder situation:
1. I have an MRI scheduled for Sept 26th
2.  Every medical professional (2 very experienced physio therapists, the best sports doc in the country, and his resident surgeon)  all came to the same conclusion about it. That I have a torn labrum, possible torn rotator cuff, and a highly unstable shoulder.  That all have said it will probably need surgery, but they won't order it without an MRI.   I sure hope I can get a cancelation, or can pull some strings to get that MRI moved up, because at this rate, I don't even want to think about when the surgery will be and how long after that I'll be back.   I generally love our health care system, but it's times like this that I curse it.
3.  It was feeling better 2 weeks ago, then I trained a bit, and it got very bad again. I accidentally slept on it a couple nights and it hurts really bad in the morning when I do that.  I thought maybe the injury had been in my head, or that it wasn't as bad as it seemed, or that i donno, it was't as bad as it seemed first off, but the way it's been the last week makes me think It really is that bad :(
4.  I'm trying very hard not to get horribly depressed about it. It's difficult because I am a total endorphin junkie and being so inactive is really difficult for me.

Tata for now!

Niagara Open March 23rd 2013

This past weekend we made the trip south west down the QEW and 406 to the 2nd Annual Niagara Open.   Last year, this tournament was quite small, and was plagued with quite a few issues revolving around staffing, draw systems and inexperience.   They tried a few new things to try to make the tournament better but unfortunately most of them didn't work out.

This year was 1000X better.  They had a lot more help from the rest of the OJA crew and that made a huge difference.  They used a standard OJA registration system and the usual Mata Leo draw system which is very powerful.  They brought in and scheduled the referees through the OJA referee group.  They also changed venues.   The old venue wasn't really bad, but this one had a bit more space.

The gymnasium was just about the right size for the tournament.   It was cozy at the middle of the day, when the kids and parents hadn't all left yet, and all the adults were there, but there have been plenty of tournaments in the past that had way bigger space issues.  It would have been nice if they had the room to pull out both sides of the bleachers, but it wasn't a big issue.  They won't be able to grow the tournament at this venue though. It only fits 6 mat areas, and there is not enough space for more.

 One thing that wasn't too clear with this venue was where to park.  They did have some signs outside, but they pointed to the gym, not the parking lot, and by following them, we ended up at a lot that cost $2.50 per 1/2 hour or something insane like that.   We turned around and found a better lot that was only $6 per day.   They did a good job of posting signs in the building that the gym was in. Unfortunately, they all referenced the gymnasium the gym was in, which wasn't on any signs until we got to the hallway that the gym was in!   But, by just walking down the hall, looking for signs, we did find it without making any wrong turns.  It was just confusing, because the signs didn't have arrows or anything.

The one issue they did have was with scheduling.  The tournament was scheduled to start at 9:00am and the first matches were on by 9:20 or so.  I'll call that pretty much on time.  It was a little bit slow getting started with only 1 or two mats running, but that's not unusual.   I feel like this is a hurting point for many tournaments.  Things always get jammed up in the weigh in -> finding the people -> getting them on the mat time process.  This happens at OJA events, and it happens at IBJJF events.  I see it everywhere.  Unfortunately, if tournaments insist on having weigh-ins right before the first match, there really isn't a way around this.

By the time the kids were wrapping up, we had managed to catch up, and were actually ahead of schedule for a few minutes.  They couldn't start the next divisions for about 10 minutes, according to the schedule, so there was a lull in action for a short time. Then, somehow, by 3pm, we ended up almost 2 hours behind!  I think this was a combination of misjudging how many white and blue belt adults there were and how long it would take combined with a traffic jam at the weigh in, and some trouble finding competitors.

There was also an issue of not being able to start the blue belt no-gi divisions, because the blue belt absolute wasn't able to run until all the blue belt divisions were done. One of them got majorly delayed because of 2 serious injuries on the same mat.  They probably should have moved some things around to accommodate those divisions so they could keep things moving, but the trouble is, no one ever knows how long an injury will take to clear the mat, and it may have taken longer to shift things around than the injuries to move!  It's a tricky situation.   Either way, we ended up wrapping up the last match around 8:30pm.  So, just shy of 12 hours of matches for the day.

Another thing the tournament did really well was feed the staff!  There were volunteers coming around constantly offering cookies, water, and other snacks.  Lunch was pitas from the pita pit!  This is a way better option than the pizza a lot of other tournaments do, but much more expensive so I understand why we normally get pizza.  The only down side was the meat ones were all ham. I try to avoid eating large amounts of pork when possible, but I ate one anyway. And by one I mean, all the meat and cheese from one.  I'm doing a ketogenic diet right now, and a pita doesn't exactly fit that mold.   It would be cool if they had turkey, or chicken instead next time.

Finally, I had a new experience at this event.  Pura had a pretty large contingent out to the even, so it was unavoidable for some of them to end up at the mat I was refereeing.   I made full disclosure to the other athlete in every case, and offered to swap out with another ref if they wanted.  Most people were like "Of course not, it's fine", a couple asked to swap, which was totally fine as well.  I didn't get all butt-hurt about it.  In one match, the coach was like "yea, no problem, it's all good" and then as soon as I scored any points for the competitor who was from my team, shit hit the fan.  He was yelling and making a scene.

As soon as the athlete from my team grabbed on and stopped moving for 5 seconds he's yelling "she's stalling she's stalling". Thanks, I see that, but 5 seconds isn't stalling, 20 is.  I DID give her a stalling penalty at the appropriate time.    She ended up stalling again with only 30 seconds left, so I gave another penalty and advantage for that.  In the end she ended up winning by 5 or so points and the other coach was livid.   There was absolutely nothing I could have done differently within the rules to change the outcome.  The points and advantages / penalties given were all clear cut; in fact, I was probably quick to give the 2nd stalling penalty.

When they were up to fight again, I quickly asked another referee to do the match.  I didn't need my teammate to be harassed and have her accomplishments marred by his irateness.   Turns out she won by armbar so it didn't matter, but I didn't want to have the tournament, my teammate or anyone else have to deal with that drama.   In the future, if there is a referee available, I won't even bother asking, and just swap out for the match.  I think this is fairer to my teammates and the tournament as a whole.  I know I can be impartial as a referee, but some people don't know the rules, or will do/say anything to have their students win so I will do what I can to avoid that kind of nonsense in the future.


The level of competition at this year’s event far exceeded last years as well.  Last year there were only a handful of purple belts, and some of the adult blue divisions only had 2 or 3 people in them.  This year light and middle purple each had 5 or 8 competitors, and some of the other divisions had a few as well.   Several of the blue belt divisions had rounds of 16 as well, which did not happen last year.   The while belt divisions grew as well, and there was even 1 brown belt fight.  The ladies divisions were disappointingly small, with only feather and light having any competitors, most of which were from a single club.  There were no blue, or purple belt ladies registered (other than myself).

There were a few guys at the tournament that stood out to me with their impressive display of skills and techniques in their matches.  I didn't get to watch everyone all day so I'm sure there were plenty of other equally impressive displays of jiu jitsu, but I wanted to take a minute or two to highlight a few that I saw while refereeing, and during my break.

Arther and Graham from team Ascension.  I mention these two guys together, because Graham is practically a blue belt clone of Arther these days!  These guys both have a really good 50/50 game, as much as I hate that game, and they both have sick straight ankle locks.  They are also berimbolo machines.  Their style isn't always the easiest to referee, but they don't dick around and try to win by a few points or an advantage, so it's always an exciting match.

Ahmed and Ramie Chaarani are another pair that stood out. I had the pleasure of refereeing  a few of Ramie's gi matches and one or two of Ahmed's nogi matches.  I don't know why these guys don't compete more often because they are ridiculous!  They have a great level of patience and control in their matches that keeps the match at their pace and works pretty well for them.  Ahmed unfortunately (for him) had to face Alasdair in the first round of gi, and lost, but he made up for it by winning the nogi division.  Ramie cleaned up his gi division with impressive style as well.   The best part about these guys is that they also referee so they help keep the tournaments running.  Maybe that is why they don't compete that often.  Either way, I’m looking forward to watching them compete more in the future.

Speaking of Alasdair... I don't want to be biased because he's my teammate, but man, he was impressive in Niagara this past weekend.  He fought in the middle weight division, which is not his normal division and still ended up placing 2nd.   The final was a really tough match where the other guy really pushed the pace in a kind of spazzy way, a style very different from Alasdair's game.  But it was a crazy match to watch anyway. In the absolute, Alasdair avenged his loss and won the whole thing.  That is insane for a light weight, who has only been  purple for less than 6 months!

Pura had a HUGE team out to this event! It was great to see so many people competing from our small team.   We managed to take home the 2nd place in adult gi, 2nd place in adult nogi, and 2nd place overall awards!!  Everyone fought hard, especially all the kids.  The club was well represented and I couldn't be more impressed with everyone's attitude throughout the day.

It's a week later and I'm finally done writing this.  I've been sick for the last 2 weeks, but yesterday it dawned on me, that it might just be allergies.  I never used to have allergies, so I don't know what they really feel like, but it seems the last couple years I've had allergy like things happen to me at typical allergy times.

There are a few things coming up:

Pura In House next weekend (Pura people only, talk to Brad or any of the office people if you haven't signed up yet!)

New York Open!  April 20th. This should be a lot of fun.

Toronto Grappling Italian Edition.  April 13th.  3 trips to Rome on the line. If you’re a purple or brown belt, or no gi advanced male, I'd get on this.

The ONTARIO OPEN.  It's not till May, but I am excited for it.

Gui Mendes Seminar Sat Jan 12th 2013

I think I've mentioned this seminar in about 10 blog posts over the last few months. Man, was I excited to train with Gui for 3 hours. Too bad I couldn't because of my stupid head. Anyway... The seminar was AMAZING from the sidelines, I can only imagine how excellent it was to actually drill the techniques and have a master like Gui helping you fix them.

The pace of the seminar was great; it was 3 hours, so pace is important. No precious time was wasted on warm ups, which I think surprised a lot of people, but was appreciated. People didn't go to the seminar to run around the mats and shrimp. The flow of the techniques was good too, they progressed nicely.

The first half was bottom stuff, all starting from De La Riva guard, well, pulling DLR, then starting from there. Apparently there is a lot more to pulling guard then just sitting on your butt and hoping for the best! Who knew? One of the most important concepts that was reiterated over and over, for pretty much every technique was controlling the distance.

So, they did...
1. Pulling De La Riva
2. Switching from regular DLR to inverted DLR
3. DLR sweep
4. Berimbolo
5. 2 back takes from DLR
6. double under / stack pass and back take (starting from inverted dlr)
7. I think I’m missing something else.
Having been to the Art of Jiu Jitsu, and with Pura being a Mendes affiliate already, I had seen a lot of the DLR sweeps and back takes already. But there is always a detail or 10 to pick up, and tweaks that they have made over time to make them better. An example: for the berimbolo posting your foot on the mat to help you spin faster was a detail that I had forgotten.

The double unders/stack pass stuff was brand new for me. Not that I've never done a double under pass before, but the way Gui is doing it now, man oh man, completely different, and ridiculously effective. I cannot wait to try to remember it, drill it, and crush people’s dreams using it. I'm not going to get into the details of it, I would explain it all wrong anyway, but the most interesting part was that he kept a grip on 2 collars. There is probably video of it on their online training site. If not, go do a seminar and learn it from them. I really can't explain it.


The other cool thing with when Gui (and Rafa) do seminars and classes is they like to roll with as many people as they can. On Saturday Gui did 6 rounds straight. This is after flying over night, dealing with flight delays, driving from Toronto to Hamilton and arriving with 20 min to spare. Then teaching for 3 hours straight. What a machine. I'd be like "Nope, I'm going to bed now". It was really neat watching Gui execute a lot of the exact techniques that were shown in the hours previous. I'll be honest it was pretty entertaining watching my team mates fighting valiantly if not effectively.

Gui also spent a good amount of time answering peoples questions. They didn't have to have anything to do with the techniques that were worked on, or even things that he is known for using. People asked questions about defending the leg drag position, baseball bats, and a bunch of other things, that I forget. The Q/A sections helped pace the seminar nicely. It gave people breaks to rest a bit and catch their breath. Working DLR and all the getting up and down that goes with it can be pretty tiring.

I'm not sure I'm going to survive the week on the sidelines. It's so fucking depressing to not be training with such a great coach/Sensei. The worst thing is I'm totally not a visual learner. I can't even visualize things when someone is trying to explain it to me. Ask Jon, he gets so frustrated with me when he tries to explain something he wants to try, or something that he did. It's annoying, but it’s just the way I'm wired I guess. Even worse, my short (and medium, and long) -term memory seems to have been affected by the concussion and I'm finding myself not even being able to remember the techniques that are shown an hour or two after a class. I'll be honest, my memory has been not excellent for a while, but it seems like since December it's gotten a lot worse.

Anyway.... There are still plenty of opportunities for you to train with Gui this week...

Tonight: 7:30 PM
Tuesday 6pm
Wednesday 12:30PM and 7:30PM
Thurs 6pm
Fri 12:30PM

If you can get to any of these, you will NOT regret it. $70 is a steal for such a great opportunity.

Oh, I forgot.  Here's my facebook album of pictures from the seminar:

Upcoming Tournaments and Events

So, 2013 is starting out with a plethora of tournaments and events and just because my brain is too fucked up to fight doesn't mean you shouldn't be out there checking these tournaments and seminars out.  Starting off with 3 seminars.  I'd recommend going to both, if you can teleport.

Egor Radzik is doing a No Gi / MMA Submission Seminar in London, Ontario this Saturday the 12th.   Egor has crazy Sambo leg locks, and a brown belt in BJJ.  If you like leg locks, you should be there.  It's only 40 bucks, and all participants get $30 off their next Redstar gi order. So, if you’re in the market for a new gi, it's an even better deal!

Gui Mendes will be at Pura BJJ for a 3 hours seminar this Saturday the 12th from 11am till 2pm.   There are still a couple spots available so contact PJ, or Joe to save your spot.   Gui is going to be at Open Mat on Sunday the 13th for a 3 hour seminar as well.   I don't know if there is space available still, check out that Facebook event for who to contact and whatnot.

Gui will be teaching classes at Pura all week from the 14th till the 18th as well.   They are open to anyone for $70 per class.   You can see the schedule for these on the "Pura BJJ Schedule" link on the left. 

Finally, Also on Saturday, Mestre Sylvio Behring will be doing a seminar in Brampton.  He's kind of a big deal, so if you’re in the area, you might want to check it out.

So you Grappling Goons, you have no excuse to not doing lots of jiu jitsu on Saturday. 3 great opportunities right there.

First up in the tournament category is Ascension. (Jan 19th 20th) This will be the tournament’s 8th year and they've come along way. Ascension is an OJA tournament so comes with the usual quality that comes with them. Pre-registration, quality refs, decent organization, and friendly people! Ascension is unique in the vibe it has. Omar brings the Rasta vibe. Last year had the most amazing rendition of O Canada. Good times. They also have the BEST food for a tournament ever. Mmmm. Jerk chicken, brownies, salad. Amazing.


Also coming up is Montreal Grappling on January 26th . I love these tournaments. They have come a long way since their first event and are constantly improving. They've implemented IBJJF weight classes, masters divisions and another mat area in the last couple events. They are also giving away a few trips to Pans, which is huge. The referees at the events are also constantly improving.  I’ll admit, they were not the greatest at first, but they have since taken the IBJJF course and have gained a lot of experience.

Next up, also in Montreal, is the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials on Saturday Feb 9th and 10th.  This is not an event for noobs, it is not for people with fresh belts, and it is not a good choice for someone’s first competition.  That being said, It's generally a very well-run tournament, and I am very disappointed that I won't be competing.  This year they have added a LOT of ladies divisions, and changed it up a bit. For purple and up, there are a bunch of weight classes and 2 absolutes, if you medal in your weight class, you get to play in the absolute.  Previously, it was only 2 weight classes, and the winner wins. I think this way will get more ladies out and will have an overall more enjoyable experience. This tournament is a qualifier for the Abu Dhabi World Pro tournament, in Abu Dhabi UAE.  Winners of certain absolutes and divisions will get an all expense paid trip there.


Heading back to the GTA next for Grappling Industries second visit to Toronto.  On Feb 16th  They Bring their unique format back to the GTA with trips to the Mundials on the line.   This is a great tournament for beginners and experienced competitors alike.   If your a noob, and you get smashed in the first round it's OK, you've still got 3 more fights in the round robin to get more experience.   The staff at grappling industries has promised a lot of improvements from their last event (which was a raging success in my opinion), so I am really looking forward to this event.

Last, but not least, for this blog post anyway, on Feb 23rd the OJA brings the first SUB ONLY tournament to Ontario! There isn't a ton of information out about this yet, but it should be a lot of fun.  Keep your eyes open in the OJA and Ontario BJJ Tournament Facebook groups for more info. Here are the rules, for you to look at while we wait for more information.

Help a friend out!

Hey Everyone,

My Friend and Australia team mate Cristiano recently had a bad eye injury that requires 2 surgeries and since Australia is only ALMOST as amazing as Canada,  the surgeries aren't covered by their health care. 

Full Metal Jiu Jitsu in Australia is hosting a fundraising night on Friday December 14th at 6pm.  So if you're in Australia you should be there to help a jiu jitsu brother out.    Checkout this Facebook Picture for details.  They have some sweet raffle prizes to be given out like RVDDW shorts and t-shirts, spots at the upcoming mendes bros seminar and more!

Pura BJJ will also be hosting a special workshop/class on Wednesday December 19th at 6pm to raise money for Cristiano..   Not a lot of details have been finalized. But keep an eye on PJ's Facebook for details.   Here's what we know so far:

"Next Wednesday December 19th at 6pm we will be having a special workshop with a few raffle prizes - gis, rash guards etc with all proceeds going to help out our aussie brother from another mother Cristiano!! Details to follow! Donate what you can!"

 Hit me up on facebook, or twitter, or comment here or more info on either event. Or, donate straight to his paypal account:  crisdelgiacco@hotmail.com.
 

Montreal Grappling Sept 15

Yesterday was the last road trip to Montreal for the year for me, and it turned out to be quite the grueling adventure. What should have been a 6 hour drive took 8.5 hours. A bad combination of rain, construction, and accidents left us driving at a crawling speed for the majority of the way there.

 Then, on the way home, what should have been a quick in and out stop for a bite to eat at shoeless joes in Cornwall turned into a 2h+ horrible experience of waiting, being neglected, having hair in my food, and then having to wait some more. It was terrible. I am never going to eat there again. I think we will stick to Pizza Hut in Kingston from now on.

 The hotel was an adventure as well. When we got there, there was no indication of where to park, so we were a little lost on what to do, Matt ran in to ask, and after waiting a while and stuff was told I had to come in and check in, and then we could park. Well, that took a while as well, but we got it sorted and headed down to the underground parking. It was mega sketchy but after an 8- point turn I managed to get the car parked. 

We got up to our room, and it smelled pretty bad.  I don't know what happened it it, but it was smelly,  like a diaper, mixed with mold and i don't even know what else.  I tried to stay positive about it all, and whatnot, but it was terrible.  The room was also insanely run down, and the bedroom door had a hole in it!!  after a few minutes we decided we couldn't stay in it and went down to the lobby to ask for a new room.   After humming and hawing the very nice lobby guy gave us a new room.    It was WAY nicer!  It seems the hotel is in a process of renovating all the rooms.  The sofa bed was unsleepable,  but the sofa it self was quite comfortable for sleeping.   All in all, it was fine, but I'm not sure I would stay there again.  It was pretty cheap, but for obvious reasons. 

Alright, On to the tournament!!

We had 6 people from Pura compete this time around, which is a new record for us at these tournaments.  It was great to have so many friends make the trip down together and be there to support each other.   

Brad sporting his hard heard silver

Josh pulling a Rafa Mendes armbar

Brad competed in the -150 intermediate no gi, and blue -150 gi.   He placed 2nd in the no gi and did great in the very competitive gi division as well.    It was a lot of fun watching Brad compete.

Josh competed in the -150 advanced no gi, and blue -150 gi divisions.  He had a bit of a rough go in the no gi, but seemed to be enjoying himself anyway.  Gi went better for him and he placed 3rd. (Montreal Grappling only does medals for 1st and 2nd, so no hardware for Josh :(  ).

The goofy newfy ruining someones day with a sprawl

 Stephen, the goofy newfy, competed in -170 advanced no gi, and -170 blue belt gi.   He also had a bit of a rough day, but I think it was a good learning experience anyway.    There is no better way to learning then competing, and you win much more from a loss then an easy win.








 

Matt playing deep half guard. setting up a sweet sweap

Matt competed in the +190 advanced No gi, and the +190 blue belt gi.  This was only Matt's 2nd competition as a blue and He fought well!  In the No Gi he competed against Alex Fraser, a black belt in judo, and blue in bjj. Alex has already won 1 trip from Montreal Grappling, and Matt gave him a run for his money.  I was really impressed!  The other guy in his no gi division was a brown belt. I know Matt wasn't to happy with how his day went, I've been there, done that. But he did really well and should hold his head high!

Alasdair after the gi final

Alasdair had a great day again.  He placed 3rd in the No gi, and 1st in the -170 gi.  He made it to the final of the blue belt Gi Absolute, then lost a very close fight to Alex Fraser.    The final of the -170 was a great fight to watch.  The guy he beat was also a judo black belt and had ridiculous base and posture.  

 Alasdair and I chatted for a bit about winning.  There is a lot of pressure on us to win, because we've made a bit of a habit of doing well.   A lot of people just kind of expect us to win and don't realize that It's just as much work and just as hard for us to win as it is everyone else.   It's nice to have a team mate like Alasdair who understands what that's like and has the same kind of pressure to preform. 



I had a pretty good day as well.  I went in with a plan to try to work on parts of my game other then arm bars, because, if you know me, you know I love to arm bar. arm bars from guard, arm bars from side control, mount, triangles, half guard, I don't care, I'll try them from anywhere.   In my first fight, I stuck to this, and won with an american from side control.   Linda was super tough and fiesty,  She'll be a force to reckon with in her own weight class!

  In my 2nd fight, I got disqualified for reaping the knee. OOOOPPPS  It was a stupid mistake on my part, and I didn't even have my foot touching her hip before i was like "oh no leg doesn't go there" and took it back, but the ref saw and called it right away.   It's good to see the refs on top of the rules, but it was pretty frustrating for me because I hadn't put any pressure, and had moved it off before it was even called.   This is probably the one rule in BJJ that I find the most ridiculous.  It should be a warning, or even an advantage for the other person the first time, then 2 points the 2nd and then a DQ.  and instant DQ for it is kind of crazy.

My 3rd fight didn't happen because the other girl was injured in an earlier fight.  I hope she's ok!!  In my fourth fight I threw out my original game plan because I needed to win it to move onto the final because of my stupidity in the 2nd fight.     So I was all business and won by arm bar.       This made it so that we had 1 girl that was 4-0 and 3 of us that were 3-1.  So we did a 4 person bracket after the round robin. 

I was paired up with Stephanie for the semi final.  She had looked quite tough and dominated in most of her fights so i wasn't going to mess around to much with her.   I had locked on an armbar, and though she tapped on my leg so I eased off, but I guess it was only 1 tap, so she kept going, so I kept going,   shortly after that I slapped on another one and she tapped verbally.

In the final, I fought the girl who I was dq'ed against.  She had won every other fight so far today So I knew I had to take her seriously.   We had some good stand up exchanges and I got a throw in.  I don't remember which one though.   I actually don't remember much about a lot of my fights,  good thing the videos will be on youtube soon.   Anyway,  like in my semi final, I got an armbar,   she yelped so I eased off, but the Reff didn't hear, and she didn't stop so shortly after I caught her in another,  but she tried to roll, and the way she rolled it ended up going on way tigher, and she tapped mid roll, but the way we went, I couldn't take the preasure off.   I felt so bad, and was pretty frustrated with the whole situation.

  I absolutely HATE it when people get hurt doing jiu jitsu.  I know it's part of the sport and shit happens, but so many times it's avoidable by taping sooner!   I try to always give people a chance to tap when I lock on a submission before I start to really put the pressure on, but so many times girls will still try to escape and then I have no choice but to put them tighter!  I'm not a mean spirited person, I'm not out to hurt people, but I'm not going to let you out because you can't admit when your caught.    I feel so bad when girls have to ice their elbows after fighting me,  It makes me want to quit jiu jitsu. 

Mandy and I after our gi fight

In Gi, there were only 2 of us.  So we had 1 match.   Mandy is a brand new blue belt, and smaller then me so I went back to my game plan of not doing arm bars.   I worked a bit of De La Riva,  and some guard passing.  I got to side control a few times and was trying to set up a brabo choke but after a while realized I was setting it up all wrong and abandon it.   She had great defense to all my attacks and when I heard my team mates yell there was 30 seconds left, I set up an armbar for the finish. 

Team Pura

So that was our day.   All in all, Montreal Grappling ran a great event as usual.  We started on time, and ran smoothly the entire day.  The super fight was very entertaining with an amazing come from behind finish!    Congrats to Jon-Taine Hall on the great finish and the new baby!! 

Dainis going for a triangle from the bottom.

One other thing,  My Friend Dainis made his Montreal Grappling Debut this weekend!  He fought in the -170 advanced no gi, and the purple and up absolute.  He is always a pleasure to watch compete as he is so technical and calm in his matches.   He ended up winning the -170 and placing 2nd in the absolute, losing a very close match to Alex Fraser.   In the Purple and up absolute, It was a small division and he had a great match with the giant brown belt that Matt had fought earlier in no gi. 

 

The next Montreal Grappling Event is November 10th.  Sadly, we won't be sending a team because we are having a big team thing that day.   But you should check it out.    Also coming up from Grappling Industries (the people behind Montreal Grappling)  Is the First TORONTO GRAPPLING GRAND PRIX.  This is the tournament to be at this fall.  They are giving away a pile of trips,  it's going to be round robin. and It's going to be amazing.   I can't tell you how excited I am for this tournament to be coming to the GTA.  You NEED to be there. 

Next weekend is the GTA Classic(formerly Bravado).  It should be a really good event.  They run a top notch tournament and i'm really looking forward to it.  We have quite a few people from Pura registered and I'm really looking forward to watching them all compete.   I'm registered in blue medium heavy, and I'm all by myself right now.   I'll gladly move up to heavy if someone registers there.   I am slowly working my way down to middle,  hopefully by Provincials I'll be there!     Also coming up is the next Zombie Leauge Event, It's No-Gi this time, and they are planning on having a ladies only division.    I don't think I will be attending because I have a dentist appointment that was set up like 10 months ago :( 


I'm going to be running some kind of contest here on my blog soon.  The prize will likely be one of the prizes I won yesterday at the Montreal Grappling event.   I've just got to figure out exactly what the contest is going to be, so keep your eyes open for it, it's going to be something fun. 


See you on the mats!