This past Saturday we took a short drive down the 403/401/402 combination West to London. It was pretty weird going west instead of east, sure was nice not having to drive straight into the sun to get there.
This edition of the zombie house was a fundraiser for a little girl who just turned 4 years old and is fighting cancer. She is the daughter of one of the members of London BJJ, so they held the competition, and a seminar on Saturday to raise some funds for Gabby and her family. Man, cancer sucks, especially for kids. I can't even imagine how hard that is for her parents. Showing up to the event and helping out while the rest of the team competed is the least that we could do to help them out.
In case you aren't familiar with the zombie house concept... It's a sub only competition that you collect submissions and don't stop. The matches are 5 minutes, and it doesn't matter if you get subbed, you just start again. At the end of the matches, subs are counted up ad tracked. Then whoever wins each weight class (the most subs) moves on to the golden sub single elimination bracket. In golden sub, it's first sub wins, and the first rounds are 10 minutes maximum, and the final is 20. If you don't get a sub, you are both out.
The weight classes are 10ish pounds and in London it was all belts combined (there was only a couple purple belts). At bigger events white and blue are together and purple and up are together. They used to use a system where there were handicaps based on belt, but white the belts separated it wasn't necessary anymore.
We had a great time at the event, Dashti ended up being put up with the 180 guys because there was no 170's and the 160 guys were all full. He did a great job with the bigger guys and managed to get 2nd in his division with a purple belt wining the division. Josh and Joel were in the same division, with some pretty excellent competitors, including Milkias from B04 who won the division very impressively despite being the smallest guy in it. Joel hit a baseball choke which would have made Jon proud and Josh demonstrated great passing and control (and a few great subs from that control). Greg was in a division with a lot of much younger, active competitors and showed a lot of good submission defensive and heart.
I really like the zombie house format. It's friendly, it's casual, and it's 25 minutes of working your ass off. There is no tapping and getting out of the fight. The people that show up to these events aren't looking for medals or bragging rights or trips or anything like there. You are there to test out your submission game and not worry about points and staying on top or any of that nonsense that sport jiu jitsu has evolved into. Don't get me wrong, I love regular competitions as well, but it's nice and refreshing to see people just going for stuff and not worrying about position and points so much.
Interestingly, the only techniques that were not allowed were heal hooks and neck cranks, and the only injury that happened was Dan's knee, but it wasn't during a sub or scramble or anything, I didn't even see how it happened really and I was watching the match. People were going after kneebahs, toe holds, slicers and people were tapping (or not) and NOT getting hurt. It was great to see that these techniques are really as dangerous as people seem to think, it's the environment that controls the level of danger.
I was "life guarding" for the event, which is like refereeing, but since there is no scores, and it's self regulated, and friendly, I really didn't have to do much. There were a few cases where I "tapped" for the competitors when they were being a little to stubburn for their own good but generally everyone was great about admitting when they were caught and also not cranking on subs. Sometimes I had to stop them from getting to close to other matches but even that rarely happened.
I would recommend checking one of these events out to anyone looking for something a little different to try out there jiu jitsu. No meatheads allowed and no ego. I think the next one will likely be back in Toronto, but they are hoping to move them around the province.
You can check out this facebook group for more information, stats, pictures and whatnot about the zombie house events.
I almost forgot to mention who won the whole thing! Iron Mike Aviado, the rooster weight! He took out his teammate in the first round of the golden sub with a leg lock (I can't remember if it was a toe hold or straight ankle lock), then won the semifinal in decisive fashion with his signature flying armbar.
In the final, he fought Josh (who won the first round against Sen, then got a bye for the second round because Milkias and Seth was a draw). Josh and Mikes match went about 7 or 8 minutes with Mike constantly threatening subs and Josh doing a great job defending, until Mike snuck in a crazy armbar and got the tap.
I've also got to give a special mention to Becca and Mandie, two ladies who joined in on the zombie house. They are both white belts and quite small and competed with the guys. Mandie ended up placing second in their division next to Sen who won it.
SO, that's that, it looks like the next one will be a NOGI event, likely in Toronto, sometime next month! Keep your eyes open for details on Facebook!
There are a few other tournaments coming up, Grappling Industries this weekend where 5 trips to Pans will be awarded! The women's divisions are looking pretty good so ladies, you should get on that asap.
IBJJF Montreal is Nov 16th. Should be good the competitor list is pretty sparse still, but that is not surprising.
OJA Provincials is Nov 30th. I am HOPING that this will mark my return to competition! My shoulder is starting to feel pretty good so now I just need to get back into shape and get rid of the rust that 5/6 months on the sidelines creates. We shall see how my body holds up to the hard training it's going to take to get back into shape for then.
Grappling Industries last event of the year will be Dec 7th in Montreal. Should be a great event to. They will be awarding a whack of "season passes" to the various absolute winners. This equals free entry to all their tournaments for 2014. I think it's a cool concept.
That's all for now! See you all Saturday at Grappling Industries, I'll be refereeing, then jetting early to head to the Provincial Fighting Championships in London that evening.
Showing posts with label sub only. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sub only. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Saturday, 13 July 2013
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!
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!
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