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!
Showing posts with label upcoming events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upcoming events. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 July 2013
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Upcoming events in the Ontario Area (Summer Edition)
Hello Lovelies!
As you probably know, my shoulder is fucked. So I won't be competing in most (likely any) of these events! But, I thought, just because I can't compete, doesn't mean I can't talk a bit about them and help the potential competitors get an idea what each is about and the history and whatnot of them.
Saturday June 22nd - Ottawa International BJJ Championships. This is the second year for this event. I thought I wrote a blog post about this one last year, but it appears I did not. So, here is a mini re-cap. It was pretty much BTT Canada vs team Renzo Gracie, with a sprinkling of other teams mixed in. It was part of a fit-day expo of some sort, and there were fitness model competitions, crossfit, and pole dancing demos going on in the same venue. We brought a team of 4 to the event (myself, Alasdair, Greg M, and Jon), and managed to place 3rd overall in adult gi. This year, it seems like they have a much larger variety of teams coming out to the event, which will be good. There are a bunch of brown belts registered and it's shaping up to be a pretty epic super fight like brown belt absolute. Here is the facebook event for the tournament and here is the events official website. Registration closes TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT. So get on that. Now.
Saturday June 29th - Five Grappling presents Ontario 1. These guys are shaking things up a bit. They are tweaking the rules, bringing in HUGE super fights, a ridiculous seminar(Marcelo and Xande), and tonnes of prizes and gifts(gear bags, sub prizes, lanyards, something from storm, and more) for the competitors. They have been working their asses off to promote this event and I really hope the community supports them for all their effort.
The rule tweaks (that I LOVE):
As you probably know, my shoulder is fucked. So I won't be competing in most (likely any) of these events! But, I thought, just because I can't compete, doesn't mean I can't talk a bit about them and help the potential competitors get an idea what each is about and the history and whatnot of them.
Saturday June 22nd - Ottawa International BJJ Championships. This is the second year for this event. I thought I wrote a blog post about this one last year, but it appears I did not. So, here is a mini re-cap. It was pretty much BTT Canada vs team Renzo Gracie, with a sprinkling of other teams mixed in. It was part of a fit-day expo of some sort, and there were fitness model competitions, crossfit, and pole dancing demos going on in the same venue. We brought a team of 4 to the event (myself, Alasdair, Greg M, and Jon), and managed to place 3rd overall in adult gi. This year, it seems like they have a much larger variety of teams coming out to the event, which will be good. There are a bunch of brown belts registered and it's shaping up to be a pretty epic super fight like brown belt absolute. Here is the facebook event for the tournament and here is the events official website. Registration closes TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT. So get on that. Now.
Saturday June 29th - Five Grappling presents Ontario 1. These guys are shaking things up a bit. They are tweaking the rules, bringing in HUGE super fights, a ridiculous seminar(Marcelo and Xande), and tonnes of prizes and gifts(gear bags, sub prizes, lanyards, something from storm, and more) for the competitors. They have been working their asses off to promote this event and I really hope the community supports them for all their effort.
The rule tweaks (that I LOVE):
- Kneebars and wrist locks for all adults. Personally, I maybe would have kept keebars to blue and up, but the current IBJJF rules that don't allow them until brown is just silly. I think Kneebars are great, and they areally aren't that much more dangerous than an armbar, unless you try to be a hero and twist out and bust your know knee up. Wrist locks are the same, as long as people aren't assholes about it, they are perfectly safe.
- No Advantages. This means no more almost passing, or almost sweeping and sitting on an advantage for 10 minutes to squeak out a win.
- 2 points for coming up from the double guard pull. This should mean that people will be more willing to come up, b/c if they get re-swept, the score is still even, instead of them only having an advantage, and the other guy having 2 points. I think it will make for a more aggressive game.
- 6 minute matches, ala Abu Dhabi Pro. I like it, it means people can push the pace, and not worry about having to fight for 10 minutes. and it means if people are going to stall, we only have to watch 6 minutes of it, instead of 10.
- Weigh in 1-4 hours before your division. This means, if you are close, you don't have to starve yourself all day. It also means when it's time for a division to start, we don't have to wait for everyone to get weighed in. This should make for a much smoother process.
This tournament got input from 25 or so of the top BJJ competitors in the world when they were planning this event, and making the rules, and everything. They are trying to make the sport more spectator and competitor friendly and I think they are headed in the right direction. I will likely be helping out with tables, or something at this event
Saturday July 6th - Mat Militia Ladies Sub Only Show. I was pumped for this event when they announced it. I was going to be in it, but now I can't. I think the divisions are full, but you should totally go watch it and support the event. They are accepting donations for the Breast Cancer Society of Canada at the event and the whole thing is being run to raise money for that. There is no entry fee for the competitors, but everyone is being encouraged to donate to the cause. Some of Ontario's top ladies are competing and it's going to be an excellent showcase of jiu jitsu! I will likely be helping referee at this event.
Saturday July 13th - IBJJF New York Open. Does it seem like they just had one here? Why yes, they did! It was a solid event, and I'd go back, If I could compete. I think it will be a bit smaller this time around, since it's been less then 6 months since the last one, and Mundials just happened and no one likes to compete in the summer. That being said, It's a good venue, reliable competition and they have nice big medals. So, if you are in the area, it's worth checking out. Pre-register only, and don't be that guy or girl who complains about registration closing early because it's full and you booked your flight and hotel before registering and now are screwed. Register first, then book your travel.
Saturday July 13th - OJA Sub Only Event. This is going down in Thornhill, which is close to Toronto. It's GI only, and that's about all the information that is available at this point. It will be no time limit I believe, kids age 11 and up and should be a lovely time. I hope they can get more information, and registration, and whatnot out soon, or this might be a dud. They tried to have one about 6 months ago, but scheduling and venue conflicts just made it not happen. At least, if it does end up sucking, the ladies have the Mat Militia event the week before to have fun at. I will likely be refereeing (though, not much to referee in sub-only), and or supporting my team mates.
Saturday July 20th - Grappling Industries: Summer Havok They recently announced that they will be doing this tournament INDEPENDENTLY. This gets them free from the political fight between the OJA and the OGA, and hopefully means that those people who are strictly on either side can now support the event. That being said, I have talked to the guys who run this(since I work for the event, and happen to be sponsored by them) and they have assured me that they have a great insurance policy that has equal coverage to what the OGA or OJA have. So, don't worry, It is perfectly SAFE to compete at this event.
Alright, on to the good stuff! EIGHT trips are being awarded as prizes for absolutes. TWO of those are going to the ladies!! They will also have prizes from their sponsors, as usual. The rest of the tournament will be as usual for these guys, round robin (4 fights), morning weigh ins, no gi on for the weigh ins, competent referees and a good atmosphere. They will be recording the fights, but they have been slow to get them posted. They don't mind if you record your fights yourself. One difference will be, since there is no OGA registration to deal with, the process in the morning should be much simpler and smoother! YAY! I really hope my shoulder is magically better in time for this, because it seems like every time they put trips on for the ladies, I'm broken. Last time it was the concussion, now my shoulder. I competed at the last one in Montreal, when there was no trip of course. (I didn't win anyway, so I suppose it doesn't matter that there was no trip heh) I'll be refereeing at this event!
Saturday August 3rd - IBJJF TORONTO Last year was the first year the IBJJF brought their event to Ontario and it was a well run event. It was smaller than most of their tournaments, but just as well run. I think this year will be bigger and better than last. Now that people know that the IBJJF run a great event, I think they will be more willing to shell out the slightly higher entry fee to participate. That being said, this past Ontario Open was run as well as any IBJJF tournament I've been to, so they may have to step up their game if they want to lure people out. Here is the facebook event for the tournament.The IBJJF only uses brown and black belt referees, so I won't be working at this event, but, if my shoulder is healed up, I'll be competing.
Saturday August 17th - OJA Northern Ontario Championships This will be the first BJJ tournament in Northern Ontario (that I am aware of). It's a bit of a trek for most of us, but Sudbury is a pretty beautiful area, so make a weekend camping trip of it or something. This should be a solid event, but I have a feeling it will be small. Hopefully they get people from Manitoba out or something.
Saturday August 17th - Grappling Industries Montreal: Nogi Worlds Edition This is likely where I will be this weekend. It's not that I don't like sudbury, but the OJA separates blues and purples, and there are only about 10 purple belt girls (being generous) in ontario, and none of them are near sudbury. There are lots of blue and purple belt girls in the Montreal area, so the chance of having someone to compete with is much higher at this event. Also, I'd rather have 4 fights than 1 or 2. That being said, you know the drill by now about these events. The Montreal ones are smaller, but equally well run. They get a lot of MMA and Judo guys out, so the vibe is a bit different. Be prepared to see guys almost lose by stalling b/c they don't know you can't just sit in side control to win a match. They are giving out 3 trips to NoGi worlds at this one (edit: confirmed: one of which is for the ladies), so If you are hunting for a prize trip, check it out.
That about round off the summer. I hope I didn't miss any. There are a million IBJJF tournaments happening all over the world now, a bunch of which are this summer, chicago, boston, atlanta. They aren't really in my area, and I won't be travelling to them, so I didn't get into the details on them. All will be solid tournaments, in theory, so If you are in those areas, check out the IBJJF schedule for more info.
In September we will likely have another Grappling Industries tournament, and the GTA classic, but I don't think either has been officially announced and neither has a confirmed venue and date, so I won't post about them officially let.
See you on the mats (or the sidelines, whatever)!
Monday, 20 May 2013
Transitions and change and losing
First off, I want to say, I am NOT trying to make excuses for all the losing I've been doing lately. I'm more trying to figure out why I've been having such bad "luck" lately and convince myself that I'm not terrible at Jiu Jitsu.
I don't even really know where to start. I suppose, at the very beginning, with Judo and my first transition to Jiu Jitsu. It went decently, I was able to use my judo to get a take down most of the time, and then flounder my way through the rest of the fight. If they had a decent guard I would spend most of the match inside it. I gave up my back a lot those days because I had instincts ingrained into me from the Judo rule set. Mount/Side control, North South, and most other positions where I'm on my back, and they are on top (without a guard), I was 20 seconds away from losing. Back Control, in Judo, isn't points and if you can hold off the choke for 5-10 seconds you get stood back up. It took me a long time to stop doing that, and it cost me a lot of matches. I still do it sometimes, but quite rarely.
Everyone around here got savvy to my Judo pretty quickly and everyone started pulling guard before I could even get a decent grip. This was pretty frustrating, because I was (and still am) pretty bad at breaking and passing a closed guard. Let's be honest, It's really hard!! Anyway, that made for a big turning point in my game, I started pulling guard instead of letting them pull guard. It was awkward at first, but I got the hang of it, and started hitting a lot of armbars from there. I still love going to closed guard, but I'm working on other things now...
Next big transition was switching schools. This was a hard decision to make, but since retiring from MMA, and wanting to focus on BJJ, being only able to train 2x week wasn't going to work out. I could always go to the affiliate gym, but that was another 20 minutes (on top of the 40) to get there. I know there are people out there who drive 60 min to train on a regular basis, but with a full time job, and the dojo's being in the opposite direction of home from work. It just wasn't really viable. The switch came off a pretty long layoff from injuries and when I hit the mats for the first few months at Pura I felt like I didn't know any Jiu Jitsu. It was awful! I felt embarrassed to wear my blue belt because I was so awkward and awful. Turns out, a year off from injuries, and switching to a school with a very different style will do that.
That is the second last part of the transition/change/making me suck. Jiu Jitsu is constantly evolving, and Pura is at the front of the curve with Professor Rafa and Gui designing the curriculum. It's "Modern" Jiu Jitsu as they say and it doesn't really involve a lot of arm bars from closed guard, my bread and butter and winning formula. At first, I just drilled and worked the technique in class, and when I rolled still went back to my old game. At competition pretty much all of 2012 I didn't use a lot of the new stuff, but towards the end of the year, I started adding it in, because like earlier in my journey, people got savvy to my style. I am really bad at this stuff still, and I'm at a weird point where I don't instinctively go for my old game, but still have to think about my new game. It leads to a lot of fights like my fight in New York where I went for something, had to pause to think, it failed, and shortly after I was taking a nap.
The final key to my being terrible at Jiu Jitsu is the insane jump in the level of competition from Blue to Purple. It's partially because there is so few local girls for me to compete at, so I have to travel to the bigger competitions, and the only people that bother to go to those seem to be people who are really really good. I'm not saying the local girls aren't good. But when you go up a belt, and go from the local, to the non-local scene. It's like 2 giant steps instead of just one. That being said, I lost to a blue belt a few weeks ago, in Montreal, so, there goes that excuse. Anyway... I was talking to a few people, and the general consensus is that the step from blue to purple is bigger on the women's side than the men's. I've been trying to figure out why that is, but I haven't been able to come up with anything concrete.
I'm trying to figure out if my size is also part of the problem. I've been steadily shrinking and often still competing against girls in medium heavy, and heavy, just because that's the way absolutes and +whatever divisions work. I have also lost to smaller girls, so it's certainly not the only reason. I think I haven't quite adapted my game to my smaller size. I don't have the weight to throw behind things and to use in top positions and it takes less work for the competition to get things to work on me. This seems like a pretty weak excuse/explanation but, I wasn't even the one who came up with it, I forget who it was.
When I got my purple, I had all these grande schemes in my mind. I would travel to New York, Chicago, Boston and California and get lots of fights and experience and wins. I would continue winning almost all my fights, and maybe pick up some serious sponsors along the way. Instead, I've been floundering on, getting 1 or 2 fights per competition, mostly losing, and feeling like I've been wasting my money and embarrassing myself, and my team with my "performance" or lack there of.
I keep trying to tell myself it'll get better, and I'll find my place in the purple belt world. But I'm getting pretty sick of losing. I hate it. I hate losing at anything. When I was a kid, I got 2nd place over all in my class for track and field day. I threw out the ribbon because It wasn't first. I'm competitive at pretty much everything I do and I despise losing. When ever I play a board game, or card game, I get caught up and have to remind myself it's just a game.
I need to put all this negativity behind me, maybe actually listen to my own advice from my blog series on the mental side of the game. I've gotten away from a lot of my pre-comp and comp day habits. I have been doing a lot of the opposite of positive self talk, and not a lot of visualization and whatnot. I need to stop making excuses and trying to explain away the holes in my game and my lack of ability to implement my game plan, wait, I'd have to have a solid game plan to implement it. So, I guess making and drilling a solid game plan would be a good start. This blog post is the last you will hear any of this negative excuse like bullshit.
Worlds is just under 2 weeks away. We are leaving Friday to train at Art of Jiu Jitsu for a few days then competing on Thursday or Friday. The Pre-Schedule has me fighting on Thursday or Friday. Jon will be fighting Wednesday or Thursday. My division has 9 people in it! It's the best opportunity I have to have multiple fights against girls my size and level.
After worlds is Five Grappling Ontario 1. This should be a pretty cool event. They are giving out lots of swag, and having prizes for submissions. I think that's a cool idea, and hopefully it will get people to push the pace and not win on advantages. Oh, wait, there are no advantages! They are following basic IBJJF rules except no advantages. I think this will get people to screw around a lot less, but who knows. Jiu Jitsu is at a weird place right now and hopefully events like this will help steer it in a good direction. Part of this tournament is a super seminar with Marcelo Garcia AND Xande Ribeiro. That is going to be amazing!
Also coming up this summer, is Grappling Industries: Summer Havoc. They are giving away a whole bunch of trips this time around and 2 of them are going to the ladies! I will be competing in the Gi and NoGi portions of this event to try to win a trip to Atlanta and Nogi pans. I will also be refereeing! So that will be a pretty busy day.
I don't even really know where to start. I suppose, at the very beginning, with Judo and my first transition to Jiu Jitsu. It went decently, I was able to use my judo to get a take down most of the time, and then flounder my way through the rest of the fight. If they had a decent guard I would spend most of the match inside it. I gave up my back a lot those days because I had instincts ingrained into me from the Judo rule set. Mount/Side control, North South, and most other positions where I'm on my back, and they are on top (without a guard), I was 20 seconds away from losing. Back Control, in Judo, isn't points and if you can hold off the choke for 5-10 seconds you get stood back up. It took me a long time to stop doing that, and it cost me a lot of matches. I still do it sometimes, but quite rarely.
Everyone around here got savvy to my Judo pretty quickly and everyone started pulling guard before I could even get a decent grip. This was pretty frustrating, because I was (and still am) pretty bad at breaking and passing a closed guard. Let's be honest, It's really hard!! Anyway, that made for a big turning point in my game, I started pulling guard instead of letting them pull guard. It was awkward at first, but I got the hang of it, and started hitting a lot of armbars from there. I still love going to closed guard, but I'm working on other things now...
Next big transition was switching schools. This was a hard decision to make, but since retiring from MMA, and wanting to focus on BJJ, being only able to train 2x week wasn't going to work out. I could always go to the affiliate gym, but that was another 20 minutes (on top of the 40) to get there. I know there are people out there who drive 60 min to train on a regular basis, but with a full time job, and the dojo's being in the opposite direction of home from work. It just wasn't really viable. The switch came off a pretty long layoff from injuries and when I hit the mats for the first few months at Pura I felt like I didn't know any Jiu Jitsu. It was awful! I felt embarrassed to wear my blue belt because I was so awkward and awful. Turns out, a year off from injuries, and switching to a school with a very different style will do that.
That is the second last part of the transition/change/making me suck. Jiu Jitsu is constantly evolving, and Pura is at the front of the curve with Professor Rafa and Gui designing the curriculum. It's "Modern" Jiu Jitsu as they say and it doesn't really involve a lot of arm bars from closed guard, my bread and butter and winning formula. At first, I just drilled and worked the technique in class, and when I rolled still went back to my old game. At competition pretty much all of 2012 I didn't use a lot of the new stuff, but towards the end of the year, I started adding it in, because like earlier in my journey, people got savvy to my style. I am really bad at this stuff still, and I'm at a weird point where I don't instinctively go for my old game, but still have to think about my new game. It leads to a lot of fights like my fight in New York where I went for something, had to pause to think, it failed, and shortly after I was taking a nap.
The final key to my being terrible at Jiu Jitsu is the insane jump in the level of competition from Blue to Purple. It's partially because there is so few local girls for me to compete at, so I have to travel to the bigger competitions, and the only people that bother to go to those seem to be people who are really really good. I'm not saying the local girls aren't good. But when you go up a belt, and go from the local, to the non-local scene. It's like 2 giant steps instead of just one. That being said, I lost to a blue belt a few weeks ago, in Montreal, so, there goes that excuse. Anyway... I was talking to a few people, and the general consensus is that the step from blue to purple is bigger on the women's side than the men's. I've been trying to figure out why that is, but I haven't been able to come up with anything concrete.
I'm trying to figure out if my size is also part of the problem. I've been steadily shrinking and often still competing against girls in medium heavy, and heavy, just because that's the way absolutes and +whatever divisions work. I have also lost to smaller girls, so it's certainly not the only reason. I think I haven't quite adapted my game to my smaller size. I don't have the weight to throw behind things and to use in top positions and it takes less work for the competition to get things to work on me. This seems like a pretty weak excuse/explanation but, I wasn't even the one who came up with it, I forget who it was.
When I got my purple, I had all these grande schemes in my mind. I would travel to New York, Chicago, Boston and California and get lots of fights and experience and wins. I would continue winning almost all my fights, and maybe pick up some serious sponsors along the way. Instead, I've been floundering on, getting 1 or 2 fights per competition, mostly losing, and feeling like I've been wasting my money and embarrassing myself, and my team with my "performance" or lack there of.
I keep trying to tell myself it'll get better, and I'll find my place in the purple belt world. But I'm getting pretty sick of losing. I hate it. I hate losing at anything. When I was a kid, I got 2nd place over all in my class for track and field day. I threw out the ribbon because It wasn't first. I'm competitive at pretty much everything I do and I despise losing. When ever I play a board game, or card game, I get caught up and have to remind myself it's just a game.
I need to put all this negativity behind me, maybe actually listen to my own advice from my blog series on the mental side of the game. I've gotten away from a lot of my pre-comp and comp day habits. I have been doing a lot of the opposite of positive self talk, and not a lot of visualization and whatnot. I need to stop making excuses and trying to explain away the holes in my game and my lack of ability to implement my game plan, wait, I'd have to have a solid game plan to implement it. So, I guess making and drilling a solid game plan would be a good start. This blog post is the last you will hear any of this negative excuse like bullshit.
Worlds is just under 2 weeks away. We are leaving Friday to train at Art of Jiu Jitsu for a few days then competing on Thursday or Friday. The Pre-Schedule has me fighting on Thursday or Friday. Jon will be fighting Wednesday or Thursday. My division has 9 people in it! It's the best opportunity I have to have multiple fights against girls my size and level.
After worlds is Five Grappling Ontario 1. This should be a pretty cool event. They are giving out lots of swag, and having prizes for submissions. I think that's a cool idea, and hopefully it will get people to push the pace and not win on advantages. Oh, wait, there are no advantages! They are following basic IBJJF rules except no advantages. I think this will get people to screw around a lot less, but who knows. Jiu Jitsu is at a weird place right now and hopefully events like this will help steer it in a good direction. Part of this tournament is a super seminar with Marcelo Garcia AND Xande Ribeiro. That is going to be amazing!
Also coming up this summer, is Grappling Industries: Summer Havoc. They are giving away a whole bunch of trips this time around and 2 of them are going to the ladies! I will be competing in the Gi and NoGi portions of this event to try to win a trip to Atlanta and Nogi pans. I will also be refereeing! So that will be a pretty busy day.
Saturday, 16 March 2013
Adventures in Chicagoland for the IBJJF Chicago Winter Open 2013
This past weekend (March 9th and 10th 2013) was the IBJJF Chicago Winter International Open. Say that 10X fast. Tournament names are getting kind of long these days eh? I suppose it has to be so long, so you know exactly what you're attending. I wouldn't want to get the summer and winter event mixed up, and International in the title makes it sound so much more prestigious. I'll give them one point, "Open" is much shorter than "Championship" or "Tournament" so they've got that going for them at least. Anyway... the naming convention the IBJJF uses is not actually the point of this blog post. Though, I could go on a pretty good rant about it if you let me.
We left home, well, actually we left work, around 4pm on Thursday, wanting to have an extra day in Chicago to train, and see some sites. The drive was actually pretty reasonable. Jon Guzzled a sugar free Rockstar as soon as we hit the highway, so we ended up having to stop for a pee break before we even got to the border. We crossed the border in Sarnia, after about 15 minute wait, we had to answer the standard questions, no getting out of the car to open the trunk this time.
We stopped again in DeWitt for some gas and food. The subway there was weird. They don't have "Sub sauce" in the states apparently. They also have different bread and cheese options which all sounded pretty tasty. I got steak and cheese sub, turned salad, with extra meat. She put 3 containers on, instead of the normal 2, and didn't even charge me extra. They also don't do combos like we have here, but the cookies and drinks are cheaper, so it worked out in the end.
Carrying on, we found a few decent radio stations along the way. 101.5 the banana based out of Flint, MI was probably my favorite. It was a weird mix of 97.7 102.1 and 107.9, with a dash of 107.1, plus heavier stuff that no station in Ontario will play, like the new David Draiman side project, and Five Finger Death Punch, and other cool bands. We also listened to 106.1 and 107.1, but they didn't last long. Closer to the city, we had a lot of trouble finding a decent radio station, we spent more time channel surfing than actually listening to a station for more than 1/2 a song.
As we got off the highway and neared our hotel, we were a bit worried we had chosen poorly, It was dark, and it seemed like we were driving in a pretty sketchy neighborhood. There was a lot of factories and such. Turns out it's the end of a bit of an industrial area, but it's mostly bakeries and whatnot, not steel plants or chemical shit. On the other side of the hotel (that we didn't drive up from) there is 2 nice looking neighborhoods, and a pretty big shopping center- not a mall, but a Walmart, Payless, and a few other shops and restaurants.
The hotel itself was surprisingly decent, considering it was rated 2.5 stars on hotels.com. It's a good thing I look more at the user ratings than the hotels stars. The outside was bright orange and freshly painted and well maintained. The lobby was nice, and clean and also well maintained. Our room was clean, comfy, but a bit cozy with the 2 queen beds in it. The bathroom was more soundproof than some other ones we've had in the past, but not as sound proof as you would like to have. The room itself was decently soundproof too, but we could hear people in the halls on Saturday night.
Breakfast was powdered eggs in scrambled or patty form, sausage or sausage patties, some cereal, bread, and fresh waffles. They had the usual juice machine, and coffee and tea as well. Decent for being included, but by Sunday morning we wanted some non-powdered eggs. They did have pretty sweet flavored coffee creamers, which would have been good, if I drank dairy or coffee when I am not at home. (I do drink coffee at home, but only with coconut oil and a bit of coconut milk).
The free WiFi at the hotel was pretty nice, we didn't need a code or anything, which is less of a pain than some, but I suppose a little less secure. Oh well, if someone wanted to steal my identity, they would have by now. I haven't really made it that difficult. The hotel also had pretty cool vending machines that had cold drinks and food, together in one! They also had a pain killer vending machine, full of Tylenol, Advil, Excedrin, and who knows what else. A bit weird I thought, but handy if you get a headache!
So, from leaving work, with two breaks, to getting into our hotel room, it was about 8 hours. Not bad at all. Definitely worth the drive for a big competition. Not something I want to have to do every other weekend or anything, but I'd consider doing it a few times a year.
On Friday, we were planning on heading to Brazil 021 to train, but when I woke up I wasn't feeling the greatest and didn't want to end up tiring myself out and then getting sicker. I almost always get sick when I go in an airplane, so I was a bit paranoid. I also thought it would be pretty rude to show up to someone else's gym unwell and get them all sick, and be a bad partner for whoever I worked with.
So instead we looked up some outlet malls and headed out to the Chicago Premiere Outlets. There are a lot of outlet malls in the Chicago area, but we chose this one because it had a store that each of us wanted to go to. The trip there was a bit of an adventure, we took a few different highways and almost all of them had tolls. I think there and back cost us almost 20 bucks! Would have been nice to know that before we got on the highway. We ended up actually not paying a toll getting onto the highway on the way back, because it only took IPass and coins. Seriously, who has all this change all the time? Not us! We put in like 3 bucks Canadian, but it didn't seem to like that. Whatever, we are going to invest in an IPass before our next road trip because they are good for the bridge tolls into New York, and toll highways all over the north east/ and middle of the states.
The outlet mall was pretty sweet; it was like an outdoor mall, with semi-covered walkways and such. It would be really nice in the early summer and late fall. It's probably kind of hot in the middle of summer, and probably pretty cold in the winter. It was nice enough for us with jackets on. There were about 120 stores, but we only went into maybe 5 or 10.
First stop was the Coach outlet. You may be surprised, but I love purses. I've got probably 10 of them. Which, for a typical girl is probably not that many, but most people think I'm 100% tomboy and don't care about girly things like purses and shoes. We spent probably an hour there, it was glorious. So many beautiful bags, purses, wallets, wristlets. Did you know Coach makes jackets? Me neither, but they do. They were ok looking. They had 65% off their already discounted prices so I could actually afford to buy something. For those men out there who don't know, a nice size, good looking Coach purses can easily cost $300 or more. I spend all my money on Jiu Jitsu, so there is no budget for $300+ purses.
Anyway, I picked up a purse, wallet, wristlet and a present for my sister, who still thinks I bought her a pair of crocs hahahah. I'm so cruel; I've been teasing her about it since I bought it. She loves Coach and purses and things more than me, but is far more responsible with her money, so would never actually buy something for herself. Jon was actually amazingly patient, and helpful in the store! After about 45 min he was starting to wear out, but I was very impressed. He even helped pick out a color and while not all of his suggestions were quite on par with what I like/want he did good. I think partially because he knew if I spent that kind of money on a frivolous thing for me, he could to!
Next stop was the Bose store. Bose make the legendary Quite Comfort Noise Cancelling Headphones. Think Beats by Dr. Dre, but higher quality and less douche. Jon has been looking into headphones and thinking about buying a pair for a few months, so the opportunity to get them for about $75 (after the price and tax difference) less was too impossible to pass up. We are all responsible like, looking at them, trying them, then leaving to think about it and coming back later. I don't think sales people expect anyone to ever come back, but we did! We also went to the Lindt outlet, which was not very outlet like at all. Sure, they had lots of everything, but some of the prices were actually MORE than at a regular grocery store or Walmart. I was VERY disappointed.
The Underarmour store was a bit disappointing as well, not cheap, and lacking in selection of compression wear on the girl’s side. I did get 2 new pairs of knee high socks though. Reebok was more of the same. Some of my favorite under-gi shorts are reebok, but they don't even seem to make the kind I usually buy anymore :( I got 4 more pairs of socks (for the same price as the 2 pairs at the Underarmour store doh!). But that's about it.
We headed back to our hotel, with a stop at Walmart for some drinks and candy (for Jon, of course) and also Payless shoes, where they had almost an entire row of size 13 and 12 women's shoes!! It was glorious! Of course, I can't really walk in in the 6 inch heels or other ridiculousness that was there, but just having the selection was amazing. I bought a pair of WOMEN'S airwalk skate shoes for $15. Amazing.
Next stop was Applebees for dinner, there didn't seem to be much else around, so we settled. Applebees has a new appetizer that is blue cheese and beer dip with pretzel sticks. It was actually pretty good, and I don't like blue cheese, or beer. They also have amazing mozzarella sticks, and not like 4 that you get hear, a serving was 9 or 10. Seems like there is a reason America is fatter than Canada. That being said, all of North America could take a hint from Europe on appropriate serving sizes. I had a steak, which was way too salty, and some veggies. It was alright, but nothing compares to the Keg.
So, back to the hotel, and guess what's on TV. Storage Wars, a marathon! I don't know why I love this show so much, but whenever we are on the road, it seems to be on TV and we watch it. I find it hilarious and entertaining. I also like Auction Hunters, but that one doesn't seem to be on as much.
Anyway, on to the tournament. It was a typical IBJJF tournament, the venue was pretty nice. A little cozy on the floor, but it was kind of like a mini arena with seating above in 2 tiers. Great viewing angles for everything. It ran rather smoothly, but there were plenty of times that there was only one or two of the eight mats running. This happened in Boston as well. It seems like they weigh in area is the hold up, and the hesitation to use the microphone to call people when you need them. Maybe I've been spoiled and the tournaments in Ontario are getting better, but it seems like what we have going on here is just as good, if not better run these days.
I competed in the heavy weight division for this one, because that was where there was actually a person to fight. I came in 1lb under the limit, which actually surprised me, because before I left for Chicago w/o my gi I weighed 156. So I guess that extra salty steak had me retaining a lot of water, because I should have weighed in at 159 or so, not 162.5. Oh well, no matter. Marla was only like 165 so it wasn't really an issue. I wish I could say I got beat by a girl way bigger than me, but she wasn't lol. She was way stronger, and was technically solid as well. I admit I underestimated her; it’s not that often I fight girls that have a serious strength advantage on me, but this was one of those times. That combined with good jiujitsu led to me being on the defense almost the entire match and losing on points.
The absolute went a bit better; I fought Marla's teammate Teresa (I think that was her name, now I feel bad for not remembering 100%). She was in light, or maybe feather, pretty small either way. But also insanely strong, again, underestimated how strong she could be and barely squeaked by on points. The match ended with me being omaplata’d, I wasn't in a lot of danger, but I was pretty stuck.
I fought Marla again in the final of the absolute. I was ready for her this time, but the match still did not go my way. I had a better game plan, but made a mistake when I was passing her half guard that led to a scramble and then the fight spiraling wildly out of my control. She armbarred me about 3 or 4 minutes in I think. Not my best performance by far. I've been working on the pass all week, and next time I fight I won't fuck it up. Even though I did win a match, I was not as happy with how the fights went in Chicago compared to Boston. I feel like I created more opportunities for myself in Boston whereas in Chicago I didn't have a good game plan going in. I'm going to be working on that the next few weeks and I will put it to good use in New York.
I've got to mention and applaud my friend Gringo (Fernando Zulick). He won the fight in his division with absolute domination and then in the absolute beat a guy who weight close to 300lbs. The absolute fight was not the most exciting fight, but when the other guy can crush you like a worm, you've got to play a different kind of game. Gringo also won his nogi absolute, beating another big guy.
We went out for Chicago deep dish pizza at this place called Gino's East. It took like an hour to get there because of the insane down town Chicago traffic. It was brutal. We lost the Gringomobile on the way, but after a bunch of waiting and wondering what to do we ended up finding them back. Gino's East lets you write on all the walls (except for some doors, and the bathroom and other key places). The service was decent, the pizza was AMAZING and the company was alright to. Gringo and Nihad even wrote Pura BJJ with the Gringo Jiu Jitsus that they wrote all over the walls.
We went to this Egyptian Place for breakfast in the morning; it was tucked away in the corner of the Walmart plaza. It was called Mena's Grill and Omelet or something so we figured omelets are good. We didn't even know it was an Egyptian place until we got inside. We both got a "skillet" mine was Mediterranean and Jon's was vegetarian. Mine had chicken, beef, veggies and potato with some scrambled eggs on top. Jon's had veggies, potato, and cheese, and some eggs on top. They were huge, and tasty, and very reasonably priced. I would recommend the place to anyone.
On the way home, I was pretty sore and kept seeing billboards for this place called "The Chocolate Garden". I was intrigued, and used the excuse that I needed a rest and a stretch to stop by there. Man, was it ever worth it. I had this Chocolate Mocha latte thing that was more like melted chocolate with a splash of coffee, so tasty and rich, but a little sweeter than I would have liked. I think a little less white chocolate would have been ideal. I also bought 2 two packs of truffles (1 chocolate mint, and one white chocolate lemon) and a 16 pack of truffles. All together it was over $60!!! Insane I know, but seriously, they were the best chocolates I have ever had. So rich, silky and delicious.
I'm sure I am forgetting some interesting things that we came across but this blog is long enough, and I would like to get something up before the next tournament. Speaking of the next tournaments:
Niagara Open is coming up on the 23rd. This should be a good event, it’s being put on by the OJA and registration closes in a couple days.
The next Toronto Grappling event is scheduled for April 13th. They are giving away 3 trips to Rome for the IBJJF European tournaments that are coming up. None for the girls, but purple/brown guys get all the fun.
The next event I will be competing at is the IBJJF New York Open on April 20th. A bunch of us from Pura are making the road trip down so that should be a lot of fun. Hopefully there are a few girls for me to fight there.
Also coming up on the horizon is the Ontario Open. This is THE biggest and best tournament in Ontario every year. Fernando has been building this tournament up over the years and it is better every year. They are giving away 10 trips to worlds. 10! That is insane. Four of them are going to the ladies which is more than fair, considering the attendance differences.
That's all for now! See you on the mats!
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Grappling Industries Toronto Feb 16th 2013
This past weekend Grappling Industries made their second appearance in Ontario. As you may or may not know, these guys hold one of the best tournaments in Montreal. The quality, consistency, and the fact that they hold more then one event a year puts them arguably #1 in Quebec.
Their event had to scale outrageously for the ever growing Toronto market. Both Toronto shows they have hosted were double or more the size of their Montreal events. Most of the growing pains were worked out in their first event which was good, this one was even better.
No event is ever perfect though, as much as David Aguzzi would like to make his events one day. There will always be challenges, like parking, or traffic, or weird venue layouts. This Saturday, parking was an adventure, as was finding the correct building on the Ryerson Campus. Once we found the building, there were plenty of signs put up by Grappling Industries to point us to the gym.
Traffic was also an issue, the Gardiner was closed westbound in the morning, and both directions on and off in the afternoon. This caused some serious delays. It took us over 2 hours to get home, when it should have taken about 50 minutes. There were a couple accidents because of the freak snowstorm that didn't help the situation as well.
Back to the tournament. They ran 14 mats, and had enough referees to keep them running solid all day long. The table workers seemed competent, for the most part. I didn't get to interact with all of them, as I was refereeing for most of the day, but I only heard one complaint. One table worker was unaware of how to give the fighters appropriate breaks, so they ended up fighting with not enough rest. I'm sure David will speak with them and teach them more thoroughly. It's unfortunate for the competitors that didn't get adequate rest, but on the grand scheme of things, isn't major and will be resolved for the next event I'm sure.
The Gi portion of the event started 12 minutes late, which, for a bjj tournament is practically early, but I know David was unhappy about that. It really wasn't the tournaments fault though. To many people showed up late because of traffic and parking. It is not possible to get everyone checked in and weighed in on time, when people show up late. To the competitors that showed up late: Leave earlier, plan for traffic, be respectful to the tournament organizers and your fellow competitors. Gi finished up way ahead of schedule on a lot of the mats. We had an break of almost an hour between gi and nogi on quite a few mats.
Nogi ran quickly and all the mats were wrapped up and done by 4:30pm. This is really good time for a competition with over 330 competitors(470 if you count the people who did gi and nogi). Not to mention the round robin format, which made for 4 fights+ per competitor. Of course, not every single fight happened, a few people got injured in gi,and couldn't fight in nogi, as well as a few no-shows, but there was still close to 1000 matches completed in the day.
The venue, despite the parking, and traffic issues, was actually pretty cool for spectators. There was a raised "bleacher" area above the gymnasium, so spectators had a GREAT view of the mats. There was adequate room on the gym floor for the competitors and staff to get their jobs done as well. I would like to see a warm-up area, but with limited gymnasium sizes, and 14 fighting areas, there really isn't anywhere to put one!
One thing I would like to see from Grappling Industries is larger rings/mat areas. I think this is the biggest thing that needs to be addressed down the road. Of course bigger mat areas means more mats, a bigger venue, more barricades, and more transportation costs. But, it would bring the event up to the next level. Even if they doubled the safety area between the rings, It would be a big improvement.
The great thing about this event, and all of Grappling Industries events, is that they give back to the fighters. They always have prizes like rashguards, gis, and gear for winners of divisions and absolutes from their amazing sponsors. On top of that, they give away trips to worlds and pans to a selection of the absolute winners. On Saturday they gave away 6 trips!
It was great to see Alessandro win a trip, after losing an insanely close, heartbreaking absolute final in Montreal the weekend before. Amir also had a rough day in Montreal, and got to make up for it. A trip to California isn't quite the same as a trip to Abu Dhabi, but I'm sure many of these winners were planning on getting to the worlds one way or another, so this will help them a lot.
As a referee, I was put through the paces once again. I got to referee all of the ladies gi matches, which I enjoyed. Our community is a small one and I think its cool to be able to referee the ladies' and watch the fights close up. There were some really great fights though out the both divisions. The white belt absolute final was intense back and forth action that kept me on my toes. The blue+ final was also very close, but much less intense. It was a game of inches and ended up coming down to a decision(the score being 2-2, no advantages or penalties). I took my time deciding who would win, and am still confident that I made the correct decision.
The decision lead me to suggest to David that for absolute matches we use the 3 referee system. It's not that I don't think any of the referees, including myself, are capable of making a decision in these situations. It just leads to less controversy, and more confidence when you have 3 referees, all agreeing on the calls and the eventual winner. I think this is something that many tournaments could be improved by taking up. Especially for finals, or absolutes, or absolute finals, where there is more then just a medal on the line.
Amanda Bird was there taking great pictures as usual. She's a really talented, young photographer who I'm a big fan of. I think the fact that she trains and competes helps her know when a great shot is coming up. Check out a sneak peak of the photos she's taken, and like her page while your at it!
NeoJits was also onsite, making a highlight video of the event. It was on youtube earlier, but he took it down to tweak it a bit. Hopefully I will remember to put the link in here when it's back up. In the mean time check out their facebook page for other cool videos and things.
Check out Grappling Industries on Facebook for all the results, information, and future events.
Coming Up In Ontario:
March 23rd - OJA Niagara Open - Single Elimination
April 13th - Red Star Open - No Idea what the system will be, but I do know the finals will use an ADCC like scoring system where the first few minutes of the match will be sub-only. Which is awesome.
In Montreal:
March 15th FFC 2 - Charity Super Fights. Packed card of Jiu Jitsu Fights. Great Event for a great cause.
April 6th - SAU brings their sub only, double elimination style event back. I missed their last event, but it seems like a cool concept.
Mid - Late April Grappling Industries is likely hosting another event. Date/Venue haven't been confirmed yet.
In Other places:
March 3rd - Boston IBJJF Open
March 9th and 10th - Chicago Winter IBJJF Open
I am hoping to attend both of these. No one in my division yet for Chicago though. I've got the time off work though, so a road trip is happening whether we like it or not lol.
Am I missing any events?
See you on the mats, in the stands or across the ring!
Their event had to scale outrageously for the ever growing Toronto market. Both Toronto shows they have hosted were double or more the size of their Montreal events. Most of the growing pains were worked out in their first event which was good, this one was even better.
No event is ever perfect though, as much as David Aguzzi would like to make his events one day. There will always be challenges, like parking, or traffic, or weird venue layouts. This Saturday, parking was an adventure, as was finding the correct building on the Ryerson Campus. Once we found the building, there were plenty of signs put up by Grappling Industries to point us to the gym.
Traffic was also an issue, the Gardiner was closed westbound in the morning, and both directions on and off in the afternoon. This caused some serious delays. It took us over 2 hours to get home, when it should have taken about 50 minutes. There were a couple accidents because of the freak snowstorm that didn't help the situation as well.
Back to the tournament. They ran 14 mats, and had enough referees to keep them running solid all day long. The table workers seemed competent, for the most part. I didn't get to interact with all of them, as I was refereeing for most of the day, but I only heard one complaint. One table worker was unaware of how to give the fighters appropriate breaks, so they ended up fighting with not enough rest. I'm sure David will speak with them and teach them more thoroughly. It's unfortunate for the competitors that didn't get adequate rest, but on the grand scheme of things, isn't major and will be resolved for the next event I'm sure.
The Gi portion of the event started 12 minutes late, which, for a bjj tournament is practically early, but I know David was unhappy about that. It really wasn't the tournaments fault though. To many people showed up late because of traffic and parking. It is not possible to get everyone checked in and weighed in on time, when people show up late. To the competitors that showed up late: Leave earlier, plan for traffic, be respectful to the tournament organizers and your fellow competitors. Gi finished up way ahead of schedule on a lot of the mats. We had an break of almost an hour between gi and nogi on quite a few mats.
Nogi ran quickly and all the mats were wrapped up and done by 4:30pm. This is really good time for a competition with over 330 competitors(470 if you count the people who did gi and nogi). Not to mention the round robin format, which made for 4 fights+ per competitor. Of course, not every single fight happened, a few people got injured in gi,and couldn't fight in nogi, as well as a few no-shows, but there was still close to 1000 matches completed in the day.
The venue, despite the parking, and traffic issues, was actually pretty cool for spectators. There was a raised "bleacher" area above the gymnasium, so spectators had a GREAT view of the mats. There was adequate room on the gym floor for the competitors and staff to get their jobs done as well. I would like to see a warm-up area, but with limited gymnasium sizes, and 14 fighting areas, there really isn't anywhere to put one!
One thing I would like to see from Grappling Industries is larger rings/mat areas. I think this is the biggest thing that needs to be addressed down the road. Of course bigger mat areas means more mats, a bigger venue, more barricades, and more transportation costs. But, it would bring the event up to the next level. Even if they doubled the safety area between the rings, It would be a big improvement.
The great thing about this event, and all of Grappling Industries events, is that they give back to the fighters. They always have prizes like rashguards, gis, and gear for winners of divisions and absolutes from their amazing sponsors. On top of that, they give away trips to worlds and pans to a selection of the absolute winners. On Saturday they gave away 6 trips!
- White Belt Women - Chealsey Livingston
- Blue+ Women - Roya
- White Belt Men - Kevin Bacon
- Blue Belt Men - Sean Kent
- Purple Belt Men - Alessandro Roman
- Brown/Black Men - Amir Yafawi
It was great to see Alessandro win a trip, after losing an insanely close, heartbreaking absolute final in Montreal the weekend before. Amir also had a rough day in Montreal, and got to make up for it. A trip to California isn't quite the same as a trip to Abu Dhabi, but I'm sure many of these winners were planning on getting to the worlds one way or another, so this will help them a lot.
As a referee, I was put through the paces once again. I got to referee all of the ladies gi matches, which I enjoyed. Our community is a small one and I think its cool to be able to referee the ladies' and watch the fights close up. There were some really great fights though out the both divisions. The white belt absolute final was intense back and forth action that kept me on my toes. The blue+ final was also very close, but much less intense. It was a game of inches and ended up coming down to a decision(the score being 2-2, no advantages or penalties). I took my time deciding who would win, and am still confident that I made the correct decision.
The decision lead me to suggest to David that for absolute matches we use the 3 referee system. It's not that I don't think any of the referees, including myself, are capable of making a decision in these situations. It just leads to less controversy, and more confidence when you have 3 referees, all agreeing on the calls and the eventual winner. I think this is something that many tournaments could be improved by taking up. Especially for finals, or absolutes, or absolute finals, where there is more then just a medal on the line.
Amanda Bird was there taking great pictures as usual. She's a really talented, young photographer who I'm a big fan of. I think the fact that she trains and competes helps her know when a great shot is coming up. Check out a sneak peak of the photos she's taken, and like her page while your at it!
NeoJits was also onsite, making a highlight video of the event. It was on youtube earlier, but he took it down to tweak it a bit. Hopefully I will remember to put the link in here when it's back up. In the mean time check out their facebook page for other cool videos and things.
Check out Grappling Industries on Facebook for all the results, information, and future events.
Coming Up In Ontario:
March 23rd - OJA Niagara Open - Single Elimination
April 13th - Red Star Open - No Idea what the system will be, but I do know the finals will use an ADCC like scoring system where the first few minutes of the match will be sub-only. Which is awesome.
In Montreal:
March 15th FFC 2 - Charity Super Fights. Packed card of Jiu Jitsu Fights. Great Event for a great cause.
April 6th - SAU brings their sub only, double elimination style event back. I missed their last event, but it seems like a cool concept.
Mid - Late April Grappling Industries is likely hosting another event. Date/Venue haven't been confirmed yet.
In Other places:
March 3rd - Boston IBJJF Open
March 9th and 10th - Chicago Winter IBJJF Open
I am hoping to attend both of these. No one in my division yet for Chicago though. I've got the time off work though, so a road trip is happening whether we like it or not lol.
Am I missing any events?
See you on the mats, in the stands or across the ring!
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