GTA Classic and Upcoming stuff

Saturday Sept 22nd was the Annual GTA Classic!   The OJA is stepping things up and I like it!  

They had 8 mats running, pretty smoothly for most of the day I was there.   The reffing was decent, I saw a few interesting calls, but not enough, and not that bad that I would say the reffing was bad.  It wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst by a long shot.

      All the staff was friendly and efficient, and put up with me trying to rush them along as much as I was.    I'm normally really patient at tournaments and don't care if they run late or whatever, but I had to head to work and I felt like such an ass when I was asking about my division start time 10 minutes after it was scheduled to start.  The only reason it didn't start on time was because there was a bit of a discussion with the light weight blue division that needed to be sorted out before we could do the absolute.

The tournament was really well attended on the kids, masters, and adult men's side of things, but the ladies division were super sparse!  There was 10 registered, but only 8 competed.   that is so sad.   It's not the tournaments fault, like I talked about in a previous post, it's a weird situation and we need to work together to find a solution!!  

I enjoyed watching the kids competed,  Pura had 3 kids registered, and they all had really tough competition!  I was really impressed with the level of jiu jitsu that was happening in the kids divisions.  Some people were complaining that the kids divisions don't have subs, but to me I think that is the way it should be.  Kids don't have the degree of control that adults do, and if their arms get hyper extended or something else bad they could do serious damage that will affect them for their entire life! 

I didn't get to see a lot of the adult competition, but from what I saw, competition was fierce!  I caught a few of the purple belt matches and was really impressed.  There was more purple belts there then I've seen at a lot of tournaments lately, It's cool to see that many come and compete.   BJJ in Ontario is growing like crazy and its good to see that the higher up guys are able to compete at the local tournaments now.

I only got to compete in the absolute because there was no one in my division (medium heavy) and no one in heavy to move up to.  I was pretty bummed, and tried to cut weight early in the week to move down to middle, but my body was not co-operating, so I was stupid in medium heavy.  I plan on being in Middle for Provincials, or ascension at the very latest.

   I was super stoked that everyone who competed registered for the absolute,  that made for a 5 person division!   I was even happier when I saw that I was the only fight in the first round!  More matches!   I was a little bummed it was against my friend Melissa, since we have fought in the past, and I would have rather fought someone who I hadn't fought yet, and had a chance to fight Melissa later in the rounds.   But that's the way the cookies crumble, so we went out and had a great match.   Melissa is crazy strong and very explosive for someone her size and it's a challenge to catch her in submissions.    Her guard is really strong and I had to bait a sub to get past it!   Dangerous, I know, but it gets the job done more often then not.  I ended up eventually catching her with an arm bar and moving on to the next round.

Next up was Terri,  who I had competed against at the IBJJF Montreal absolute a few weeks ago,  I think it's great that she made the road trip all the way down from Montreal for the tournament. I wish more girls would do that!  Last time we fought Terri had really good gripping early on the match and pulled guard quickly, so I was ready for it this time and was looking for the pass before she even hit the ground.  This worked out pretty well, and I spent a good portion of the match in side control looking for subs.  I eventually was able to isolate an arm and setup a kimura.  I don't do a lot of kimura's but they are a cool sub, and I like them.

In the final, I fought Jodi,   she's got a killer guard and I tried to pull guard before her, but she beat me to it!   I spent a good amount of time working to pass her guard,  once again, I baited a sub to get her guard open and passed.  This is probably a bad habit, and I think I should spend some time drilling breaking the guard and passing. 

Goofing around on the podium with my sword!

I'm the right height now! I'm to tall for this sport!

Heather and I with our sweet samurai swords!

I had a great time competing and chatting with all the girls that came out.  We need to work on building more of a community amongst ourselves and carving out a space for ourselves at these events! 


I have to give a shout out to my team mate Heather!    She won her division and the white belt absolute!  She's a killer and I absolutely love having another girl who loves to compete on the team!

Thanks again to all my amazing team mates at Pura BJJ for helping me get ready and supporting me at the tournament It means so much to me to be part of this great team.


Next up for me is Toronto Grappling.  I am really looking forward to this event.  It will be nice not to have to drive all the way to Montreal for this round robin format!  I heard their is already some tough girls registered and I am looking forward to the challenge!  There are 4 trips to the IBJJF Pans on the line at this event for some of the absolute winners, including one for the ladies!   I can't really say enough good things about this tournament.  It's perfect for anyone looking to get more experience, new and experienced competitors alike!

Also coming up is the NYC Pro Trials.  I'm have been and will  continue working my ass off to get ready for this event.  I had a not so great time trying to qualify for abu dhabi last year, and I am hungry for another shot.  I am heading to that tournament with only one goal in mind, I will be winning a trip to abu dhabi.  To me, It's not an option.   This will be the the culmination of a year of hard work and dedication and I can only accept one outcome from that tournament.

 See you all on the mats!

Sad state of women's Bjj in Ontario and cutting weight sucks

So  my last post I was all excited about the number of girls who competed at the montreal grappling.  This week I'm ranting about the lack of girls at the GTA classic.

There is no purple belts, and I am the only blue in medium heavy or heavy,  there are I think 7 blues in medium and below, which isn't bad, but its weird that my division and heavy are empty. They are often the most populace divisions!

The white belt situation is dismal at best, my team mate Heather is in light, and has to fight all the way up to medium heavy to have a fight! She will he giving up about 30 lbs.   She's awesome and will be fine, but its crazy that there isn't anyone else in light or middle!   There are only a couple girls all together in white.  It's sad.  Those girls are the future of jiu jitsu in Ontario and there isn't very many.  Statistically speaking there isn't going to be anyone left if a year or two!

The GTA classic isn't to blame. They are doing all the can to get girls on the Mats.  Discounted registration, good abosolute prizes and separating the belts so people arnt intimidated by the prospect of fighting more experienced girls.   What else can they do?  I would like to see an absolute for the white belts, even if there are no extra prizes,  just so that they have a better opportunity for matches.  Other then that, they are doing a great job.

So who's responsible for this sadness?  Is it the clubs? The coaches? The tram mates?  Are girls not being encouraged to compete like the guys are? Or are they to discouraged by not being able to roll competitively against there male team mates that they think they aren't ready to compete?     Is there names on the list that are scaring people away? I've heard this talked about but I personally love to have a tough fight so I find this difficult to believe.  

It doesn't matter who is to blame,  we need to fix it.   I think I will start a facebook group or fan page for the ladies of Ontario who do Jiu jitsu so we can talk about tournaments and encourage each other.  

I think one problem is, no one wants to register and then have no one to fight,  so you wait and wait till someone else registers, meanwhile,  they are waiting for you!  So ladies,  just sign up!! Worst case senarjo, at most events, you'll get your money back and you might even get to still compete in the absolute.   

In a few weeks the best opportunity on the planet to get good competition experience will land in the GTA.  The toronto grappling grand prix.   Round robin.  White separate from blue and up,  and let's not forget, a trip to worlds for the blue and up absolute winner!    I have been attending the montreal tournaments for the past year and the atmosphere and conradarie at these events is amazing.   I encourage every one of you to register.  Don't wait for a competitor list, register, and inspire others to do the same.

So, the 2nd part of this.   Cutting weight sucks.  As you may or may not know, I used to be kind of fat.  Well, I was skinny, then I git injuries and got fat.  I was pushing 200 lbs at this time last year.  I hid it well because of my height and build but it was bad.    I've since worked my way down to comfortably making medium heavy, which is -163.5 with my gi on.   As you now know, there is no one in this class, so on Monday I decided to try to cut to middle.   Middle weight is -152.5 with my gi.   This will he the lights I've been since I fought MMA in 2009.  My body doesn't like being much smaller the. 155, so this is pretty rough.    I have until tonight at midnight to let the organisers know if I am moving down or not.   Last night, with my gi on, I was 6 lbs over, after class.   It made me realize how dehydrated I will have to be to pull this off.    Is it worth it? Should I just stay and only do the absolute and hope that it will be early enough in the day that I will be there for it?  
The worst part is, my team mates can cut this kind of weight no problem. They eat clean for a day or two and bam, they are down 7 lbs.   Guys can cut weight so much More easily then girls.  There is science to it and its rather unfortunate. 

So, that's what's on my mind right now!  Do you have any ideas on how to get girls out? Any weight cutting tips tricks? stories? 

See you on the mats!