Confessions of a BJJ Tournament Addict

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Handy Dandy Rules and Format Comparison

Hi Everyone!

So, the other day I was thinking about the different events out there, and the differences in the rules, and Jon and I talked about a post we saw that was suposed to be about the differences in the rules in various promotions, but really didn't tell you anything.

SO I thought, why not make a fairly comprehensive chart, of the various promotions that I know about with the differences and similarities of each. I tried to list all the things that people might care about. This chart generally applies to ADULT GI DIVISIONS. Of course ADCC is nogi, and when I could, I made comments about a promotions nogi rules as well. IBJJF the rules are identical for gi/nogi so that is why there are no notes about the differences there.

If there are any mistakes, omissions, or things you would like added, please leave a comment, or message me on facebook, twitter, or reddit, or however else you want to contact me. If there is another promotion out there that hosts events in more then one city and has an easily accessed rule set, send me the info, and I will try to add them. I'd like this to be as comprehensive as possible!

I know the chart doesn't fit perfectly in my stupid layout, sorry about that, I haven't spent that much time trying to make it all responsive and beautiful. As a programmer, I am ashamed, but I'd rather get this information out sooner and deal with making it absolutely beautiful later.

If you know 100% the answer to any place I have left as a question mark, please also let me know. I couldn't find anything in those events rules books to confirm or deny how they handle the situations.

If you see a little Number like this ⁹⁹⁹⁹ Click on it, it will open a cool little tooltip with more information about it. They aren't the prettiest, but it sure beats scrolling up and down, or clicking and getting automatically scrolled down.

Each heading links to that organizations most current rules (that I could find).

Format and Such
	IBJJF CBJJF OJA	Grappling Industries	Grapplers Quest	Five	Naga	ADCC	Abu Dhabi Pro
Bracket Format	Single¹	Round Robin²	Single	Single	Single	Single	Single
Match Length	5 / 6 / 7 / 8 /10	5	5 / 6 / 7 / 8 /10	6	4 / 5/ 6(pbb)	6-10¹²	6
over time	No	No	NOGI and Superfights only	No	Ref Discretion	Yes¹³	No
Weigh in time	Before Division	Morning Of	Night before, or morning of	4 to 1 hour before division	Night before, and morning of³²	Morning of³	Night before only
weigh in with gi?	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Weight Classes	Standard³⁴	Standard^{34 ,37}	Every 10lbs ish ³⁵	See Chart³⁸	Every 10lbs is³⁶	See Chart³⁹	Varys ⁴⁰
pre registration only	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Absolutes	Medal Winners	Gold Only	Sign Up and Pay	Sign up and Pay	Sign up and Pay	Medal Winners	Medal Winners⁴
Gi rules²⁵	Very Strict, White/Blue/Black, no frays Page 28	Less Strict, But follows IBJJF Rules Gi and Uniform	Any color, but must match Item 16	blue, black white matching Page 16	No color or matching restrictions Page 46	N/A	Follows IBJJF Rules kimonos
Rashguard under gi	No	No	No	No²⁶	Yes	N/A	No
nogi uniform regulations	Black rashguard and board shorts, no tights	rashguard and board shorts	rashguard and shorts, tights or gi pants	rashguard/tight top and shorts, tights or gi pants	minimum - shorts	No real rules	N/A
cups allowed	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No real rules	No
entry fee(one division)³¹	IBJJF - 100(ish) CBJJF - 70/90 OJA - 50-65	60/70³³	100-120	100	80(ish)	80	100-120
Membership Fee	IBJJF - 35²⁷ OJA - 25²⁸	N/A	0/10/35²⁹	0/10/35³⁰	N/A	N/A	35
Points and Advantages
	IBJJF CBJJF OJA	Grappling Industries	Grapplers Quest	Five	Naga	ADCC	Abu Dhabi Pro
Points for Sub Attempts	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Advantages for Sub Atempts	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No⁵	No⁶	Yes
Points for Takedowns	2	2	2/3⁷	2	2⁸	2/4⁹	2
Points for Knee on Belly	2	2	2¹⁰	2	2	2	2
Points for Sweeps	2	2	2	2	2	2/4¹¹	2
points for passes	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Advantage for pass to turtle	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
points for mount	4	4	4	4	4	2	4
points for back mount	4	4	4	4	4	2	4
points for back control	4	4	4	4	4	3	4
points for body triangle (back control)	-	-	-	4	-	-	-
double guard pull	Adv	Adv	?	2	Adv	?	Adv
penalty for guard pull	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Allowed Techniques
	IBJJF CBJJF OJA	Grappling Industries	Grapplers Quest	Five	Naga	ADCC	Abu Dhabi Pro
Kneebars	Brown/Black	Brown/Black	All Adults¹⁵	All Adults	Brown/Black¹⁴	All Adults	Brown/Black
Wrist Locks	Blue	Blue	All Adults	All Adults	Blue	All Adults	Blue
Heel Hooks	No	No	Nogi only¹⁶	No	Nogi only	Intermediate+	No
Toe Holds	Brown/Black	Brown/Black	Brown/Black¹⁸	Brown/Black¹⁹	Brown/Black¹⁷	Intermediate+	Brown/Black
slicers / compression locks	Brown/Black	Brown/Black	No²⁰	Brown/Black	Brown/Black	Intermediate+	Brown/Black
slams	No	No	No	No	No	Yes²¹	No
spine locks (twisters)	No	No	No/Yes²²	No	No/Yes²³	Yes²⁴	No
Banana Splits	13+	13+	Not Mentioned	Not Mentioned	18+	Intermediate+	13+

1 - OJA - kids they use round robin (usually under age 8, sometimes under 11)
2 - 4 fights in the round robin, then if there is a tie, they do a single elimination bracket to determine winners. Divisions of 2 will do a best of 3, divisions of 3, you fight each guy twice, divisions of 4 I think you get only 3 fights.
3 - I see some posts saying they don't do day before anymore, we haven't had one one these around anymore, and there was some controversy about the weigh ins the last event, so I wouldn't count on this information being 100% accurate.
For the qualifying tournaments, many divisions, you must win the absolute to earn a trip. It varies by divisions how well you must do in your weight class to qualify, Normally it's top 4, but sometimes it is top 8.
5 - Five does not give advantages at all, so nothing for sub attempts, but in the case of a draw, sub attempts are the first thing that is considered when choosing a winner.
6 -ADCC does not use advantages at all.
7 - 2 points if you end up in a guard, 3 points if you end up in side control or mount.
8 - Naga has some strange rules about take downs in NOGI, where sometimes you only get 1 point. This chart is about Gi Rules only. You are best off reading page 19 or their rule book.
9 - ADCC gives 2 points if you finish the takedown in a guard position, and 4 if you finish passed the guard(like side control or mount)
10 - Grapplers Quest does NOT give points for knee on belly in NOGI.
11 - ADCC considers reversals as sweeps as well, and sweeps that end passed the guard earn 4 points.
12 - ADCC has pretty convoluted match times. national and qualifier events have 6 minutes for the first rounds, and 8 for the final, the world championships has 10 and 20. Also note, ADCC does not score points for the first 1/2 of the match.
13 - Overtime is 1/2 the match length. Only 1 overtime per match.
14 - Kneebars are Allowed for ALL adults in NOGI at Naga
15 - Kneebars are legal for all adults in gi, and nogi at Grappler's Quest, they are even legal for advanced kids/teens in nogi.
16 - Heel Hooks are legal in the Advanced and Pro and Superfight NOGI divisions only at grappler's quest. ***the OGA, who grappler's quest works with in Ontario, does NOT allow Heel Hooks, so they would never be legal, in Ontario.
17 - Toe Holds are legal for all adults in NOGI at Naga
18 - Toe Holds are legal in Advanced NOGI adult divisions at Grappler's Quest
19 - Toe Holds are legal in the Expert NOGI adult divisions at Five
20 - Calf crushes are NOT legal in Gi at Grapplers Quest, but are in advanced/professional and brown/black. They have contradictory rules on their website, so I would confirm with them at the event before going for one in the Gi divisions.
21 - Slams ARE allowed, but only to escape a sub, slams from guard are not. Yes, ADCC is crazy.(not for beginners or intermediate)
22 - Neck/Cervical Locks are only allowed in the advanced / pro NOGI divisions at Grapplers Quest
23 - Neck/Cervical Locks are only allowed in the All Adult NOGI divisions at Naga.
24 - Spine Twisters are NOT allowed in the Beginer ADCC division
25 - Everyone has something in their rules about gi's and nogi uniforms, your best bet is to just look it up, since I don't feel like writing a paragraph in each box and making my table ugly.
26 - It doesn't say in the rules that it is allowed, it just doesn't say that it is not allowed. According to a facebook post, they are not allowed.
27 - IBJJF - Black belts, kids, juveniles, and possibly others need to have a membership to compete. eventually everyone will. The CBJJF does not have a membership fee.
28 - All competitors must be registered with the OJA, membership is valid for the calendar year
29 - Grapplers Quest in ontario is sanctioned by the OGA, which comes with a $10 per event, or $35 for a year membership fee
30 - Five in ontario is sanctioned by the OGA, which comes with a $10 per event, or $35 for a year membership fee
31 - These vary event to event, and location to location and are just here as general indicator.
32 - Night before is currently only at the Toronto(and future, large events)
33 - 60 in Montreal, 70 in Toronto. Kids are less
37 - Grappling Industries uses the IBJJF NOGI Weight classes for their single weigh in(gi or nogi), and you can weigh in wearing as little as you want (undergarments required).
39 - ADCC Weight Classes
see the official weight class page Here

Mens
-145.2 lbs
-169.5 lbs
-193.7 lbs
-218.0 lbs
+220.5 lbs
Womens
-132.2lbs
+132.2lbs

40 - Abu Dhabi Pro Weight classes vary by qualifier and event. Your best bet is to just check the website for the qualifier you are attending.

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):

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)!

Friday, 7 June 2013

IBJJF Worlds AKA Mundials 2013 Tournament Report

So, I've been trying to figure out the best way to blog about this whole trip and tournament and my experiences around it and have decided to have 2 posts. The first (this one) about the tournament and then later, as I have time, I will write the novel that will be my experience over the entire trip and all the fun and not so fun things I did and didn't do over the 9 days.

There is so much to talk about, that I am going to break this down into a few sections and sub sections. The tournament in general: broken down by good, and bad, and then go over some interesting fights, some results from my teammates and friends, and who knows what else.

The tournament in General

The good stuff

The Venue, known as "The Walter Pyramid" was pretty much perfect. It fits 12 mat areas with ample space for the bullpen, check in area, podium, and t-shirt distributor. The floor was restricted to athletes only, and didn't have space around the edges for people to stand around, so it kept the viewing angles nice and clean. They had a camera on one of the mats all day, every day, which was broadcast on a giant screen, which also showed commercials for the sponsors every once and a while. This was a cool touch, it took us a while to figure out what the seemingly random music that started up every once and a while was. There was enough space in the stands for all the spectators, and for the finals on Sunday they brought down the extra section and it was all pretty well packed. The seats were a mix of benches and chairs. I would recommend going for the chairs, because the lack of backs on the benches gets annoying pretty fast when you are there for 10+hours a day 4 days in a row. The venue was pretty easy to find, and parking was only 5 bucks a day, which isn't unreasonable at all.

· The Food! It wasn't cheap, but man oh man was it every tasty. Silvio’s BBQ provided the main dishes. The garlic fries were absolutely amazing, and the chicken was divine. It was also insanely expensive, $7 for fries, and like 12 bucks for a chicken sandwich, but it was totally worth it. They only take cash, which was fairly inconvenient, but I had enough cash for what I wanted so it's all good. The other place I had food from was the Acai place. I can't remember what it was called though. The bowls were quite a bit smaller than places for acai bowls in Costa Mesa for about the same price. But I suppose you are paying for the convenience of not having to leave the venue. The big pain in the ass is that apparently last year people spilled them all over the seats so they didn't allow them in the stands. So I missed a bunch of fights to eat acai. Worth it I suppose, but it would be nice to be able to eat my lunch / breakfast / dinner / snack in the stands and not miss any of the jiu jitsu that was happening. There was also a typical stadium food stand with pretzels and Starbucks coffee, but why would you want that when you could have Silvio’s or acai bowls!!

General Structure and whatnot: Like most IBJJF tournaments, it all started and ran on time from what I could tell. I didn't have a schedule handy throughout the day, but my team mates all fought at around the division start time. On Saturday, the referees were all on the mats, and 8 or 9 of them started exactly at the start time, with the other 3 or 4 starting within a minute of that. It was pretty impressive to see a tournament manage the sheer numbers of people that were there to compete. Getting my free t-shirt and Gracie Mag was a smooth process as usual as well. I don't think everyone realized they were available because the line never seemed very long. They were tucked under the bleachers near the bullpen. The mat coordinators seemed to do a pretty good job, sometimes they were a little quiet, but I didn't see or hear anyone talking about being DQ'd because they didn't know they were up, or didn't find their mat organizers on time. The customer service people were really nice too, when I went there to withdraw because of my shoulder they were very sympathetic and stuff. It was a quick and easy process too.

The level of competition was insane! Seriously, so many black belts in one building. It was ridiculous. 12 mats, all running brown and black belt fights. It was impossible to watch them all! We couldn't keep track of all the fighters we wanted to watch! It was also insane to see guys who we thought would crush their divisions lose. It seems like what used to be a purple is now blue, and what used to be brown is purple, and so on. In 90% of the non-black belt divisions I watched, the guys/gals on the podium need new belts. There are a few cases where this isn't true, like Dominyka, who just got her brown belt, and some of the smaller ladies divisions, where even losing your first fight got you on the podium. But, 9/10 divisions, it was far past time for a promotion for the finalists. This made for some pretty excellent fights at all the belt levels but also it seems like people are after medals more than progression.

The Sponsors. There were plenty of gear companies represented, and also some multi-brand companies like fighters market and whatnot. If you needed some new gear, you could easily get it. The prices were reasonable as well. Koral had a pretty sweet deal of 2 gis and some other crap for like $200 bucks. I think Jon would have gone for it, if our bags weren't really full already. Shoyoroll did a special tournament only release. We were supposed to get one for a teammate, but there was a giant line 3 hours before the release so he was out of luck. It’s cool for tournaments to have sponsors like gear companies in case they are mega anal (like the IBJJF is) and the gi(s) you brought were not legal. That being said, you should bring proper fitting, non-torn gis to tournaments and bring more than one, two at least, 3 is better. Pants tear all the time.

Alright, on to the bad stuff, this is not a short list, and considering the prestige and cost and everything that goes along with "the Worlds" this list should be non-existent.

Terrible Refereeing, Favoritism, and Inconsistencies: These three all go hand in hand. They were DQ'ing some people for knee reaps, ignoring them completely for others, and only penalizing for others. It didn't matter if there was a sub involved or not. They gave some people advantages for the saddest excuse for a submission and others which looked insanely tight got nothing. They gave advantages and didn't give advantages for almost sweeps/passes/takedowns just as willy-nilly. And then there were the penalties. The most blatant of which was the penalty Ary Farias getting a penalty for leaving the mat area before is hand was raised. Now, this IS technically a penalty, but, seriously, probably 50% or more of the winners went out of bounds after they won. Let's also not forget there is a penalty for excessive celebrating, and let me tell you, there was a lot of that going on, and NO ONE got penalized for that either. It was frightening to watch the referees give decisions. I don't really want to get into it too much, I know, as an Atos member, for me to say "Atos got screwed" is going to just sound like I’m whining because my team lost a few matches. It wasn't just Atos though; so many people’s hard work and dedication were wasted/ruined by the incompetent or just plain biased referees.

Long Days Schedule Changes: The tournament was originally scheduled to be 5 days. Wednesday to Sunday. A few days before the event, they cut it down to 4, jamming everything in, and making those 4 days ridiculously long. The competition started at 9 am Thurs through Saturday and some divisions were not scheduled to start until 7PM or later While this isn't so bad for a local competitor, who can come and go as they please, for the competitors who planned their travel around the pre-scheduled, and thought they would only need to be at the tournament wed/thurs and booked their fights to accommodate that, it kind of screwed them over. It also made for extremely long days for the coaches. I'd much rather have to be at a venue for 5 days that are 10-5, then 4 days that are 9am to 9-9:30 or pm.
The Sound System: Most of the time, it was barely ok, there many times where you couldn’t understand who they were calling or what mat It was pretty annoying. Some of the announcers were better than others, but it was generally very muffled. The female announcers were the most difficult to understand, they were quite, and their accent was pretty thick. I've been to tournaments that had much worse PA systems, and ones that have much better.
No ATM. This is pretty self-explanatory. Thankfully the Acai bowl place took credit cards through an IPad so I was fine, but the BBQ took cash only, and it was more expensive then the acai so that was a pain in the butt. The IPad for taking credit cards was pretty cool. I think that's a technology that has been pretty easily available in the States for a long time, but it's pretty new in Canada I think. Anyway, not a horrible problem, but rather inconvenient if you don't know in advance.
Not knowing the rules. Fighters, coaches, referee, you name them, and they didn't know the rules. Seriously, People calling for points when they most definitely shouldn't. People doing techniques that aren't legal in their division (and not just reaping). I saw a blue belt dive on a knee bar. The worst was in the semi-finals, a black belt stuck in a triangle, on his feet, walked right out of bounds. There is a rule, you cannot flee deliberately out of bounds to escape a submission it’s an immediate DQ. This guy didn't seem to realize that this was an offense at all, let alone one that warranted a DQ!
Poor Sportsmanship: Lots of people were guilty of this. From cheering and carrying on because someone won because of a penalty for the other guy after the match was over (Ary), to athletes skirting the knee-reap rule and injuring their opponents with obvious inward knee pressure. I'm all for team spirit, and supporting your team mates, but there was far too much excessive chanting, heckling, booing, and whatnot. I'm fine with celebrating your wins, especially hard fought battles, but to boo competitors on the podium, or any of the other crap that was happening was not acceptable.
Terrible Score Keepers: These high school students cost several athletes wins. They were too busy messing around on their cell phones to score a match properly. It was awful. They missed scores many times, and put them on the wrong side more than once. One of the Miyao's, I Believe, Joao, ended up losing his match because the score board said he was up an advantage, but either the referee, or the score keeper screwed up, and in the end, the advantage was the other guys and he lost. There were plenty of other cases where the score was messed up and it caused so much confusion. A tournament that charges 95 bucks a shot, and has probably 3000 people should be able to hire competent table workers.
Ontario's Performance: It was a rough day in the office for most of the athletes from Ontario. Only a couple made it to the podium and many lost in the first round. Not performing poorly was Open Mat's Scott Bacon (Gold) and Ostap M (Bronze). Sadly, Ostap forgot to register for the absolute, so didn't get a chance to double medal. The guys from Pura went 1-3; Toronto BJJ had a rough day as well. I am probably missing a few others, but I can't think of them. It's crazy to see competitors that destroy on the local scene lose at tournaments like this. Especially ones that perform so well at other huge tournaments like Pans. I think this partially goes back to the level of competition, and the travel, time difference, not eating regularly, and all the other things that go along with a tournament like this. Whatever, Next year will be better!!
Gender Bias: The male black belts had the quarters, semis, and finals, all on Sunday. The Women only the finals. How does that make any sense? My only theory is that some of the women's black belt divisions did not have enough competitors in them to support having semis and finals on Sunday, but I don't recall any of the podiums not having 4 competitors on them.

I had some other crap to write about, but I can't remember now. Or, I've decided it's not worth getting into. Overall the tournament gets a B or B+. We'll be going back next year, of course, because it's one of the only events I can get more then 1 or 2 fights in a competition.

I think that's enough rambling for now, I’ll write more about how the trip in general went next week while I am at a conference in Portland with nothing to do in the evenings.

Saturday, 25 May 2013

I'm sorry everyone.

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Costa mesa, California with my team mates stephen, Alasdair, and Jon. We are here to train, and compete at the worlds. We planned and booked this trip months ago. Then, at the ontario open 3 weeks ago, I was kimuraed.

I have been resting it for the last 2.5 weeks in hopes that it wasn't to badly damaged. On Thursday, after trying to do some light drilling and being brought to tears trying to get t-shirts on, I decided to see my physiotherapist.

My physio guy is awesome. I've be seeing him for my injuries since my judo days. He took care of me when I had knee surgery, bursitis, torn mcl, torn quad tendon, and all the other stupid shit that has happened to my body over the years. He works with Dr. Levy who is arguably the best sports doc in Canada. The pair of them have kept me training and competing over the years.

Anyway.... I called the office up Friday at.noon and they could squeeze me in right away. My work was cool with me leaving an hour or two early to get it checked out. They are really supportive and I really appreciate that. I headed right over, driving pretty much exclusively with my right arm and got to jump right in to be assessed.

After a bunch of poking proding, lifting, pushing, pulling and a few yelps and ouches, and lots of incomprehensible note scribbling he came to a few conclusions.

1. Torn labrum
2. Torn rotator cuff
3. Torn muscle who's name I can remember that does the lifting of your arm when it's straight out sideways.
4. Incredibly instable shoulder.

Having not had a lot of shoulder injuries in the past, the gravity of this list of diagnosises was unclear to me. So I flat out asked him "how bad is this, should I train and or compete with it". The look on his face said "are you insane?" And his answer was equally lacking in confidence. "If you can keep it from moving into any of the "dislocation positions" aka kimura, Americana, arm out straight, and pretty much any position other then my arm close to my body with any pressure on it. Followed by "it will dislocate and absolutely require surgery that has a very long recovery if that happens".

.....Damn....

Before the appointment, my shoulder hadn't felt toooo bad, I think because I'd been not using it at all. I mean, dressing sucked, especially bras, but I think I'd been managing to just not use it and avoid agrevating it because after the assessment it was awful, I've been popping extra strength liquid gel advil like they are candy. I've upgraded to extra strengt liquid gel Aleve here in Costa mesa.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with the whole situation. I've spent probably 800 bucks just on my portion of this trip. I've used up half of my yearly vacation time, and I have my awesome sponsor redstar Bjj who helped.me out with the registration fee. There are 10 or 11 Girls in my division, I won't have an opportunity to compete with more then one or two in a division till this time next year. I have already paid for the training at aoj, I've bought the atos gi patch and team t-shirt. I've been training hard, cutting weight and working on my co.conditioning for months for this tournament. I've got team mates who have helped me train, family and friends who have out up with grumpy, hungry, exhausted, to busy training to be a good sister/daughter/friend. Co-workers who have been so supportive and accommodating to my stupid diet restrictions.

On the other side.... I can't even get my.sports bras on without Tearing up, I haven't trained in 3 weeks, I can't even close the trunk of our rental car with my arm. I can't close a door behind me, I can't take my phone out of my back pocket. I can't lift my arm above 90 degrees when it is out sideways. Every moment I live is agony. (yea, if you can name where that's from you are as a big a nerd as I am, everyone I'm this hotel room will know instantly I am sure). As it stands, I might need.surgery, but not a terrible one. If it gets any strain, then it will likely need a major surgery that will likely leave me off the mats for a year.

We went to open mat at aoj this morning. The plan was to see if I could do some technique drilling and test it out bit. I can't even SLR and berimbolo because I can't even maintain a grip on a belt or sleeve. I can't hug an arm to my body to armbar, I can't do shit with that arm. Not only can I not use it, just trying to avoid it makes me tense it and whatnot which makes it hurt even more.

I know the saying is that if you are 100% going into a fight, you didn't train hard enough. As someone who has been a competitor since I was a teenager, I know this is pretty much true. I've gone into competitions and fights at less then 100%, its a rare thing to be 100%. But, there is a difference between not being 100% and having a useless arm that you'd be better off not having at all. At least, if the arm was go.e, I wouldn't try to use it and end up dislocating destroying and completely ruining it. How can I preform and represent my team well without having trained for 3 weeks, trying to protect my arm, while also trying to win a fight, when I cannot do any jiu jitsu with it.

I CANNOT.

I've had a few cries since last weekend thinking about this. I had a mental breakdown last weekend because I was so stressed out about what to do and that was before I had the diagnosis of doom.

It kills me to have to have been off the mats the last 3 weeks, to have the 3 guys rolling with guys like the miyao brothers, that guy from the kumite, and other awesome purple brown and black belts. It kills me to have wasted probably 1000 bucks, not all of it my own. It kills me to not compete. I'm fighting tears as I type this.

I can't imagine how disappointed everyone is that I am pussying out and not competing. I will likely have to withdrawl from the five grappling event ad well. I can't imagine this is going to be sorted out before then.

I'm sorry to you all. I don't even know for certain this is the right decision. Normally I don't worry about future Patricia, but this is current Patricia and future patricias problem and hopefully I can get future Patricia back on the mats without needing surgery and without being out for a year or more.

I will be going back to see Ruddy and Dr. Levy as soon as we get back from California to get a prescription for some diagnostic imaging to confirm the diagnosis, and see the extent of the damage and make a game plan for my recovery.

I'm sorry.

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.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

2013 Ontario Open May 12th and 13th Tournament Report

Move over IBJJF, there is a new king of the tournament scene, and it's name is the Ontario Open.

As you probably know, since you read my blog, or at least, you pretend too read my blog, and like the post when I put a new link on facebook, I have always said that the IBJJF run the smoothest, most professional tournament I have attended.   Not Anymore.   The Ontario Open just stole that crown, with very little pomp and flair. They've been uping their game every year, and this year tipped them over.   This comes after reports from Dallas and Vegas that the IBJJF has been sliding. I was not at either of those events, so cannot say for sure, but stories of running behind schedule, and confusion at weigh ins, and other bad things have been coming up on the communities I frequent. But, this is not about them, It's about the Ontario Open.

Lets start at the very beginning, the registration process. In the past at OJA events, you would have to register for the OJA on site, or, if you were already a member for the year, you would just have to check in.   Now, you register online before you register for the event!   I actually saw someone complain about this on facebook, I need to know what kind of drugs they are on, or if they have ever had to deal with the line up at any tournament that doesn't do everything on line.    The online process isn't perfect, and you still need to duplicate some information, so I give them 8/10 for that. Check-in at the venue was fast and easy. They had printed lists of names, and slapped a wrist band on. There was never a long line at the door and they were very friendly and lovely. It was a 30 second process verse 20 minutes to 45 minutes that I have experienced at other events(IBJJF New York anyone?).

They posted a competitor list early (not quite IBJJF early, but who needs a list with 5 people on it), and it was updated regularly leading up to the deadline.   They were prompt with updating peoples changes when the competitors made mistakes, and were quick to answer questions sent via email or facebook.

The venue was the Brampton Soccer Centre. This is a favourite venue in the BJJ community, and it's easy to understand why. It's very simple to get to and it has ample, free parking.   The gymnasium is gigantic, and easily supports the 10 rings the Ontario Open ran, and could likely support up to 12, maybe even 14.   There is food available, and plenty of room for sponsors. The one down side is the lighting situation, the wall opposite the spectator area (which is on the 2nd floor, so they have a great view) is all windows. So, when you are taking pictures or video, they get screwed up and dark, because all the light from the windows makes the camera go "Hey it's bright, I'm going to be dark".   The other, minor problem is, while having the spectator area above the gym, offers a great view, it is not overly large, and I think if the tournament grows anymore, It may become over crowded. I know our space started out comfortable, but as people went downstairs to compete, and came back up, it shrank drastically. I even had a strangers gi on top of my gi bag at one point. No big deal, we are all friends and whatnot in the community, but that is a pretty good indicator that space was limited and people were feeling cramped.

So, we got to the tournament about 30 minutes before it was scheduled to begin, and low and behold, competitors were already weighing in, all the mats had staff at them, and the referees were dispersed to the mats. Half an Hour before the scheduled start. Are you serious? This was our first indication that we were indeed in for a treat. Speaking of referees, the head referee was none other than Andre Terencio, the head referee of the IBJJF. Arguably the best BJJ referee on the planet. The 18 member team, consisted of 90% Brown and Black belts. There were, I believe, 2 purple belt referees, both of which had extensive experience. They had 18 referees for 10 rings. It was great to see the referees able to have breaks, watch each other work, and have rest and food.   This keeps them fresh, and alert and makes them better referees all day long. That being said, the refereeing wasn't perfect, there will always be mistakes, but they were minimal from what I saw As usual, Jon had points score against him when he went for a baseball bat choke (got his guard passed), and there were some points from 50/50 that were missed, but overall, excluding crazy situations, the refereeing was solid!

The first matches started right on time, and that schedule was maintained throughout the day. Divisions were even started early! Of course, if not everyone was there yet, they waited until the scheduled time, but It was amazing to see the efficiency improvements.   They had 2 large TV's set up with a feed showing what divisions were on what mat, and which divisions were currently being weighed in. This was really helpful with the kids on Sunday Morning, and was a cool extra as a spectator. It could use some improvement, as the font was small and difficult to read, and the corner screen should have faced the spectator area better. But, that's just being picky and looking for things to complain about.

They had paramedics for the medical staff, which is always good. They know how to handle the serious injuries and head trauma that can sometimes happen. They do have a tendency to recommend going to the hospital pretty quickly, but I think, they have to do that to cover their asses. I think, ideally, a combination of paramedics, and athletic therapists, or a sports injury doctor would be perfect.   The paramedics are great for assessing concussions, and major injuries, but for determining a torn ACL, or other weird sport specific injuries, they are a little bit out of their element. Also, having an athletic therapist would be super helpful when it comes to having injuries taped to keep competing. That being said, they were very friendly, very attentive to the mats all day, and well equipped to deal with everything that came up throughout the day.

Saturday's absolute saw 10 trips to the IBJJF worlds given out. 10!!! 4 of which went to the ladies. Unfortunately, none went to me. Whatever, one day I will beat my nemesis.    The prizes went to the following divisions:

Brown/Black Male Heavy Absolute (middle and up) LEE VILLENEUVE
Brown Black Male Light Absolute (light and down) DARSON HEMMINGS
Purple Male Heavy Absolute (middle and up) MATTHEW PASQUALE
Purple Male Light Absolute (light and down) REUBEN SAGMAN
Blue Male Heavy Absolute (middle and up) NATHAN DOS SANTOS
Blue Male Light Absolute (light and down) ERIC CONG PHAN
Purple and up Female Heavy Absolute (middle and up) ALISON TREMBLAY
Purple and up Female Light Absolute (might and down) MELISSA BISCARDI
Blue Heavy Female absolute (middle and up) YACINTA NGUYEN-HUU
Blue Light Female absolute (light and down) AJ REITSMA

Congratulations to all of these winners. It takes an insane amount of skill, dedication, and hard work to be able to win these absolutes and my hats off to all of you!

The format for Sunday's No Gi Event was a bit different than the normal OJA style. It was not split by belt, but by experience. Novice being less than 2 years, and expert being over 2 years.   This was a cool idea and it lead to some very interesting match ups.   Unfortunately, I think it scared a lot of competitors away, the nogi divisions were significantly smaller than the gi divisions, which is not that unusual, but when you think that the expert, should, in theory, encompass all the blue, purple, brown, and black belts, they should have been much larger.    I think the fact that the prizes for the absolutes were much less significant also affected the numbers.   That being said, there were some ridiculously good matches in the nogi on Sunday and I hope that they can tweak the format a bit and get more guys and gals out next year. I was really looking forward to the nogi, since, with the combined levels, I actually had a division of 4. Unfortunately, an injury kept me from being able to compete. :(

Speaking of Sunday's experience... How did I forget, THE KIDS RAN ON TIME. You heard me right. The kids! Ran on Time! How is that even possible? I don't know, but they did it!! Like normal, they moved kids up that were to heavy for their division, and they combined and rearranged on the fly as they had to and STILL ran on time. Everyone was certain, that nogi would be starting late, but low and behold, they were weighing people in almost an HOUR before the scheduled start and some nogi divisions started before the scheduled start.   One thing, with the kids, that wasn't quite ideal, was, one of our kids, only got 2 fights, in a division of 9.   They did 3 pools of 3, and the winner of each pool went against each other.   The OJA normally does round robins for the kids, so the pools were to be expected, but I would think a pool of 4 and a pool of 5 would be better. Divisions of 5 they leave as one pool, so It seems like the best case.   Then some kids get 3 fights, and some 4, but that's better than most of them getting 2, except for the 3 winners, who get 5. It would work out to be more even that way, in the long run.

We had a decent size team out to the event this time around. Not nearly enough to threaten for one of the team trophies, but considering the size of our club, I think 22 competitors is pretty good.   I believe, all together, the team earned 5 golds, 7 silver, and 5 bronze. I try to keep track, but it's hard sometimes. Some teams had several pages of competitors. I hope, next year, that they implement the IBJJF rule where only 2 competitors from one team can register per division. After that, they have to register as a different team. I think that will make for some more interesting and diverse divisions and team trophy winners. I still don't think our small team would vi for the title, but when one team has like 15 affiliates then are they really actually teammates?

Enough about that... Let's talk about my awesome team mate Matt. Matt used to be... a big boy, but, he's worked his way down to making super heavy!   It's been insane watching him shrink over the last few months. He's put my journey to middleweight to shame! He trounced the Super heavyweight guys like they were children and he did it with a smile.   It was a pleasure to watch, he fights and moves like a light or feather weight. Here is one of his fights from Saturday. Feel free to turn the sound down/off It's full of inane conversation and stupidity. Here is another one, from nogi on Sunday, again, turn off the sound, it's full of me heckling the referees and being a bad person haha.   Anyway, Matt is crazy, and lots of fun to train and roll with.

I suppose I should talk about how my matches went, I don't really want to though, because I wasn't to thrilled about my performance. In my division, I only had one fight, since it was just the two of us. Tiffany implemented her game plan pretty much perfectly, and I did very little to stop her. I'm not sure where I was for that fight, but hey, She did everything right and kicked my ass.

The absolute went a little better. First match was against Alison,   it was a good match, as much as a match against Alison can be. I have yet to beat her, and this weekend did not change that.   It went down to points in the end, with Alison winning 29-0 or so. I did get a semi-decent armbar attempt in, but it was sloppy and easily defended. She had me in a triangle at one point, but we ended up out of bounds, and my head was almost popped out anyway.

At this point, I had to explain to the guy with the drawsheet how they worked. I know a 3 person division is a little odd, but they probably should have explained them. I also had to tell them how long my rests were supposed to be. It's all good though, they believed me and everything carried on wonderfully.

Next, I had to fight Tiffany again, because it was just the three of us, so as the loser of the top half of the bracket, I filled in the empty spot on the bottom half.   This fight went a lot better than the first, I passed her guard, and set up an armbar, she escaped, we had some scrambles, and I passed and set it up again. I managed to get the tap after a couple minutes of fighting. It was a great match I think.

This put me inline for a rematch with Alison for the final. I started out good, but then put my arm in a stupid place and bam! Kimurad!! She didn't crank it any harder than she really needed to. But, since I didn't have a grip on anything, it ended up wrenching pretty bad.   But, if she hadn't have done that, chances are, I would have gotten a grip, and defended, and blah blah blah. I don't blame her one bit for my shoulder getting tweaked. It's still pretty sore, but I'm not taking any advil or anything for it anymore so that is progress.   It's just kind of weak, and hurts if I do something stupid like try to change the water bottle cooler at work using mostly my left arm.   I'm just going to take it easy this week, train light next week, and do what I can to protect it till worlds.

Speaking of Worlds!!!   Steve leaves on Saturday, Stephen and Alasdair leave on Sunday and Jon and I leave on Friday!! Joel is actually in California right now on a kind of vacation. He's scoping out the sites and hopefully arranging for some team t-shirts for us. I am so freaking excited! Training at Art of Jiu Jitsu for a couple days and then competing at worlds. It's going to be great. Last time we trained there I felt like my game improved like crazy from all the small details and the intense pace that they push there. I'm really looking forward to rolling with my extended team mates again, and with all the new ones that have joined since last summer! We are fighting under the Atos banner at worlds (well, some of us, that registered before 2 other in the same division did). This will be a very different experience, because we will be part of such a large team who could vi for the team title. This is so weird compared to having a little team of 3 or 4 or, when a big crew comes out 20, who come out to play and support each other.

We aren't going to have much time for site seeing this time around, not like we did last time either. I'd love to beable to hit up Atos San Diego while we are there. Maybe it will end up part of the training schedule for the camp. I'd also like to get some shopping in, of course, hahah.

Also coming up fairly soon is the Five Grappling Event. I met the organizer/owner of Five at the Ontario Open this past weekend. He seemed like a very cool cat, and they have a lot of great ideas to grow the sport of Jiu Jitsu and build a league and whatnot.   I think the event in July is going to be great and would strongly encourage anyone looking for something a little different to check it out.

Grappling Industries is also coming back to Toronto in July. The 20th to be exact. It's going to be a killer event, with lots of trips and prizes. I will be refereeing, as well as competing in the gi AND nogi!

I made this cheesecake last night, it's keto friendly, but not diet friendly, if you know what I mean. It's super addicting and I can't stop eating it. I need Jon to come home and stop me from putting another slice in my fat face before I end up struggling to make Medium Heavy, not just Middle hahah.    Here is my pin of the recipe on Pinterest. I love pinterest. I have found so many amazing recipes on there. I have pinned a billion of them, and tried about 20 or so. I wish I had way more time to cook and bake, I would love to try every single recipe I've pinned. Though, if I did, I'd probably be right back in Heavy in no time. and ain't no one got time for that.

I think that is enough rambling for me for one day. My shoulder is getting kind of sore from typing anyway.

Friday, 10 May 2013

My Journey to Middleweight

As you may or may not know this weekend I will be competing at middle weight. This will be my first time competing in this weight class in BJJ. The last time I competed at a comparable division was my last MMA fight, July 2009.

Me at 145 July 2009

Middleweight for women is -152.5 with your gi, and everything else you need on. In nogi its 147.5. For men, its 181.5, I know men and women are different sizes, on average, but is the average really 30lbs difference? If I look at the guys at my gym and the divisions they compete in, more are in light and feather then middle and above. I should look up dome proper research on the matter. That's not what I was planning on blogging about anyway....

My journey to middleweight started the day after I lost that MMA fight. You can watch it here if you want to see me be embarrassed by TKO by a body shot lol. It you want to see me not losing at MMA, watch my first fight, at 155, from earlier that year. That cut, to 145, was pretty hard on my body; I think one of the main factors in actually making weight was the super dry Vegas heat. I couldn't stay hydrated if I tried! After that weekend, I binged, hard, I had fought only 6 weeks before then, and so hadn't really had a chance to have my post fight cheat week as most fighters call it. So oars up for it. Chocolate, ice cream, pizza, more ice cream, more pizza, it was bad, I was 160 in less them a month.

Over the next 6-8 months, I was training and getting ready for fights that kept falling through. I planned and match made for the gfight summit, which I was supposed to also fight on, but a staph infection sidelined me for I maintained around 155-165 depending on the week.

I officially retired from MMA in late 2011, after suffering lots of stupid injuries, not being able to get a fight, and having trouble balancing training enough to fight, while maintaining a full time job, and being a decent wife. At the same time, I took, and aced the command MMA judge course, and joined the OAC. I wanted to still be part of the fight scene and judging fights seemed like the best way to contribute.

I didn't train much in 2011, I was promoted to blue belt in late 2010, and nagging knee injuries kept me sidelined for most of it. Mcl tear, quad tendon tear, bursitis, cartilage damage, arthritis, tendonitis, you name it; I've had it, except for a blown ACL. Somehow I have managed to avoid that one, it’s been suspected a few times, but turns out my acls are intact, just loose and sometimes useless. Over 2011 my weight slowly crept up and up and up. I am embarrassed to even type the number down... 195... Man, it was bad. I just didn't care at that point, I was pretty depressed, and it was a bad time for me.

It turned around in the fall; I got a cortisone shot in my knee, switched to Pura, and decided that my knees were not going to stop me from training anymore. None of my jeans fit anymore, and I was avoiding cameras because I was so embarrassed and self-conscious of my new found fatness. I was almost always the "fittest" one in my group of friends and family. My sister recommended I start using MyFitnessPal.com to track my food and set my goals. I was semi-tracking what I was eating with a spreadsheet, but it was a lot more work. MFP is a really great tool, when used properly.

2012 Ontario Open Absolute Podium

I jumped right back into competing and competed in the heavy weight division For the first half of the year, I was slowly making my weigh down to medium heavy, Eating 1200 cals a day(The MFP Recommendation, see where I said "When used properly", this was not the case), and kind of avoiding really bad food. This left me grumpy and drained. I wasn't recovering well from training, and I was getting sick a lot. At the 2012 Ontario Open, I competed in the heavy weight division, I THINK I weighed in around 175 or so, I don't remember, I had a big carby pasta dinner the night before, and a big breakfast, so in reality, I was probably more like 170 (with my gi on). I've got to get Gringo to look up the actual weigh in amount; they keep a history, which is pretty cool.

My first foray out of heavyweight was the Grapplers Quest event in June 2012. I competed in the -160lbs weight class. I had to cut pretty hard to make that, not eating anything on Friday, and eating quite little on Thursday. Also, doing the over hydrate, then stop drinking thing to help get rid of excess water weight. The good thing was, weighin were on Friday evening, so I had plenty of time to rehydrate and refuel. The bad thing was my body still didn't like the cut. I had some bad lactic acid effects (which had really never happened to me in all my history of competing) and I felt week and drained. I performed OK, but I lost a match I shouldn't have, because physically, I was done.

Toronto IBJJF Medium Heavy

The next foray into Medium Heavy was the Toronto IBJJF tournament in August, My weight was much more comfortably under the limit, but I still needed to restrict my intake and watch how much water/and food I was consuming before I weighed in. Physically, I felt much stronger then at Grappler’s Quest, and I didn't gas nearly as bad. It wasn't ideal though, not being able to eat a big breakfast, and snack throughout the day was still affecting me and I knew I needed to get down a bit more.

Montreal IBJJF Absolute Podium

Fast forward a month or two, to the Montreal IBJJF tournament. I made weight fairly easily this time around, had some pasta for dinner the night before, and had a decent breakfast. I made weight just under the cutoff, and didn't have any trouble with my gas tank! At this point, I was pretty content to sit in Medium Heavy for a while, and maybe make it my home. Unfortunately, looking at tournament registrations, and past results, and attending multi events and having no one in my division lead me to believe that, if I wanted to have people to fight, I needed to move down 1 more division. This was reinforced by a few matches over the next while where I felt that I was just physically to small/weak to compete against the girls in medium heavy. I know, I could just lift weights and get stronger, but let's be honest, me, and medium heavy, is not me at my optimal body fat and whatnot.

So, In November, I decided to try a Paleo diet, also known as the caveman diet or to some Primal (which is like Paleo, but allows dairy). It's basically eating only real food; nothing processed or packaged no grains either. It's eating food that was generally available before industrialization and agriculture and whatnot. I didn't fully embrace all facets of Paleo (like organ meat, and a few other gross things). This was a pretty tasty adventure, and I think it kept my weight from skyrocketing out of control when, On December 1st I suffered a concussion while competing at Grapplers Quest.

Grapplers Quest Absolute

As you have read in the past and if you know I well, when I am injured, and out of commission, I get depressed, and it generally can get pretty bad. I won't do anything, I'll avoid going out, I'll avoid people, I'll make excused to not do anything. It becomes a pretty bad cycle and can be pretty hard to dig myself out of. Not this time! I think, one of the major factors in me becoming so depressed, was the food I was eating. I know, I know, it's hokey pokey pseudo-science. But, for me, it’s the only thing that was really different from other times I had been injured. I have read a lot of blogs, and posts, and articles that support the "science" as well. Anyways.... I was off of training completely for just over 2 months, pretty much 0 physical activity. I was able to get out for walks at about the 4 week mark, and slowly was able to walk faster/longer. Then at about 8 weeks, I was able to do very very very light drilling, but nothing interesting, or inverted, or rolling/twirling/moving my head much. Around 9 weeks, it was like a switch, and I wasn't getting any physical symptoms from the concussion anymore.

So, in 9 weeks, which, in the past, I had managed to gain 25 or more lbs. in, I only gained about 7. I credit the Paleo diet to that almost completely. I still ate quite a bit, but I wasn't eating processed crap anymore. I went gluten free, and it made my joint pain go away almost entirely (It can't stop me from tweaking my knee lol). I had been finding, I was starting to bend and skirt the edges of the rules for Paleo, and I was making cakes, pies, and other delicious treats. They were not losing weight friendly. I still felt great, but I wasn't getting leaner. I came across a post on r/Paleo about the benefits of a ketogenic diet, and whether you could balance Paleo and keto. I became intrigued by this, and did a lot of research on the matter.

A ketogenic diet is basically an ultra-low carb, high fat diet. It forces your body to use ketones, instead of carbs for fuel. I'm not going to get into the science of it too much. But basically, you keep your carbs under 20-30g per day, eat enough protein to keep your lean body mass, and eat lots of healthy fats for fuel. It was when I was doing research for this, that I discovered Avocados. They are freaking amazing. So delish, so versatile. I had used them a few times in my Paleo phase, but only as small parts of a few recipes. Coconut Oil is also a staple of a ketogenic diet, and a Paleo one, for that matter. It's got so many great health benefits. Have you tried bullet proof coffee? It's so good. It has made me a coffee drinker! I don't go crazy with the fancy coffee beans, but I drink coffee, with a tbsp. of coconut oil, every freaking morning.

Just after fighting in Medium Heavy in Chicago

Before the concussion, my plan had been to compete at the Boston and Chicago IBJJF tournaments in the middle weight division. Not being able to train, and not being too strict on what I was eating, sidelined that plan, and I competed in the medium heavy for those events.

I started my keto diet at the tail end of February, I was around 165lbs. The first 5 lbs. dropped off like nothing, which is pretty normal. Basically, carbs = water retention, take those carbs away, your body retains a lot less water. Also, by not eating carbs, your muscle glycogen stores are depleted. Some people will say, this will affect performance, and it will, at first, while your body adapts to using fat for fuel, but after a while, it's happy to use fat/ketones and performance no longer suffers. In fact, for endurance, it gets better. You no longer hit the "Wall" that is glycogen running out. I've been at this point for a while, I’ve noticed I still get tired, but when training, I can do more rounds of rolling, without feeling like I am dying.

Me, after competing, and weighing in around 152 (without my gi)

Anyway... I've been ketoing since Mid Feb; I had a few cheat days, where I gorged on Deep Dish Pizza

(Chicago Open), but generally have been sticking to it. I've tried to stay mostly Primal with what I am eating. So real food, but with dairy (cheese is a pretty big staple in keto). Now, a lot of people will say "What about the cholesterol???", "Eating so much fat makes you fat" No. it doesn't, and there are lots of studies, and people on r/keto posting their before and after cholesterol levels and eating like this has lowered their bad cholesterol levels, a LOT. Does this mean we should just all eat bacon for every meal of the day for the rest of our lives? NO, of course not. But a bit of bacon, chicken (not just the breasts, thighs, legs, and all the meat), beef, and things like avocados, and coconut oil ARE good!

grappling industries Montreal April 28th

I dropped from 165 to 150ish by May 2nd. Eating way more calories than I did early in my weight loss, and feeling fuller, more energetic and better focused then ever over the last year and a half. Right on track, and perfect for the Ontario Open. Then, on Friday my body went "Hey, I hate you, I'm not going to play nice", Like it does, any time I ask it nicely to play nice, and do what I want. Now, haters and naysayers will say "It's because of your silly diet". No, it's not. It's because my body fat is getting relatively low, I've been dieting/cutting weight for almost a year and a half, and my cortisol is likely through the roof due to life stress, work stress, stressing my body out training like crazy and do HIIT, and because, I'm a girl, and our bodies all hate us.

I hit up the guys on r/ketogains for some advice, and was recommended to do, a "protein sparring modified fast". This is basically, eating just enough protein to maintain your lean body mass, some green veggies and pretty much nothing else. I was desperate. I was back up to 153lbs, and panicking, so I went for it. I cooked up some chicken breast, turkey breast, extra lean ground beef, broccoli, asparagus, and leafy green veggie mixes. I also bought a bunch of egg whites.

Saturday was the first day of the "fast" for me. I ate hardly anything, I didn't have time, I trained for 3 hours and a bit in the morning, went home and showered, had a protein shake, then went to Toronto and trained some more. I think I ate about 400 calories, and I felt great. Sunday was about the same, except we went for a hike at princess point, and I saw Iron Man 3. I had more time to eat, I just wasn't hungry. Throughout the week, I ate a bit more, having one or two shakes, and one or two small meals, and I trained hard Mon/Tues/Wed. On Thursday, I was mad hungry, craving and wanting to eat everything in sight. I think, at this point, it was more of a psychological thing, then anything else. I was still feeling great!

This brings us to Friday, today, I weighed 148.5, (152.5 with all my crap). I've made it! Today was BBQ day at work, we tend to do a BBQ every Friday, or sometimes Thursdays if the weather is bad, or everyone is out of the office on Friday. On the Menu, giant chili dogs, with a side of sun chips. It smelled amazing, but looking at the food, I didn't even want it. I sat and ate my grilled turkey breast with leafy greens, and enjoyed it. It wasn't as flavorful as a hotdog and sun chips would have been, but it sure was better for me.

I hardly crave bread, pizza and ice-cream anymore. I've found some recipes that I can really enjoy, like cauliflower crust for making pizza, and avocado smoothies, and almond flour based baked goods. These delicious and far more nutritious options have kept me sane! I still do look longingly at the ice-cream in the frozen food isle, but I don't ACTUALLY want it, I'm not actually sure what it is, but I've picked it up a few times, and put it back every time. I'll have 1/2 an avocado, with cocoa, and a bit of stevia instead.

Some tasty treats I have made over the last few months:

I really can't eat gluten anymore, I feel pretty sick when I do, I stole a bite of Jon's cheesy bread sticks (from Dominos, used to be my favorite cheap takeout), and felt like crap, for a day, and my joints got all swollen and whatnot. I've embraced the lack of gluten and grains, and I don't see myself going back to it any time soon. That being said, once I get comfortably into middleweight (I am aiming for 145 or so (without my gi), I plan on re-introducing some carbs, like sweet potatoes pre-workout and things like that. I love how my body runs on ketones, and how I have a steady source of fuel and don't get the afternoon fog, or need to eat insanely regularly.

So, here I am, the day before the Ontario Open, 1 year ago, I was 175lbs, 1.5 years ago I was 195, and now, I am 148.5(well, I was this morning anyway). It's not been an easy journey, but it’s been a great learning experience. I really think that human bodies run better without grains then with. From how I've felt, personally, vegetables, meat, and good old fashion fat are what really fuel your body. I think that the general idea behind Paleo/Primal is a very solid lifestyle plan, and I'll be following it pretty closely. The one thing I do have, and love, that isn't Paleo, and probably isn't good for me, is my sugar free coffee syrups. Oh man, they make everything so sweet and delish.

Here is a chart of my weigh ins from MyFitnessPal.com, for the last year.

My weight loss, over the last year

I wish it would let me go further back, but 1 year is the max. As you can see, I've had my ups and downs, but, I'm pretty damn proud of myself for pulling this off. According to my scale, I have about 22% body fat. But, according to comparison pictures that float around the internet, I'm leaning more towards 18-20%. If, I tell my scale I'm a guy, it says 15% lol. It's weird the assumptions scales make about muscle and fat distribution. When I hit 145, I am going to try to set up an appointment at Mac to use their BodPod. It's a cool thing that measures your body, and tells you all sorts of interesting facts. I wish I had taken some before pictures, at the very beginning of this journey, because then I'd have a good comparison. When I hit 145 again, I'm going to get out that Vegas Bikini, and get Jon to take a pic of me in the same pose, and see how I look, 4 years later.

So, there you have it. Some nutritionist might not agree with my methods, a lot of people will be "There's no way I can give up ........." But, if you are determined to do something, and you decide, in your mind, that you want it more than pizza, and more than ice-cream, you can do it.

If you want to talk about any of this, find me on Facebook, MyfitnessPal, or reddit. I wouldn't look to closely at my posts on reedit, especially those in r/xxketo, there is a lot of stuff that could be considered TMI, and especially if you're a dude, it's stuff your probably just better off being oblivious to.

My biggest piece of advice would be to prepare your meals in advanced, and don't have crap in the house. It's really hard to cheat when you have nothing to cheat with. Plan your order ahead of time when you are going out to eat, and keep healthy snacks and gum in your purse.


right on the dot for middle weight

Up Next: This weekend, the Ontario Open. Then: WORLDS!!!!!!!!!! I'm not really thinking about anything else right now.

Class	Male Gi	Male NoGi	Female Gi	Female NoGi
Rooster	127	122.5	-	-
Light Feather	141.5	136	118	113.5
Feather	154.5	149	129	124.5
Light	168	162.5	141.5	135.5
Middle	181.5	175.5	152.5	147
Medium Heavy	195	188.5	163.5	158
Heavy	208	202	163.6+	158.1+
Super Heavy	222	215	-	-
Ultra Heavy	222.1+	215.1+	-	-

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Handy Dandy Rules and Format Comparison

Mens

Womens

Mens

Womens

Mens

Womens

Mens

Womens

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Upcoming events in the Ontario Area (Summer Edition)

Friday, 7 June 2013

IBJJF Worlds AKA Mundials 2013 Tournament Report

Saturday, 25 May 2013

I'm sorry everyone.

Monday, 20 May 2013

Transitions and change and losing

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

2013 Ontario Open May 12th and 13th Tournament Report

Friday, 10 May 2013

My Journey to Middleweight