IBJJF New York Summer Open

Listen, IBJJF, it’s no secret you’re one of my favorite tournament organizations- and I am super excited that you set up another East Coast tournament relatively close to where I live (for anyone who is wondering, it’s taking place July 13).

My problem is with the venue: specifically, City College. During the registration period for the last tournament you had to stop registering competitors an entire week early due to issues with capacity.

I imagine you will face the same problems once again with this
Summer open: you will have to close registration early, causing some divisions to have maybe one, two competitors if they’re lucky.

We’ve already talked about suggestions to possibly even out the divisions before but for this new tournament, I would suggest a new, larger venue.

Or hey, come on down and party in Philly: we can find a venue big enough to hold everyone, fairly easy to access and enough parking for everyone. That way, everyone wins.

Weekend Wrap Up

Hey everyone, due to obligations all this weekend I wasn’t able to train or keep up to date with tourneys like Copa Podio. I heard Xande won, so hooray for Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu! Other than that…I got nothin’. Heard the Mayweather fight was pretty lackluster, and saw some photos from the IBJJF Dallas Open, which looked pretty good.

Hope everyone else’s weekend was fun/interesting/not boring or sucky. Anyone watch the Copa Podio? How was it?

Uses for Tournament T-Shirts

So, real talk, some (most) shirts they give away at tournaments are pretty awful. The IBJJF ones have been getting better, but even they still some have some misses here and there. I will share with you guys what is, to me, the worst tournament t-shirt I have ever received.

It was the first time this guy had run a tournament like this, and didn’t really know what to put on the t-shirts. Kudos to him for trying, but yeah, I do not consider this a “good” tournament shirt.

But, it’s a free shirt, and people like free stuff, right? Or at least it makes us all fell better about paying so much to sit around for hours and hours before jumping on a mat for anywhere from a few minutes to a whole day. This sounds like sound logic until you come home and you have a literal plethora of these things, just sitting around unused. Here are some suggestions.

-Of course, donate them to goodwill or some other charitable organization.

-use as dusting rags around the house

-put on a dog, if you have one, who just got stitches on their body and the cone of shame is too inconvenient (although I would consult with a vet before doing this).

- give away to friends and family, which I frequently do

- use as a workout shirt/ Jiu jitsu undershirt for the ladies, which is something else I frequently do.

- I guess you could frame them, if you’re into that sort of thing. Shrug. Maybe you love these shirts and have been offended by this entire post. Everyone has different tastes.

What do you do with your tournament t-shirts? Do you cherish them always, toss them in the back of your drawer, or find some creative use for them?

Let me know!

New York Open 2013 Results

Our guys fought hard, a couple came away with medals, a couple got banged up and one got head butted in the nose. :-/ But, among our competitors was Maggie’s dad, mike: go Mike!

The only brown belt females that fought were in the masters and registration closed before I could attempt to be the youngest master’s division competitor at the tournament. I don’t know: I just didn’t see the tournament coordinators bending the rules for an adult to fight masters AND after the tournament’s registration had closed- but I did have a chance to chat with Jen Flannery and we talked about coordinating registration for future tournaments. I imagine this will turn into something like a phone tree, but, you know…not.

Other than that, I just checked the tournament results and the top teams were Alliance at 309 points, Renzo Gracie at 212 and Gracie Barra at 109. For anyone who’s interested in that sort of thing.

Oh, and can someone solve this for me? There is a brown belt Gracie Barra guy who has fantastic hair. I see him at tournaments all the time, and it just never seems the appropriate venue to compliment a dude’s hair. Anyone have any idea?

UPDATE: mystery solved. It’s AJ Agazarm. Apparently he’s making all the right moves on the Jiu jitsu mat, and wherever he buys his styling products. Trust me, as someone with long curly hair, it’s not easy to find the right hair stuff.

Ok, I think I’m done talking about hair.

Also, while we’re at it, the hippy-Jesus guy who is always at the west coast Jiu jitsu tournaments, if anyone knows his name as well. I feel like I should know that guy’s actual name, and stop referring to him as “Hippy Jesus”.

At New York Open and on Vine

I’m at New York Open supporting some teammates…

Also, I’m messing around with Vine-

I only have one video up, but feel free to check it out. Or not- I won’t tell you how to live your life.

Metamoris II Update: the Lineup

The Metamoris II line up just came out, and it looks like it’s going to be pretty interesting:

Shinya Aoki vs. Kron Gracie
Roldolfo Vieira vs. Braulio Estima
Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu vs. Brendan Schaub
Mackenzie Dern vs. Michelle Nicolini
Andre Galvao vs. Rafael Lovato Jr.
Bill “The Grill” Cooper vs. Ryan Hall

I’m happy to see women on the card, and I think it’ll be pretty interesting to see Lovato and Galvao go after one another. Or maybe it’s because I imagine them epically smashing one another. One can dream.

Who are you looking forward to seeing compete on June 9th?

Double DQ For Keenan Cornelius and Paulo Miyao

Well, I figured something like this would happen someday, I just didn’t think it was so soon or that it would be Abu Dhabi Pro Jiu Jitsu championships that would bring down the hammer. I watched the video and I have to admit there was some action going on: definitely more then what was happening in their Pans fight just a few weeks earlier, so I’m not entirely sure it was fair to penalize them, but I think for the health of the sport someone needed to put their foot down.

Watch the video and judge for yourself: if you’re wondering why it’s a link and not the video itself, this is still apparently week where every small, stupid thing goes wrong: my wifi doesn’t work, and Comcast isn’t showing up until tomorrow, so this is all being done from my phone. I’m not even surprised at this point: fortunately I subscribe to the philosophy of “this too shall pass”. But anyway, for now here’s the link.

Learn, Don’t Obsess Over Your Mistakes

We all lose at one point or another in a tournament match: there are few BJJ players, if any, especially at a higher rank who can claim they have never lost a match. And I will admit, it can be crushing sometimes: you train day and night, put in hours upon hours of drilling, and even with all that hard work, someone else’s hand is raised at the end of the match. Maybe from a submission, possibly from a ref’s decision.

It happens, and yes, it’s absolutely important to learn from your mistakes, but not to obsess over them. If you videotape your matches, watch them, even ask your instructor or a high belt you trust what they thought went wrong if you are not sure…Just don’t sit alone in your underwear, clutching a glass of bourbon in the dark as you watch those mistakes over and over again. While an interesting mental image, it’s quite counter-productive. And creepy.

I’m just trying to look out for you, so you don’t re-enact this scene from Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (this is actually changed slightly for some recent football player, but you get my drift)

New York Open Registration is Closed. Bummer.

Registration for the IBJJF’s New York Open closed yesterday, a full week earlier than the deadline.

As someone who was waiting to see if anyone registered for their rank, this is disappointing. I understand they want to fill the tournament to capacity, but I do think it’s sort of silly to have a tournament where a number of competitors are literally the only person in their division.

Some suggestions I heard, and agree with:

-The most obvious one, find a larger venue to host the event.

-Create a cap on each division (like, say, 6 per division). On the last day of registration, check what divisions have “open spots” put those last remaining openings in sort of a free-for-all and let people register for whatever for a higher, last minute rate. That way early birds get their reward, anyone who is on the fence has their day to put up or shut up, and people those who really want to go still have their chance to register on that last day and fill the tournament to capacity.

….That’s all I have for now. The last one is actually partially what I have heard (putting a cap on the divisions) with some of my own ideas filled in.

IBJJF is still a fairly new(ish) organization that does try to improve its operations every year, which of course is commendable. I just hope something can be done to avoid situations like this for future tournaments both in New York and across the country.

 

Metamoris II: Coming June 9th

So rumor has it that Metamoris will have their next tournament on June 9th. There’s a highlight video of the last Metamoris running around. It’s posted below if you would like to watch it.

It would be interesting if they added women to the next card. Ah well, we’ll see if that happens.