A Tournament Review: Why I love US Grappling Tournaments
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| The Cornerstone Team at my first US Grappling Touranment |
This past weekend I drove 5 hours to Pheonix, Arizona to attend a tournament. I slept in my car, woke up and competed and then drove back to California that night. I'm someone that loves competition and loves attending grappling and fighting tournaments. If there's a tournament within driving range, and the Army doesn't own me that weekend, there's a good chance that you'll run into me there, regardless of what the venue is. Over the past 8 years of hanging out in martial arts, I have attended a lot of different tournaments from a number of different venues. Every competition has been a memorable experience, and each venue offers something unique, but the one tournament venue that I have enjoyed attending the most has been US Grappling. I have attended 6 of their tournaments over the past 3 years and I want to write about why I have enjoyed them so much here.
Submission only tournaments
Losing a tournament by an advantage point or a referee decision can be heartbreaking, especially if it's the first round of your bracket. For me, winning a division on points, even if the score is completely unbalanced, just seems like the match is unfinished. Submissions are what makes Jiu-Jitsu what it is and a match won without a submission can feel like unfinished business. US Grappling offers submission only tournaments. A no points and NO time limits competition. If you're a competitor that has never done a submission only tournament I would highly recommend that you enter into at least one. It is truly a fight to the finish, and is both very challenging and rewarding. I have been able to attend two myself, and they are among my most talked about matches that I have ever had.
Gi, No Gi and Absolute Brackets
For me personally, tournaments are much more about the competition that they provide than the medals that can be won from them. Of course everyone wants to walk away with the gold, but I would honestly rather have 5 hard fought matches for 3rd place than to have 1 easy match and walk away with gold. Therefore the more competition, and the more matches that I can get at a tournament the better. US Grappling offers 4 different divisions at all of their tournaments. There is a gi and no gi division for whatever your weight class is, as well as an absolute (or no weight class) division for both. This offers participants two benefits. The first is more competition. As someone that weighs 210lbs, it can be hard to get a lot of matches at a tournament. Even at the big name IBJJF tournaments there might only be 4 or so guys in my weight class, while the lighter divisions will have 20-30 participants in them. The absolute weight classes give me the opportunity to compete against more people and against a wide range of body types.
The other benefit is that you are guaranteed at least 4 matches when you show up, because of there being 4 divisions to compete in. This not only means that you get more bang for your buck, but you get 4 chances of walking away with a gold. We invest a lot of our time and money traveling to attend tournaments. After a 5 hour drive, a hotel stay, and if you eat out during that time you are looking at around $400 with tournament fees just to show up. That's a pretty significant expenditure for most people and if there is only one division, and you lose your first match, well that just really sucks. By offering 4 different divisions to compete in, you know that you won't be going home after making just one mistake in your first match.
The Competition
Like I said earlier, tournaments for me are really more about the competition that you get that the medal that you walk away from. Who shows up to a tournament is outside the control of who is running the event, but US Grappling consistently manages to bring in outstanding talent to compete against. After doing what I would refer to as "more well known" tournament venues, I can say with conviction that you will be challenged by you who you will get to compete against.
The Atmosphere
One of the things that they do that I really like is they have a rules briefing before each tournament starts. Everyone circles up and point scoring is explained and demonstrated, as well as legal and illegal moves for each skill division. Losing a match by unknowingly shooting an illegal technique is a rough experience to have, and I find that these rules briefing set a good tone for the competition, as well as mitigate disqualifications from happening.
US Grappling has done a great job of creating a friendly atmosphere. Of course once a match starts its game time, but when you aren't competing the environment is very welcoming. At US grappling tournaments I have been able to make new friends that I have seen at later events, and have even been able to train with some of them at their home schools. Jiu-Jitsu is still a small community and it is really enjoyable to be able to make connections like that. In fact, some of the people that I have competed against end up becoming great friends, which is something that you would never expect until you experience it.
Summary
US Grappling offers a large number of local tournaments on the East Coast. With a great atmosphere, good competition, and lots of brackets to enter into, I would strongly suggest to anyone that competes to enter into the their next tournament that takes place in your area.
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