Grappling Industries Review
This past weekend I got to participate in my first Grappling Industries tournament. There was a number of really unique things about the type of tournament that I really enjoyed and wanted to share about. Probably the biggest difference between them and other option is the style of bracketing that they used. The absolute bracket did follow the traditional single elimination style that we are all used to. The weight class brackets were a round robin style. This meant that you get to go against everyone in your bracket, with the 1st place winner being the person to get the most wins. I think this is awesome!
The reason why is because I think as competitors, winning gold is obviously a big part of competing. For me though, and I think a lot of others, it is the competition itself that really motivates us to spend the money and time driving out to tournaments. What can really suck then is when you pay $100+ for a tournament, drive 5-8 hours out of your way and then just have to pack it up after losing your first match. That happened when I drove up to the San Francisco Open ad a very, very long ride home. Competition is also on of the best way to honestly expose weaknesses in our game, giving us things to improve upon during class afterwards. So for me, the more competition I can get the happier that I am.
This past weekend I did gi weight, absolute, and no gi weight and got a total of 8 matches this weekend, which for 3 divisions is the most matches I've ever gotten at a tournament. I consider that to be pretty impressive, especially because it's a local tournament and because at my rank and weight (super heavy) I normally get a lot fewer matches than my lighter counterparts.
Another cool thing about Grappling Industries I found out is that they keep track of all of your matches. Things like who you went against, how long the match was, and if the win was by submission or points. I love looking at numbers and statistics so I'm all about this feature. Check it out HERE and I think it's pretty awesome!The rules they have are pretty interesting too. For purple belts they allow toe holds, knee reaps, and bicep/calf slicers. I wrote about it HERE, but one of the things that Chad Hardy talked about with me was my lack of knowledge on toe hold attacks/defenses and the fact that they become legal at brown belt in IBJJF rule-set. I actually got caught in two of them at the competition, one in gi that I escaped and one in no gi that I tapped to. I really enjoyed playing under these wild west, almost anything goes styled rules.
The one thing that was quite a bit different about this tournament is that all matches are only 5 minutes long regardless of rank. This made the matches more challenging than usual because it meant that you had less time to wear down an opponent and less time to recover from any mistakes that you made. Most matches ended well before the 5 minutes though, so I can't say that this overall made a big impact on the competition. I do prefer 7-10 minute matches though because it fits my counter grappling style much better, but it meant I walked away with more things to improve upon!
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| Before all the competitors showed up |
The venue itself was a small, intimate type of affair. With just 4 mats going, it had a "beginning days of JiuJitsu" atmosphere in it.
Aside from some strange match lineups, (I had my first match at 9:30 and didn't have my second one until 10:10) all the matches ran smoothly and efficiently. The only thing that I would have changed would have been the music playing. It was a soft, calming music that you'd expect to hear in an elevator ride. I'd personally have preferred some upbeat tunes to have playing in-between matches, but I guess that's what headphones are for.
Overall I had a blast at this tournament. With an affordable price, lots of matches, free range rules, and a cool match history database, I walked away from this one a happy camper. I'd highly recommend one to anyone looking to get a great local tournament in that will get you a lot of competition experience. I will be looking forwards to the next time they come to town.
As always, thanks for reading and happy rolling!
Side Note: I did snap a little over a hundred pictures in between my own matches. If you competed and want to see if I happened to get one of you check out the photo album HERE. I am still a white belt in picture taking so please forgive the quality while I keep improving.
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