The 3 Musketeers Collect Golds at Proving Grounds

Proving Grounds
I got to do a Proving Grounds at the end of last year and was a big fan of it. Sub-only meant you either won by submission or pulled a draw, leading to 😱 lots of submission hunting! (What JiuJitsu is all about after all.)  A round robin format also meant lots of competition! Sure, getting gold is the end goal, but the matches that lead up to winning that gold is what adds the value to the plastic. The bigger the struggle, and the more matches that take place only increase the value and memories of that medal.

I'm a big fan of Proving Grounds as a result. The only thing I would change about it is that the PA system is extremely muffled. This leads to a lot of "Hey bro, did they just call my bracket?? No? Dang okay." To "Hey man, they have been calling you and you're up right now." Fortunately, everything worked out smoothly regardless, and there were even times where people were grabbing their competition from the stands to make sure that they didn't miss out on the fun.

Traveling
San Diego 👉 San Francisco, CA
San Diego 👉 Phoenix, AZ
Seattle 👉 Raleigh, NC

2018 was A LOT of traveling to make tournament appearances. I have a lot of good memories from those trips, but it was nice to that Proving Grounds was a short drive away, which meant getting to sleep in until 9 a.m. before driving down the morning of the tournament. It was definitely a nice change of pace.

Coach comes to Corner
Another advantage to competing local was getting to have Professor Eli Trevino in attendance. Professor is a master at coaching and him being on the sidelines makes a dramatic difference in my performance. He maintains a calm, quiet voice that somehow cuts through the chaos of competing. He helps me to stay in the right state of mind and aware of the possibilities that exist within a match. This particular tournament I consider to be one of my best-performing ones, and I attribute a large part of that to him being there to coach.

The 3 Musketeers
Eager for improvement, and hungry for every opportunity to test their JiuJitsu, I met up with my teammates Jules and Miles for a full day of gi and no-gi competition. We all had signed up for both brackets, and Professor was running back and forth the mats throughout the day as my teammates and I almost simultaneously competed. This led to the only disappointing thing about the day and having to miss out on watching the majority of their matches.

The Competition
The team did phenomenally! Jules, Miles and I all finishing first in our gi brackets! 🥇Something I consider to be a huge accomplishment and a direct reflection of the quality of our training.

I personally went in with the goal of finishing all five of my gi matches by submission, and I was thrilled to accomplish that goal. I also completed a little side quest that I've had myself and finished one of my matches by a leg attack. ✅ My no-gi game is still an area of improvement for me. I ended up with 2-submission losses, 1-submission win, and 2-draws and ended the bracket without a podium placement.


The Results
3 golds 🥇
1 silver 🥈
1 bronze 🥉

Overall another great performance by the team.





Conclusion
This particular tournament was a quick in-and-out mission in comparison to others. A short drive there and back, only several hours of competing, and it was all a wrap with time still left in the day to do laundry. This piece is short like the day was, but it is always great to be able to enjoy participating in a tournament, especially among friends.

About the Author:

Steven McMahon earned his Kyuki-Do Black Belt in 2011 from Grand Master Kim at Kim's Black Belt Academy and his  BJJ Purple Belt in January 2017 under Professor Charles Nunley. He trains out of Cornerstone BJJ in Fayetteville, NC. He is an active competitor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Army Combatives tournaments.