The Revolution 39

The Revolution
A local tournament in Tacoma, WA that is a bit hit in the PNW. I had heard great things about the Revolution from my teammates and other practitioners in the area. Past experiences with local tournaments meant that I signed up with low expectations. I was happily surprised by the venue then when it turned out to be probably the best run tournament I've ever been to.

The tournament was an IBJJF rules, two day event that offered a lot of competition opportunities (Saturday for Adults and Sunday for kids) with gi, no-gi, and absolute brackets for both. One of my favorite things that they did was have a whole squad of photographers on the mats that captured a database worth of beautiful pictures. Competition photos are a priceless, especially because they can be so hard to come by. While there were a ton of myself, the camera captured some phenomenal ones of my teammates.

Overall a great tournament! Matches started close to hit times, lots of great competition pulled in from different states, four potential brackets to enter into, a full database of pictures, and everyone was wearing footwear off of the mats 👌  I'll be looking forward to participating in the next one.

My Matches
A podium finish was required to enter into absolute, and fortunately I was able to participate in all four divisions. I had a total of 10 matches with  all of my wins won by submission. I lost one match to a gnarly guillotine and the other two by points to finish 1st in heavyweight gi and 3rd in the other three.

Team Wakizashi
The team brought six competitors down to Tacoma and ended up with 7 podium finishes and a total medal count of:
2 -🥇
1 -🥈
5 -🥉

A team highlight was Lucky entering into his first BJJ tournament and him and Howard both getting their first tournament wins. I think it took me something like 4-5 tournaments to get my first win years ago.  I was really proud of them getting those wins by submission. Erin also entered into her first competition at purple belt and secured gold in her division.

Senior Students come out to Coach












Professor Eli spent Sunday coaching the Wakizashi kids so Terran and Branden both stepped up coach the team's competitors on Saturday. These guys both did a phenomenal job! I can personally say that I wouldn't have done as well as I did if they weren't there, especially on my last no gi match of the day in absolute. It had been a long day and I was worn down and ready to go home. I had a tough opponent and Terran kept me motivated and focused as he energetically yelled out encouragement or directions. These guys both spent their Saturday to make the 5 hours round-trip drive and be there for the team. They didn't get podium recognition, but for me, these guys were the heroes of the day.

Wakizashi in Action


Podium Pictures 


Post Competition Eats
Ya'll have probably caught on by now that I'm a huge fan of food 😜 I did this competition at a weight class higher than normal, and took advantage of that by grabbing a massive Pho lunch with Terran in-between gi and no-gi. Post-competition dinner was the biggest burrito I could grab at the local Mexican joint back home. The perfect way to close out another great day of competing and hanging out with the team.

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.