Is anyone else going to the NAGA Ohio Championships in grove city this weekend? I'll be heading down with my club early early Saturday morning. I'm going to be fighting in the white belt/novice 140-150 lb division. Athariel, I know you live in Ohio, so you had better be there.
I'm going to be camping with a certain cute girl on Lake Erie - my club's giving me grief about it but the arrangements were made before I found out when NAGA was (it's soooo close to our gym too). August 4th there's another Ohio Grappling Challenge though and I'm going to be there... Good luck! You'll probably run into some people from my gym when you're there - Team Jorge Gurgel, Dustin Ware's group.
Only Jiu-Jitsu people see grappling as more important than spending a night in a tent with a cute girl
*insert jiu-jitsu = ghey joke here* Pretty much, KF, pretty much. You aren't going to head out from over in NY, are you?
LAME. Who would want to spend time alone with attractive women in the wilderness when you could roll around on the floor with big sweaty men? Oh, right, everyone. I'll catch you eventually. And keep me updated on the OSU BJJ club. I still want to do a small invitational between our clubs.
The competition was pretty good. For no-gi, I won my first match, lost my second, and won the match for 3rd place. The first was by far my favorite fight of the day. I was fighting someone with a full beard and shaved head, making him the inversion of my long hair and cleanshaven face. I got him with a koshi guruma (headlock hip throw), but he bridged me over as we landed. I make a point of trying to throw as many people as high as possible in any tournament situation. I ended up tapping him out with an improvised armlock. It was kind of like a schoolyard bully crank-your-arm-behind-your-back-and-make-you-say-uncle chickenwing/hammerlock from guard. I also learned the mighty psychological power of leg locks on BJJ white belts. At one point, we were in some weird position (I think he was trying to take my back). I grabbed his foot, making a lame attempt at a toe-hold, and he kind of froze and changed plans. It was NAGA rules, so all submissions were allowed. The next match I was soundly defeated. He dragged me into his guard and caught me with an armbar. I didn't feel bad, since he's done this to every person I've seen him fight at the last three tournaments. I think I've only seen him lose in Absolute divisions, and I can't recall a fight of his ending by points. The third no-gi match was kind of "meh." I won by points, but I didn't feel as though I played my best. At one point, I could've taken him down, but I got all wishy-washy (do I want to use an outside reap, or an inside reap?) and lost my chance. I also got an armbar near the end from the back which I probably should've been able to finish him with, but didn't. Even though I won, this was my most disappointing fight. I felt that I could-have/should-have done better. My first (and only) gi match was a bit weird. I lost, by points, 4-5. When time ran out, I had my opponent firmly secured in a mounted triangle (which I consider the best possible position to be in), but I couldn't quite get his head in place to finish the choke, or get control of his arm to go for an armbar/keylock. It was BJJ rules for the gi; if it had been NAGA rules, I would've beaten him (no points for near-submissions in BJJ rules - grrrr). If I had had a bit more time, for that matter, I also probably would've beaten him. Or if I had been a bit better at tightening up that triangle. Or, maybe, if I rolled onto my back to finish tightening it up. A lot of "ifs." It was kind of odd. I was disappointed that I lost, but only because that meant I wouldn't be fighting any more gi matches. In terms of my performance, I felt that I did better than my third no-gi match. I MUCH prefer NAGA rules to BJJ rules. I was a bit scared by the "all submissions are legal" thing, but it didn't lead to any more injuries than in the gi division, so it doesn't seem to actually make it any more dangerous. Being able to go for leglocks makes it more dynamic, too. And the scoring makes a lot more sense to me. Getting points for near-submissions is good; it encourages people to go submissions and play a less conservative game. Also, it is "submission wrestling," so we should award valiant efforts to get submissions. I really like the fact that you don't get points for switching between dominant positions. I'm sure you're all familiar with the classic "side control, knee on belly, count 1-2, get points, mount, count 1-2, get points". Or taking losing your hooks from back control and switching to mount, and getting an extra four points for losing the back. That always bothered me. The fact that takedowns, sweeps, acquiring dominant positions, and strong submission attempts are all worth the same amount of points is very nice too. In general, the scoring just makes more sense than traditional BJJ rules. Finally, there was one adventure after the tournament ended. The refreshment stand was liquidating it's stock of supplies.... meaning tremendous deals for me. I picked up a case (28 bottles, 336 fluid ounces) of gatorade for ten bucks. I only got driven back as far as our club, from whence I rode my bike home. A fun thing to do with 50 lbs of gatorade on your back.
