Today was the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) tournament. It's a submission grappling tournament but it's primarily made up of jiu-jitsu practitioners. I didn't participate but was there to watch and support my teammates from Gracie Barra University of Hawaii.
When I arrived the kids tournament was winding down and the woman's competition was getting ready to go. The event took place in a high school gymnasium and mats were laid down above the basketball court to make up 12 rings. The place was packed. The bleachers were crowded and spectators surrounded the mats. It was standing room only and luckily for me, GB had taken up a spot along the end of the mats. We had a pretty good view of all the fights.
With almost 12 fights going on at all times there was plenty to watch and teammates were constantly rolling. It wouldn't be practical to recap every match I watched so I'll go over some highlights and a few key matches I was able to watch. Oh, I should mention that I'm purposely leaving out names.
The first medal match I saw was for the younger age group. One of our 16 year old blue belts made it to the finals of his division. It was a good match. The 16 year old ended up in top-position and was able to mount a good offense and defend several attempted sweeps. But eventually he was caught off balance and ended up on his back. I didn't see exactly how the match ended but I think our 16 year old tapped out to a choke. He rolled well and took home silver.
Our women were next to roll in the no-gi competition. Two of our own teammates got paired up and had to go against each other. Always unfortunate when that happens. I don't know who to cheer for so I usually just keep quiet. Both rolled well and scored points but the match ended with an armbar. The one who pulled off the armbar went on the the finals. In the finals the opponent quickly attached the neck with a standing guillotine choke. My teammate tried to pull guard and escape but the choke was in deep. So deep that my teammate ended up going unconscious, a rather scary moment. Tense moments passed as all of the GB people hoped she would be okay. She came to a moment later and as soon as she smiled we knew she was all right. Hats off to her, she took home silver.
When the woman's gi competition started up our newest blue belt took the mat. Unfortunately she got a tough draw and went up against a teammate, who is a three-stripe blue belt and an instructor for the woman's class. Yep, our new-blue was up against her instructor. But she did well. She jumped and pulled guard and was able to keep our 3-stripe under control for the first few minutes. But our 3-stripe would not be controlled for much longer. She methodically broke out of guard, passed, and worked for a submission. An expected result but it was great to see both ladies laughing together before, after, and even during their match. Good job ladies!
The men's no-gi competition was going on and one I was able to catch part of a finals match involving one of our guys. This guy is one of our more experienced white-belts and helps instruct one-on-one intro classes for new members to our school. My vantage point was a bit far from the match but I saw some nice take downs, sweeps, and reversals. The moment that stood out to me was when our guy was in top-position, the opponent threw his legs up high in an attempt to catch a triangle choke but instead ended up throwing a knee into our guy's nose. The match had to stop for a moment to make sure there was no bleeding and that our guy was okay. Our guy finished the match strong, likely invigorated by taking a knee to the face, and won on points. He did awesome. Although he ended with a swollen and blueish nose, it went well with his gold medal.
The while-belt gi competition was next to get underway. I've watched most of the these guys progress since they first joined and I was excited to see them roll. One of our guys had a very exciting match. He had my favorite take-down of the day as he began the match with a sacrifice-throw. FYI, a sacrifice-throw is any throw in which you expose your back to your opponent. There's an inherent risk with that, hence the name sacrifice-throw. Anyway, our guy did a beautiful sacrifice arm-throw then immediately went to work. He passed his opponent's guard, went to the mount position, and even took his opponent's back. Our guy got reversed and ended up on his back but was able to work back to guard and get a sweep. It was a non-stop, action-packed match and our guy won by submission.
Another white-belt I was eager to watch just recently got his third stripe (so I guess you could say he's a third-degree white-belt) and is one of the most motivating and positive guys in our school. He's a big, strong guy and one of the things we've been trying to instill in him is “technique, not strength.” Today, I think he was able to keep that in mind. When the match started our guy pulled guard right away. He worked non-stop to control his opponent's posture, constantly breaking him down and keeping him low. This kept his opponent from mounting any sort of effective offense, plus it tired him out. After a few minutes our guy started to work for a sweep. He nearly pulled off a sit-up sweep but was stuffed just before he got it. His opponent stood up to try and break the guard but our guy didn't let him escape. Our guy immediately went for a pull-feet sweep. He wasn't able to get it but it kept the opponent off balance so he went back down to his knees. The match ended scoreless and went to a referee's decision. The ref awarded our guy with the win because he was more active and attacked several sweeps. Very good job. With the win, our guy took home gold.
The blue-belts gi competition was next and I was very excited to watch one my instructors compete. He's a three-stripe blue belt and was sporting a Chuck Liddell like hair style. In every match he jumped into guard and went to work playing spider-guard and attacking sweeps. FYI, spider-guard is a type of open guard where you control your opponent by keeping a grip on his sleeve and keeping your foot against his bicep. It's a great way to control your opponent's upper body and easily move with your opponent as they try to move around you. Our guy worked his guard beautifully. He had my favorite sweep of the day. I believe it's called a helicopter sweep. Our guy was on his back with his feet on his opponent's hips and a grip on each of his opponent's sleeves. The opponent was trying to shift his weight but our guy was able to extend his legs and lift the opponent completely off the mat. He kicked his legs up, pulled his opponent's sleeves down, and flipped his opponent over onto his back. The beautiful part of it was that our guy not only flipped his opponent but also rolled with him and finished the sweep in the mount position. 6 points! Our guy won that match en route to the finals.
The final match started out just like all the others. Our guy pulled guard and went to work attacking sweeps. And much like all the other matches, our guy got the sweep. He then passed guard and ended up in side-control. Our guy was up 5 to nothing. His opponent was no slouch and kept active. The opponent was able to reverse position and get on top but that didn't last long as our guy quickly reversed position again and passed the guard and got into side-control. Our guy dominated the match by controlling position and racked up the points. I think the match ended 14-2 or something like that. Our guy deftly won his division and won the gold.
NAGA was fun to watch and it was great to see so many of my teammates step up to the competition and to see several of them win medals. Our school had a large cheering section and I was joined by several teammates who weren't competing but showed up to show our support. Makes for a great atmosphere. My hat's off to all those who competed. Keep up the great rolling, see you all in training!