Grappling Industries Tournament?

ZaphodNYC

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Hello All

Considering entering my first tournament and noticed there is one coming near my put on by http://grapplingindustries.com/ Grappling Industries. Has anybody ever competed in/been to one of their tournaments? Feedback?

Thanks!
 
Hello All

Considering entering my first tournament and noticed there is one coming near my put on by http://grapplingindustries.com/ Grappling Industries. Has anybody ever competed in/been to one of their tournaments? Feedback?

Thanks!

I did about a month or two ago, and it was great. Very well organized excepted they started the matches way ahead of schedule. So, I had a few matches before my teammates and coach arrived. That was a bummer. Otherwise, it was great. Nothing weird or dramatic happened. It was just a great day of BJJ competition, and I had 8 matches when usually my divisions are pretty barren (30-40 years old).

Oh one more thing to complain about. They do same day weigh ins and they do not give you a lb (i.e. you better make weight, period, or you're DQ'ed). I don't like that. I prefer prior day weigh ins because I cut a lot of water, but that's just me. Some people prefer same day weigh ins.
 
GI has become my favorite tournament circuit of all. In my experience, they always run either on time or early. Also, their round robin format ensures that you’re going to get more than one match, even if you don’t win your first.
 
I did one of their tournaments and watched a bunch of them. They are generally well run competitions that are on time. There can be some questionable ref calls but I see that in a lot of places.

Make sure you know their rules. Their rule set is very different from IBJJF.

As was already mentioned, they run a round robin format. If it is your first competition you will probably have more than one match and that is a good thing for your learning experience. Some of the other competitions that are single elimination you may have a 20 second match and be done for the day.

The only negatives I have about them is the weight classes are large (25lbs differences in some) no gi can start later in the day and they do not have free t shirts.
 
Love them for matches and price, if you do gi and nogi your guaranteed 8 matches, because of medal rounds I had 10 matches in the last one I did.

Just wish they'd do either day before weigh ins or right before your match. Not enough time to cut if your competing in the gi, which is fine, but the last one I did there were a few guys who only did nogi who clearly cut and weighed in early in the morning which is something guys doing both can't do
 
ive had teammates do it and they've had good experiences

I think theres one this weekend if im not mistaken? a bunch of our young ones from the kids class are competing as well
 
Love them for matches and price, if you do gi and nogi your guaranteed 8 matches, because of medal rounds I had 10 matches in the last one I did.

I actually think a lot of people end up with too many matches, as weird as that sounds.

I know everyone defaults to more matches = better experience, but I think a lot of that is because everyone has been one and done before and knows how much that sucks. But after a certain point, you just start to get tired.

I did one of their tournaments and was scheduled for six matches. For my sixth match, my opponent just refused to compete anymore. I think it was like his ninth match for the day, and he said he was just too tired for another one. Also we had already had two matches against each other prior already that same day.

If you happen to have a bad day, it also turns bad day into a horrific one. That happened to one of my white belt students. It was his first tournament, and I think the nerves just got to him. I could tell early on that something was off and he was having a bad day.

He did gi and no gi in full divisions, thus having eight matches. He went 0-8 on the day. He brought his parents and his girlfriend to watch his first tournament. I could tell he was seriously embarrassed in front of them. I thought he was probably going to quit after it actually. He did not quit outright but has been training a lot less since then even though I did my best to give him a pep talk to stay positive about the learning experience. I haven't seen him in over a month now.

So yeah I guess I kind of wish that they went with double elimination or something vs the crazy high amount of matches they put together with the round robin. Four matches on the day seems about right to me. The 8-10 that some people end up getting is kind of nuts I think.
 
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How does the ruleset differ from IBJJF?

No advantages. In the gi, knee reaps (along with knee bars and toe holds) are allowed blue belt and up. In nogi, they allow heel hooks in the expert division.
 
There are no advantages. Mainly in the techniques they allow at certain belts/experience levels. Blue belts and above can toe hold, knee bar, reap. Nogi advanced allows heel hooks. There are some others here.

http://grapplingindustries.com/rules/
 
I actually think a lot of people end up with too many matches, as weird as that sounds.

I know everyone defaults to more matches = better experience, but I think a lot of that is because everyone has been one and done before and knows how much that sucks. But after a certain point, you just start to get tired.

I did one of their tournaments and was scheduled for six matches. For my sixth match, my opponent just refused to compete anymore. I think it was like his ninth match for the day, and he said he was just too tired for another one. Also we had already had two matches against each other prior already that same day.

If you happen to have a bad day, it also turns bad day into a horrific one. That happened to one of my white belt students. It was his first tournament, and I think the nerves just got to him. I could tell early on that something was off and he was having a bad day.

He did gi and no gi in full divisions, thus having eight matches. He went 0-8 on the day. He brought his parents and his girlfriend to watch his first tournament. I could tell he was seriously embarrassed in front of them. I thought he was probably going to quit after it actually. He did not quit outright but has been training a lot less since then even though I did my best to give him a pep talk to stay positive about the learning experience. I haven't seen him in over a month now.

So yeah I guess I kind of wish that they went with double elimination or something vs the crazy high amount of matches they put together with the round robin. Four matches on the day seems about right to me. The 8-10 that some people end up getting is kind of nuts I think.

I hear you on that. I've been able to get 9 or 10 matches on a few occasions with them, which I thought was great, but going 0-9 would have been a pretty miserable experience.

That having been said, I've talked a few white belts over the years out of bringing a whole posse of loved ones to their very first tournament. It might seem like a good idea, but I think it tends to add a ton of pressure to what is already a stressful experience. At least save it for the 2nd or 3rd tournament, once you've got the lay of the land.
 
That having been said, I've talked a few white belts over the years out of bringing a whole posse of loved ones to their very first tournament. It might seem like a good idea, but I think it tends to add a ton of pressure to what is already a stressful experience.

Yeah if I would have known, I would have probably told him not to bring anyone. Oh well.
 
Having no advantages is another one of those things that I think sounds good on paper but doesn't work in practice.

Advantages only matter when there is no submission, time expires, and the score is tied. In every other situation, we already effectively have no advantages since they don't matter.

In those few situations, advantages break the tie. In a tournament with no advantages, you end up with a lot more ties.

Nobody likes ties, and they wreck up any single elimination brackets you have in place. So then you have a ref's decision to break the tie.

The refs tend to break the tie based on who had the most close attempts at subs or scoring moves -- which is what advantages are awarded to reflect.

So in practice, no advantages tournaments are just resolved like tournaments with advantages. The only difference is the ref makes a lot more mistakes when he uses his memory after the fact to try to remember who had more close attempts rather than tracking advantages in real time on the scoreboard.

No advantages makes life slightly easier for refs in that they can't get yelled at for missing calls as much. I think that is the main motivation for tournaments that don't use them. Less experienced refs have trouble remembering to give advantages.

But for competitors it just increases the likelihood of a tie that will be resolved in a very subjective manner.
 
Yeah if I would have known, I would have probably told him not to bring anyone. Oh well.

There are fewer forces in nature as powerful as the unbridled enthusiasm of a white.

Having no advantages is another one of those things that I think sounds good on paper but doesn't work in practice.

Advantages only matter when there is no submission, time expires, and the score is tied. In every other situation, we already effectively have no advantages since they don't matter.

In those few situations, advantages break the tie. In a tournament with no advantages, you end up with a lot more ties.

Nobody likes ties, and they wreck up any single elimination brackets you have in place. So then you have a ref's decision to break the tie.

The refs tend to break the tie based on who had the most close attempts at subs or scoring moves -- which is what advantages are awarded to reflect.

So in practice, no advantages tournaments are just resolved like tournaments with advantages. The only difference is the ref makes a lot more mistakes when he uses his memory after the fact to try to remember who had more close attempts rather than tracking advantages in real time on the scoreboard.

No advantages makes life slightly easier for refs in that they can't get yelled at for missing calls as much. I think that is the main motivation for tournaments that don't use them. Less experienced refs have trouble remembering to give advantages.

But for competitors it just increases the likelihood of a tie that will be resolved in a very subjective manner.

In a certain sense, I agree with you, but you're assuming a certain amount of good faith on the part of competitors. I think I'm on the side of ref decisions, though. When advantages come into play, you end up with four (arguably) undesirable outcomes:

(1) Techniques done with the intent of scoring advantages (eg spamming shitty footlocks in 50/50)

(2) stalling to protect a lead on as Anthea

(3) weird tactical incentives (immediate re-sweeping is worse than waiting three seconds to re-sweep)

(4) encouraging more defensive behavior on the part of competitors (*almost* getting scored on can cost you the match)

Ultimately, I think it leads to another layer of meta-gaming that doesn't really encourage aggressive behavior.

On the other hand, the ref is able to holistically make a decision about who was the better fighter.

This is turning into a rant; but I think my point is that advantages encourage what is ultimately a certain amount of non-combative behavior. Obviously, if people fought the same way with or without advantages, I think it would be preferable to referees decision.
 
Obviously, if people fought the same way with or without advantages, I think it would be preferable to referees decision.

What I have seen is that they do fight the same way though.

One real world example where I see this a lot is the professional sub only grappling competitions where judges make a holistic decision. There are no points or advantages given.

However, plenty of people still spam weak submission attempts to try to influence the judges. This strategy is openly discussed and practiced among the competitors. People also will stall for large portions of the match if they feel they are ahead or if they feel they can flurry in the last moments to steal the decision. Again this is openly discussed and practiced.

The fact that matches run similar advantages or no sort of makes it a moot point. They really don't make or break things. I just think things end up tracked a little more objectively with the advantages on the board.
 
I actually think a lot of people end up with too many matches, as weird as that sounds.

I know everyone defaults to more matches = better experience, but I think a lot of that is because everyone has been one and done before and knows how much that sucks. But after a certain point, you just start to get tired.

I did one of their tournaments and was scheduled for six matches. For my sixth match, my opponent just refused to compete anymore. I think it was like his ninth match for the day, and he said he was just too tired for another one. Also we had already had two matches against each other prior already that same day.

If you happen to have a bad day, it also turns bad day into a horrific one. That happened to one of my white belt students. It was his first tournament, and I think the nerves just got to him. I could tell early on that something was off and he was having a bad day.

He did gi and no gi in full divisions, thus having eight matches. He went 0-8 on the day. He brought his parents and his girlfriend to watch his first tournament. I could tell he was seriously embarrassed in front of them. I thought he was probably going to quit after it actually. He did not quit outright but has been training a lot less since then even though I did my best to give him a pep talk to stay positive about the learning experience. I haven't seen him in over a month now.

So yeah I guess I kind of wish that they went with double elimination or something vs the crazy high amount of matches they put together with the round robin. Four matches on the day seems about right to me. The 8-10 that some people end up getting is kind of nuts I think.
I went 0-7(opponent dropped out is why it wasn't 8 matches) my first competition lol luckily I was competitive in all but my first match. Was submitted with a kind of flying armbar in my first match.

I didn't find it too discouraging, but I also didn't bring ppl to watch
 
Well I went and did it - I didn’t go 0-7 or 0-8, but I did go 0-3. Perhaps entering a competition at almost 50 years old with 5 months of training was overly ambitious, but I’m glad I did it. I got it out of the way.

I enjoyed the experience and am going to sign up for the next one right away.

And next time, I’ll win a few.. I was discouraged yesterday (like others alluded to) , but I’m pissed off today

Thank you all for the advice
 
What I have seen is that they do fight the same way though.

One real world example where I see this a lot is the professional sub only grappling competitions where judges make a holistic decision. There are no points or advantages given.

However, plenty of people still spam weak submission attempts to try to influence the judges. This strategy is openly discussed and practiced among the competitors. People also will stall for large portions of the match if they feel they are ahead or if they feel they can flurry in the last moments to steal the decision. Again this is openly discussed and practiced.

The fact that matches run similar advantages or no sort of makes it a moot point. They really don't make or break things. I just think things end up tracked a little more objectively with the advantages on the board.

This just occurred to me: if you are you think I you are, we actually had a purple belt match at a US Grappling event in Maryland or Virginia about 4.5 years ago... You won by an advantage off an ankle lock attempt in the last 20 seconds. I'm not trying to diminish that, by the way, it's just funny in this context.
 
This just occurred to me: if you are you think I you are, we actually had a purple belt match at a US Grappling event in Maryland or Virginia about 4.5 years ago... You won by an advantage off an ankle lock attempt in the last 20 seconds. I'm not trying to diminish that, by the way, it's just funny in this context.

It was US Grappling Maryland held in Rockville on August 17, 2013. I remember that match.

If I'm remembering correctly, there was some 50/50 back and forth there for quite a bit of the match. I remember you being very tough, and it was razor close.

I ended up losing to Bagels in the finals that day. Those were good times.

Thinking back on that US Grappling purple belt scene in that area around that time, there were a lot of tough competitors that came out of there. Probably at least half of my matches at purple belt the opponent ended up doing well in the same division at Pans or Worlds. I still see Bagels all the time at IBJJF tournaments, and he is doing great at black belt now it seems.
 
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