Inside The BJJ Kumite: Garry Tonon

[DVD review guy]

From Gracie Mag, cool read. On a unrelated note, how cool would it be to have Keenan join the 50/50 team?

http://www.graciemag.com/2013/01/inside-the-bjj-kumite-garry-tonons-take-part-1/

Garry Tonon is a brown belt under Tom DeBlass in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was invited to compete in The BJJ Kumite brown belt tournament at Team Lloyd Irvin in Camp Springs, Maryland the week of December 9-16. Here is the first part of the story, direct from Garry, as to how it panned out for him, what he expected and what unfolded for him:

Garry

 

[xMikeyX]

The next day I went to Lloyd’s and as I looked outside the school I was amazed at what little was done to make the location known. For someone known as an expert marketer, I expected more signs, ads, etc. As far as I could see, if you didn’t know Lloyd Irvin Academy was there, you would never stumble upon it by accident, that’s for sure. To get inside the school you have to enter two unmarked double doors in the center of the building, and take an elevator/stairs to the third floor. Then, around the corner at the end of the hall is the entrance. Before this point I thought there was a high probability Lloyd had invited all the best brown belts in the world to a random abandoned office building were we would all be killed and never found, as part of an elaborate scheme to weed out Keenan’s competition at brown belt. This is the first point at which I even realized I was in the right place. Immediately I was handed a contract.

Wow- quite the mind fuck. Did you also have to give your email address? Or was all of this for consent to be filmed?

 

[thapa]

I am picturing Seph's cat sitting on a plush throne and deigning to accept Gary's gifts. "You have performed adequately, human. You may pet me."

Terrific set-up to this story by Gary. He's got a nice flow to his words and good descriptions of his thought process.

 

[KarateFist]

...Why does lanky zombie-looking Keenan

...get a second shot at beating that overgrown vampire

hehe don't think he likes Keenan very much

 

[Samurai Jack]

wow, Lloyd is getting exposed more and more every day. wondering whats next?

 

[bjjaz]

Interesting article. I'm hooked.

 

[dokomoy]

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Really enjoyed the Kumite video posted on youtube, awesome to get some competitor perspective on here, can't wait for part 2!