My first Tournament match at Black Belt (Vid)

[Ybot]

So I competed for the first time as a black belt. Got promoted in July. The match was in the Gracie Pro-Am California Championship Black Belt Open weight division against Rodrigo Ranieri. Congratulations on Ranieri for winning the division as the smallest guy competing!!!

 

[Mike Wilson Jr.]

Nice fight.

And no shame in losing to Rodrigo, he is a stud. Very underrated grappler.

 

[Sloth]

Cool match! Your base looks super solid when he was trying to sweep from deep half. I lost to ranieri in nogi a couple of years ago, tough dude! He went on to have an awesome match against bill Cooper in the gi pro division later on. (at the gq in del mar, ca)

 

[beeran1]

Nice job, and a big congrats on the promotion. We don't have many BBs on here.

 

[gnpcantholdme]

nice vid.

 

[Uezama**]

how long did it take you to get your bb?

 

[Cash Bill 52]

Great black belt match!!! Thank you very much for sharing!

 

[Ybot]

how long did it take you to get your bb?

10 years.

Thanks everyone. Rodrigo was tough. Hard to pin down, he was always finding space to suck me up into his deep half, and off balance me. I lost position attacking a toe hold of my own, then he wasn't having any of my De La Riva, which I catch a lot of people with, and attacked my foot from there.

 

[chino3]

Great job! Loved how actively searching you were. How was the turn out btw? I was planning on competing but did grappling x the weekend before due to traveling for the holiday weekend

 

[Ybot]

Great job! Loved how actively searching you were. How was the turn out btw? I was planning on competing but did grappling x the weekend before due to traveling for the holiday weekend

Turnout STUNK! I think there was too much shit talking about the rules online. In practice the rules were fine. It really sucked, though, the turnout was so bad they canceled the no-gi pro division I was planning on doing today. Only 5 guys signed up for the pro, only one in my division, which is crazy considering they were planning on $2,000 cash prizes for the winners.

They still plan on doing more tournaments, I recommend people try them out before they decide to boycott them. I really think this tournament had potential, but no one showed.

 

[chino3]

I figured it was gonna be like that (didn't pay attention to the rules discussion but thought the rules were absurd). I know a few people that went to the tahoe open in lieu of this purely because of the rules. Being a big spider guard player, this comp scared me away

 

[diadom]

Nice fight Ybot, great showing and some lovely DLR and congrats too

 

[Gerbiljiujitsu]

Hey thanks for the match video!

How much do you weight if you dont mine me asking? If you're in Sacramento I'm going to be coming out that way when I come back to the states and I'm always looking for people around my weight to train with.

 

[sandmann]

I'm curious to know what the rule changes were that you guys are talking about.

 

[chino3]

Read the website

 

[sandmann]

Ok so what I saw that was weird was the advantage for a half guard pass rather than full points and the prohibited use of "blood pressure chokes." Isn't that exactly what a cross collar/collar chokes, RNC, triangles are? If thats what they are referring to then wow that is absurd. Also, what is meant by disadvantage for guard exiting? Would that be I have someone in my guard and I do a techinical standup to my feet?

Edit: Also the prohibiting ankle locks, heel hooks, knee bars and cutters etc. for blackbelts seems odd.

 

[chino3]

Don't forget about holding onto sleeves for 20 seconds. Sorry but I will spend a good amount of time in spider guard sweeping or setting up subs etc. The fear of getting dqs for that is unreal.

I know there has been a lot of Gracie discussion about hating on grip fighting and guards etc. They want pure aggression, not all the aspects that make up today's bjj

 

[sandmann]

Don't forget about holding onto sleeves for 20 seconds. Sorry but I will spend a good amount of time in spider guard sweeping or setting up subs etc. The fear of getting dqs for that is unreal.

I know there has been a lot of Gracie discussion about hating on grip fighting and guards etc. They want pure aggression, not all the aspects that make up today's bjj

I never saw that on the site unless that is what is meant by "guard stalling." I thought grip fighting has always been a part of bjj? Doesnt that go back to the saying "Don't Let?"

 

[Ybot]

Okay, so the 10 second sleeve holding rule issues I see as a valid concern, and being a guard player myself I was wondering about it. From what I saw it didn't effect any of the matches, though. They warn you first, though, on all stalling issues, then give you 5-10 seconds to comply before giving a disadvantage (advantage to opponent), then another 5-10 seconds and you get -2 points, then an additional 5-10 and there is a DQ. Let go of one sleeve and grab it again and everything is fine. I think the website is a bit confusing on the "actual" rules. Choking rules are same as IBJJF, actually. Weirdest thing for me is the half guard passing thing. Knee bars would be nice, but it is what it is there. Oh and it was sorta weird that toe-holds were allowed at all levels. Fine with me (even though that's how I lost), just weird.