I was just wondering. Do any of you have kids that compete in NAGA, or you yourselves compete in NAGA tournaments? Wanted to get some feedback on the organization and the events. We took our 8 yr old daughter to her first event a little while back. We saw some obvious sandbagging by some folks. My little girl had a great time but her mother is not too keen on doing it again.
I just competed in NAGA worlds yesterday. And the sandbagging was outrageous. Saw people in novice with horrible cauliflower ears. Those two shouldn't go together. Saw people that I am 100% positive are higher belts in judo competing in beginner and novice. Some another competitor from my home town that is a brown belt competing in the intermediate/blue belt division. It's such a joke.
Last naga I did there was a dude with cauliflower and a USA wrestling tattoo in beginner no gi, the under 12 month division. He was a athletic dude, savaged his division. Was bogus.
Hmm, I actually plan on competing for the first time at NAGA Dallas in May along with my 10 year old son. I'm a white belt about six months into training and my son has been training for about four months himself. I guess we'll see how it goes. I myself don't see the point in "sandbagging", I wouldn't feel good about beating competitors in a division that I clearly didn't belong in.
I dont see THAT Much sandbagging but some goes on. The disorganization and adding kids to brackets day of makes it a complete clusterfuck/long day.
My coach actually told me that it can be disorganized and they are always running behind "schedule". We're going to give it a shot anyways.
My kids have done Naga before(both gi and no gi). I didn't notice any major sandbagging. I didn't stay for the adults but didn't notice anything strange with the kids.
I've done several NAGAs. Have myself a belt, thank you very much. This biggest complaint I have is that they do same day bracketing, so it's a cluster fuck and always behind schedule. I have seen the refs stop matches, or after a match ends, pull a guy aside and send him up in a division. But there are so few people sometimes registering, that I think they just want people to have matches.
Are the belts "good quality"? They look pretty cool from the pictures but I never been to NAGA and don't compete in any divisions that would have one as a prize. I think it's for purple belts+ in gi and Advanced in nogi? One day when I am a purple belt I'd like to try to win one. Seems like they would need to dump a lot of money to make a bunch of those belts, ontop of the medals and swords and stuff they also have as prizes.
I have no idea how to judge the quality of a belt like that lol. It's like, leatherish and has fake gold on it. I won my in the Expert No-Gi division. I've won NAGA at purple bet and didn't get a belt, but when you win one they mark your hand with an X, cause I think you can only win one per tourney or some shit. Speaking of swords, every time I win anything, my gf always says the same thing, "Well, it's not a sword, but good job". I think they only hand those out to kids now.
You won the nogi and gi divisions in the same tournament? Sounds like if you win purple gi you should get a belt. But like you said if you already win a division you can't get 2 belts. Tbh I think it'd be cool to have at home. You can tell your friends who have no MMA/BJK knowledge at all that NAGA is another version of UFC lol
Each year there seems to be fewer and fewer competitors signing up for the tournament held in Orlando. I competed last year and resigned myself to the fact its a total Clusterfuck. I like the IBJJF organizational style. You know when and whom you're competing against.
yeah at 17 i won no gi advanced and in gi they only gave me 1 belt and 1 medal i was mad and back then in 2009 the belts were garbageeeee seriously those 10 dollar walmart wwe belts were better but in 2011 they got good belts lol wish i could change it in
