Submission Only Tournaments

wOg

wOg

Burien Top Team
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I went to my first submission only tournament today in Seattle. It was part of the Submission Wrestling League.

Sub League | Sport Submission Wrestling League TM |Submission Grappling | Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - BJJ | Impact Jiu Jitsu Gym | Portland Oregon, OR

First of all, it was a very well-run event, IMO. We've got a couple of organizations in the area that really do a great job of putting on tournaments for the local academies and gyms (Liberty Events' Revolution series is the other).

Second, I was blown away at how well our guys from GB Seattle did. We dont' train no gi very much at all--maybe a few days before an event. But we had five or six guys take first place after getting submissions in all of their matches. It was something to see.

Which gets to my third point. It was one of the most entertaining tournaments I've ever seen. I'm mostly a gi guy, but I've never enjoyed watching no gi matches as much as I did today. With both guys for for submission or bust, the fights competely opened up. It was almost enough to make you want to do away with points.

Has anybody had any experience with submission only competition? Like I said, a part of me still likes the traditional BJJ point competition. But for no gi, which tends to lend itself to speed and aggression anyway, there's really something to be said for going submission only, it seemed.
 
how does it work though? are the matches timed? do you get some kind of advantage for submission attempts?
 
Usually there is no time limit for sub-only tourneys. Most matches don't last more than 10 minutes, though.
 
I have to admit I like the sound of submission only tournaments - gets away with all the arbitrary combinations of rules that point based combat involves (whether BJJ, judo, wrestling etc). I was initially worried that the matches would go forever, but it seems in practice they're pretty quick.

One question - what do you do for penalties? I assume serious things are simply disqualifications ... do they just not have other penalties (such as non-combativity etc)? And yes, I tried the link above to see, but it timed out on me ...
 
We had a submission only tournament up here yesterday, in Nova Scotia.

Only problem is once the time limit is up, the referee still has to make a decision. In one case they made the fighters do 2 overtime rounds.

That meant a beginner's match went 15 minutes.
 
I was going to go to sub league yesterday, but messed up my hand last weekend playing rugby.
:(

bonus points because they had no 'night-before' weigh ins, and while I would have only needed to drop maybe 4-5 pounds, I wasn't digging that.
 
I want to do a sub only tourny so bad. I enjoy rolling till submission whenever practicing.
God forbid you get a huge turn out at a sub only tourney...it will last forever. The last NAGA i went to i was at for 11 hours and thats with god dam time limits.
 
From what I understand, you either got a point for a draw or three points for a submission win. The matches were four minutes, and most competitors got 3-5 fights.

The dynamic was interesting. If you're first two matches are draws, then you are working like hell to get a submission in a later match.

One thing that also was interesting was seeing how many guys who won first place managed to submit all of their opponents. I've never seen anything like it. It really made for some exciting divisions.

There was one screw-up in a division, and they had a couple of guys fight over and over. But that was just a scorer's mistake and the guy who ended up winning that division still ended up being the guy with the most submission wins that day (2 out of 3).
 
BillP3 said:
I want to do a sub only tourny so bad. I enjoy rolling till submission whenever practicing.
God forbid you get a huge turn out at a sub only tourney...it will last forever. The last NAGA i went to i was at for 11 hours and thats with god dam time limits.
Click to expand...

I don't know how the subleague.com guys are planning to do future events. But they seem to be having a number of smaller qualifiers (three this year in the NW) leading up to a championship on May 31st.

That may be the way to go if the events really become popular. People could compete at a bunch of local smaller events with finalists working their way toward semi-final and championship events.
 
mikey5time said:
We had a submission only tournament up here yesterday, in Nova Scotia.

Only problem is once the time limit is up, the referee still has to make a decision. In one case they made the fighters do 2 overtime rounds.

That meant a beginner's match went 15 minutes.
Click to expand...

i was at the same one, i really enjoyed myself at this one cause it was a lil diffrent then ur traditional tournament that has points given out for position. i actually almost like the idea having everyone fight for the submission it makes the matches alot more fun to watch and to compete in
 
sub league is deffinatly a different side of competitive grappling...i did two events this year and am qualified for the oregon open on the 31st, hopefully all of the seattle guys that competed today and placed in the top 5 will show up down here for the championships..
 
subleague rocks.....its a fun local tournament for me but the only complaint i have is if the division is to big then they end up splitting it in half so you dont get to roll with your other competition...which in return could mean you get jooped out of placing in the division due to the point system. either way championships here i come.
 
For those of you on the East Coast (or with travel money), US Grappling will be doing another submission only event later this year. We did our first one in March, and it was awesome. Our longest match lasted around an hour and 20 minutes, but we had several that lasted less than one minute. We limited the number of competitors, and were finished by about 5 PM.

I can't wait until we do it again!
 
Linzy said:
For those of you on the East Coast (or with travel money), US Grappling will be doing another submission only event later this year. We did our first one in March, and it was awesome. Our longest match lasted around an hour and 20 minutes, but we had several that lasted less than one minute. We limited the number of competitors, and were finished by about 5 PM.

I can't wait until we do it again!
Click to expand...

have you checked out subleague's format? kind of interesting
 
Mikey Triangles said:
Sub League Rules | Submission Grappling | Sport Submission Wrestling TM | Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - BJJ | Impact Jiu Jitsu Gym | Portland Oregon, OR


that's pretty cool, but as this grows it's going to be tough to have everyone face everyone.


i think i'm going to have to fly out fr one of these. i have a friend in oregon now anyway.
Click to expand...

Not to get off topic, but the northwest grappling scene is growing at a nice clip. If I were looking to start a new school (subwrestling or jiu jitsu), I would strongly consider the Oregon/Washington region. There's also demand for grappling in the Eastern Washington/Idaho area.
 
wOg said:
Not to get off topic, but the northwest grappling scene is growing at a nice clip. If I were looking to start a new school (subwrestling or jiu jitsu), I would strongly consider the Oregon/Washington region. There's also demand for grappling in the Eastern Washington/Idaho area.
Click to expand...



yeah, i noticed.


My friend is in Salem Oregon and when I was trying to find a school near her I noticed there wasn't one. she'd have to go all the way to Portland or something.
 
CANADIANS, WASHINGTON STATE: Check out a Sub league called Submission Series, it's the chit.

Round robin tourney, you fight everyone in the division, 5 minute fights. 3 points for a submission, 1 point if no one taps (draw), 0 for tapping. Highest point total at the end of the day wins.
 
^^^^
Submission Series - If you can't Submit, what's the Point?
flyer_t2.jpg
 
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