Archive for September, 2012
World Champ
I recently competed at the Wrestling National Champs in Hamilton. There were two highlights for me. One was wrestling a Commonwealth Games wrestler in the final. The other and what I will remember the day for was seeing a former World Champ from the Ukraine compete.
I was watching people warm up and there people were doing forward rolls with no hands, backwards rolls to hand stands, people working their shoots and sprawls all at high speed and high intensity. Then there was this older guy, relative to wrestling, just jogging around the mat with a big bushy beard. Picture that scene from Forrest Gump when he is running across the country and that was what I was looking at. I didn?t think much of it to be honest with you until I saw him get a team mate and drill his techniques. Unlike everyone else who was drilling as fast and hard as possible this guy just went at a comfortable pace making sure everything was in place. Just by seeing this I could tell he was good, at that stage I had no idea how good. (I also picked up some tips while watching him drill as well).
By the time his first match came around I had got word on who this guy was and was interested to see him in action. He was up against a young hungry guy that was an impressive physical specimen and all he did was close the distance with a shoot and force his opponent to tie up with him. The tie up was him standing bent over and the young guy leaning on his back (chest to back). Usually the top guy has the advantage here, all the guy did was position his arms then sit out and roll and then roll again to get the pin. I had never seen that move before and I still haven?t fully decoded it, but it was impressive. After the match he put his jacket and hat back on and went and sat in the corner for another wrestler. His second match was an exact repeat of his first, his third the same. Yes he won his first three matches with the same move, so far he had only done one move at the entire competition.
Finally he was against someone who avoided that position and from what I could tell from his other matches was fast, strong and technical. During the first round the world champ guy attacked in his own time, by that I mean he never looked rushed, and somehow he made the the other guy work. The amazing thing about his offence was, from my perspective, he was too far away and was too slow, but oh how wrong I was. Everything he did was timed to perfection, which gave him more time.
By seeing someone of this level you could see that they don?t do anything amazing, it is just everything they do is right. He was never rushed, never out of position and never made a mistake. If you think about when you train how often you are rushed, out of position and make mistakes then what this guy did was unbelievable. Even though I knew what the top guys in any sport do is the basics really really well it was still awesome to see someone of that calibre with your own eyes.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor
What's the Point
After going to a NoGi grappling competition I left thinking ?What is the point in having all these rules and guidelines if it comes down to referee interpretation??
Here are my two complaints: Firstly, one of the Lockdown guys had guard on his opponent and locked up a triangle, but not tight enough to get the tap. He then swept the guy on to his back and did not get a point for the sweep because he was not holding the leg – I couldn?t believe it!! If the scores were tied and he swept the guy and maintained the rest of the bout in a mounted triangle he wouldn?t have won because the ref said it was not worth any points as he did not hold the leg on the sweep ? are you kidding me??
Secondly, there was a list of illegal moves, one of which was pulling someone straight back over the feet when you have their back. So that exact thing happened to one of our guys and I was calling for the DQ, and the same ref turned to me and said ?he has been warned for it and if he does it again he will be disqualified?. So it turns out there were no illegal moves, just moves that you could do only once. Which I thought was a joke, correct me if I am wrong but if you do something illegal it means that?s it no second chance your day is over. To top it off one of our guys got DQ?d later in the day without any warning.
Competitions are great but I do prefer submission only for grappling competitions as it cuts out the stall and people worry less about position and more about attacking. It drives me nuts in a BJJ competition when there is a three minute match and they spend two minutes standing up then someone gets the takedown and then holds the position and gets the win, to me that is not BJJ. BJJ was designed to beat bigger stronger opponents with leverage and technique, not stalling in a position to get the win. It means that you can win a match with out showing any real BJJ skill or technique ? that doesn?t seem right to me.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor