Some odds and ends from watching the event...I literally fell asleep before the semis.
I don't think it was just me being a Negative Nancy...at one point the announcer told the crowd to "Maaake some noise".....and literally you could hear crickets.
Not a single person yelled.
Not one.
Several of the competitors in the bracket seemed completely content to play open guard and/or look like they were thinking about passing and that was pretty much it. Jamil looked like he literally could have cared less to have been there despite getting the nod from referees judging matches with virtually none or almost no submission attempts in the 6 min time frame of his two matches en route to the finals. Grippo in his first match fed the lapel from side control and attempted the step over with the leg/lapel-feed choke twice, but rode the clock out for the remainder. Shrock fell into a crafty triangle by Monteiro. The rest of it was pretty ho-hum. I'm beginning to honestly have to admit that Gi events can seriously stop plugging the submission only format and shorter time limits because honestly, the matches lacked the intensity of event a regular IBJJF event. Dunno if guys were tired from American Nationals or what, it simply felt like a lot of faking it or dancing about from a big chunk of the bracket. Keenan got Matheus into some deep trouble with his lapel guard eventually, after Matheus would break grips and back away from the guard almost every 30 seconds, but Keenan in his return to competing you could tell was a bit winded from his layoff due to injury in Japan awhile back.
I saw 2 submissions but frankly, a lot of the matches felt lackadaisical at best and I've seen better work and hustle in videos of Worlds camps and Pan Ams camps that various gyms put up for public viewing.
I wanted to like this event. I was ready to like the event. Was super excited to see a lighter weight class invitational bracket but the guys they had really did not bring and many didn't seem much excited to be there after their entrance and bumping hands.
I just can't bring myself to pretend that I did.
I don't think it was just me being a Negative Nancy...at one point the announcer told the crowd to "Maaake some noise".....and literally you could hear crickets.
Not a single person yelled.
Not one.
Several of the competitors in the bracket seemed completely content to play open guard and/or look like they were thinking about passing and that was pretty much it. Jamil looked like he literally could have cared less to have been there despite getting the nod from referees judging matches with virtually none or almost no submission attempts in the 6 min time frame of his two matches en route to the finals. Grippo in his first match fed the lapel from side control and attempted the step over with the leg/lapel-feed choke twice, but rode the clock out for the remainder. Shrock fell into a crafty triangle by Monteiro. The rest of it was pretty ho-hum. I'm beginning to honestly have to admit that Gi events can seriously stop plugging the submission only format and shorter time limits because honestly, the matches lacked the intensity of event a regular IBJJF event. Dunno if guys were tired from American Nationals or what, it simply felt like a lot of faking it or dancing about from a big chunk of the bracket. Keenan got Matheus into some deep trouble with his lapel guard eventually, after Matheus would break grips and back away from the guard almost every 30 seconds, but Keenan in his return to competing you could tell was a bit winded from his layoff due to injury in Japan awhile back.
I saw 2 submissions but frankly, a lot of the matches felt lackadaisical at best and I've seen better work and hustle in videos of Worlds camps and Pan Ams camps that various gyms put up for public viewing.
I wanted to like this event. I was ready to like the event. Was super excited to see a lighter weight class invitational bracket but the guys they had really did not bring and many didn't seem much excited to be there after their entrance and bumping hands.
I just can't bring myself to pretend that I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment