Graciemag, (following something like 20+ comments about the travesty of this list HERE), has briefly mentioned Keenan on their post HERE.
I had earlier posted HERE regarding his clearly deliberate omission from the list.
Before all that, I posted a bit about him here as he was beginning what would become him winning the euro, the pro trials, the pan ams, and then the Brazilian nationals all in less than one year of competition.
"It’s little wonder middleweight purple belt Keenan Kai-James Cornelius has legions of fans on Facebook and comments about him galore here on GRACIEMAG.com. The Lloyd Irvin student is gearing up for an historic achievement in 2012: to win his weight and the open-weight classes at all four of the main IBJJF tournaments on the same year: the Europeans, Pan, Brazilian Nationals and the Worlds. Not long ago Alexander Trans came close to achieving this particular Grand Slam. In 2011, as a brown belt, the Danish CheckMat product only missed out on producing the absolute title at the Brazilian Nationals."
That's something of a retraction I guess. Kind of. Well, maybe not. Oh well.
It is what it is. His performance speaks for itself.
I could understand the frustration - if he was winning all these competitions at black belt; but he's at purple - not even brown - so it just looks like sandbagging (one of your pet peeves), surely?
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your blog, by the way: your passion really comes through.
it's not sandbagging b/c he'd never won any tournament anyone had every heard of up until that one year.
Deletenormally, you don't necessarily get your next belt mid-competition year. normally it comes after the worlds when you come from a big team that competes a lot like Lloyd Irvin.
if he'd won those things the year before, all of them, and went at them for a 2nd time after winning all of them, that would be sandbagging.
he won a grappler's quest advanced nogi near the time he won the Euro, and from there, inside of one year he trumped the accomplishments of virtually all the purple belts competing out there (in the same year).
so give the man his due. graciemag is busy sucking off the miyao brothers with their spiral/dlr/50/50 guard tricks, but both of them (i believe have lost to keenan) and one of them he finished in like a minute at the pans. the rest of the guys on the list were (sorry but true) a joke compared to what Keenan did that year.
That's a good explanation; thank you.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work.
PS: I do judo to supplement my BJJ (I don't get to train it as often as i'd like, though); would you say that reaching over the back, and grabbing the belt (as in your latest video) is the best counter to the bent-over/stiff-arm posture?
Should I look to dominate the grips/grip-strip?
Graham - it's not ideal for brazilian jiu-jitsu. i did it more out of habit than anything.
ReplyDeletethe over the back grip can get you in trouble in the transition on the ground. A high collar grip, right about where if i grabbed his left lapel with my right hand, my thumb ends up pretty snug with the base of his neck, to me, feels like one of the best grips that doesn't over expose the thrower.