Saturday, July 28, 2018

Did ACB cancel everyone's contracts? & Thoughts on passivity and stalling in Grappling as a whole

I guess the warlord wasn't making idle threats....I'm hearing anecdotally and sensing the money train of guys paid like pro athletes is dead and buried. ACB which was hosting 4-6 BIG High Profile events paying something like nearly all the top tier athletes in Jiu-JItsu now has No pro events scheduled, only open tournaments listed and promoted online....it's a sad day, for the first time guys were getting paid like pro athletes throughout the year....and 50/50, butt scooting, and refusing to do more than look for a sweep to win probably killed it (Gi athletes, I'm looking at you). IBJJF already had to have it's own heart to heart over 50/50 and the refusing to come to top position whilst grabbing ankles for minutes on end.

All this Gi-based hatred/rebuke aside, ADCC is proof that high level guys can produce insanely boring NoGi matches. Orlando Sanchez won an ADCC basically scoring no points and conceding no takedowns.
ACB is alsp not exactly comparable because ACB's head guy was comparing lower level and MMA-centric competitors competing NoGi at the last event to having matches with high level Gi competitors with 5 minute rounds and 1 minute of no guard pulling, meaning you've got 4 minutes at most, to pull guard, and get to work and potentially submit a world class level competitor...that being said....the money was on the table, his expectations were made clear....the rule set clearly emphasized a desire for faster paced matches that were more viewer friendly...but the modern Gi game did a lot to shut that down. It's tough, because on one hand, any worthwhile competitor will game the system to every degree in order to whatever it takes to win. That single-minded determination to win no matter how ugly is the difference at world class levels. That being said.....as a whole, the money in any given sport comes from it being a spectator sport. Not everyone who watches the NBA played at even a high school team level. If you limit your sport's attention and visibility to only the level at which the very top echelon participant can perceive.....money and professional level money will likely always elude your competitors. 

As a former Judo player, having come up during the changeover from basically all takedowns including leg and ankle/grabs legal to upper body throws being allowed (what they now term freestyle Judo which is rarely practiced or used as a ruleset for tournaments) to then the change where any leg grab or contact below the waist for a takedown was grounds for an Immediate DQ, as well as continually changing gripping restrictions to emphasize and produce upright throwing (meanwhile encouraging more matwork due to the growing awareness of matwork thanks to MMA and Jiu-Jitsu), Judo looks very different aesthetically than it did when I was training and competing.
JiuJitsu in a desire to pay athletes, will likely be forced to enact rules which create a more dynamic pace and award aggression while simultaneously penalize passivity and stalling. Historically, this is supported by the rule sets of Judo and Wrestling, both of which place a premium on work rate and will ultimately DQ a competitor for perceived stalling or passivity (but ultimately this came about due to pressure by the IOC in order to broadcast the sports to a wider audience - remember when wrestling was ALMOST TAKEN OUT OF THE OLYMPICS???). Perhaps, JiuJitsu with its ethos and core belief will stay out of the Olympics and avoid this changing of the guard....but if the sport moves to the Olympics....the IOC will change the game....and what then occurs is from the top down the skills emphasized and the rule set enforced down to the national and state level changes as well.
That being said....the Olympics will also bring the USADA...and the podium I suspect will look very different, and at the lower belts, if included in the Olympics...these behemoth brown belts looking like cartoon characters even at 16 or 17 years old will suddenly not win 12 matches across weight classes looking as fresh on the second day as they did the first). Or maybe it's just Jesus and hard work helping them with the will to win? What do I know?

Back to ACB and it's impending official closure.....it will be interesting to see if the dozens and dozens of high level guys formerly on the roster will hold ranks and refuse to blame the folks who made atrociously boring matches or just call it like it is and say what everyone basically knows....the Gi matches led to some atrociously boring events with very few finishes.....unpopular opinion...but that warning message sent out by the head honcho after the last one was the canary in the coal mine...the writing on the wall. Interesting time for JiuJitsu and the current rule set now that there's a more viewer friendly experience in the form of sub only/EBI format with which to compare/contrast.

As always, criticism never sleeps, and the ongoing discussion is part of the healthy and at times painful growth of any sport. 

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