Sunday, November 4, 2018

ADCC East Coast Trials - Reflections

Had a blast competing and watching the East Coast ADCC Trials yesterday. Saw a bunch of notables and some not so well known put on some serious displays. The ruleset really provides some different variables to influence the outcome of the matches. The refereeing was diligent, consistent, and fair. I was shocked at the lack of the usual buffoonery I see at local and even IBJJF level events I've come to just accept as the price of playing the game. The referees stayed on task, no staring off into space or fixing their balls' location in their pants or the usual half or full assed-ness I have to ignore every time I go compete or coach. The rules meeting was concise, positions and scoring were clearly defined, and the reality was the event ran non-stop once it began. Scales closed about 15 minutes before the first match, and the biggest issue is with only 3 mats there were serious wait times between rounds of each bracket but it's an all day affair and that's just part of the mental battle for all the athletes.

I opted to play conservative during the first 3 minutes with no points, and my opponent let me come to top just as points came into play and I immediately went heavy on a pass attempt with some backsteps and hips floating, but he laced a leg and rather than commit to taking the back or splitting his feet to escape as he attacked an outside heel hook, I paused and committed to neither and was forced to tap. He would go on to lose to Keith Krikorian in the next round.

Some odds and ends throughout the day of guys I know and/or train with/have trained with in the past year or two: Jason Rau submitted each of his opponents until the finals where Satava scored a takedown then did the Cobrinha avoid any points or engagements to run down the clock now that he was up on points. Ethan Crelinstein laced the leg of the Ruotolo twin and locked in a tight kneebar which his youthful legs stretchy-ness wasn't enough to ride it out. Jon Calestine submitted his opponents up through the quarterfinal where he lost a ref's decision as his opponent utilized a disengage and reset plan to ride out the points portion with a few takedown attempts. ADCC's ruleset is tough where any smart player can ride out the initial points-less phase, then score or continue on to overtime and look to win a ref's decision knowing the opponent can't pull guard without getting penalized. It forces some interesting dynamics as the day wears on.

Initially I thought I'd hate training for the ADCC ruleset, but honestly, the gamesmanship and mid-match decision-making with the overtime scoring and penalties, reminds me a lot of when I competed in Judo and frankly, it's a lot more stress-inducing than the lackadaisical  approach to points scoring and winning we often adopt in IBJJF or sub only grappling. Kasai is next weekend with it's insane Featherweight Grand Prix. Doing the NYC Grappling Industries on the 17th, headed to Boston for Grappling Industries start of December, then possibly doing the NoGi Worlds if I can swing the cost of the trip. 

No comments:

Post a Comment