Category Archives: Tournaments

Kids Jiu Jitsu, Tournaments

Match Night at edh bjj

 We had our second match night last week at El Dorado Hills BJJ. Overall there were a lot of improvements since the first match night a couple of months ago. Especially in the PeeWee class, their Jiu Jitsu is looking better and better every month.

What I really Like about match night is that it gets the kids real match experience which will help them do well in tournaments. It is also much easier to organize and put on a match night than it is to do an in house tournament so we can do it more often. This is great because a huge part of competition is just experience, so the more matches we can get the kids the better.

I’m very grateful for all of the volunteer help we received for both match nights. It is so incredible to see the team come together and help us in building the next generation of grapplers! There were enough Volunteer referees for me to be able to oversee and take notes on the matches themselves which is great. We would not be able to make these events happen without the team stepping up and helping out, it’s pretty awesome that we have people who are willing to do that.

Hopefully we’ll be doing these match nights every couple of months and will continue to see the kids improve as a result. They have a lot of fun doing it which is good, if they are having fun they are learning.

Coach Danny

Tournaments

EDH Jiu-Jitsu competes in JJWL Golden State

  The Jiu Jitsu World League Golden State tournament was last weekend. Our school had eleven youth competitors and three adult competitors. Everybody performed well. 

    I started the day coaching some of the kid competitors. It was great to see many of them make huge improvements since their last tournaments. One of our students hit a couple of really nice hip bump sweeps, at a previous tournament he struggled to finish that technique. Another student, who lost by arm bar in her last tournament was put in the same attack but she was able to defend and even counter the attack with a guard pass! 

    I won four out of five of my matches earning a bronze medal. My first match went pretty well, I scored a takedown, passed the guard and was able to finish with a head and arm choke. My second match I lost by triangle choke which put me in the bracket fighting for third place. My third match was pretty close but I scored a takedown early and was able to win the scrambles caused by my opponents sweep attempts. My fourth match I got the takedown and was able to take the back with a knee on belly setup that has been a part of my game plan for a while now. My final match for third place was the most fun, I scored the takedown, there were some scrambles and some back and forth action but I eventually took the back and finished with a bow and arrow choke. 

    Overall the team looked great. It’s so inspiring to watch everybody improve and get stronger. I am excited to continue my preparation for the World Championships with the feedback from this outing.

Coach Danny

Tournaments

ASSOCIATION: AJJ SYNDICATE WINS BIG at the JJWL Golden Cup III

TOURNAMENT RESULTS: 

A couple weekends ago the team went to JJWL (Jiu Jitsu World League) in Stockton to compete. Emberly from the peewee class made her tournament debut!

From the Kids class Dailan, George, and Drake made a strong appearance. George finished with bronze and Drake finished with silver. 

From the Adults, Jamie, Jarrod, Mike, Matt, Ted, Danny, Joe, – Purple belts Jamie won nogi silver and Jarrod won gold. – Blue belts Mike won bronze, Matt won silver and nogi gold, Danny won bronze, Ted won double gold.- White belt Joe won nogi silver.

Thank you to all the teammates and family in attendance! Tournaments are a great reminder to focus on the process and build from each experience. 

American Jiu Jitsu Syndicate:

The tournament was also an impressive showing of our organization: AJJ Syndicate. 
The team won the Adult and Master team competition and took third in the kids and juvenile team competition. Congrats! 

Tournaments

Some reflections about competition and my overall experiences

 I plan on competing as much as possible in 2022. Competition is one of my favorite parts of Jiu Jitsu. I love the feeling of stepping on the tournament mat to challenge myself against another competitor. I think the benefits of competing are huge. The lessons I’ve learned at tournaments have been so much more meaningful to me than anything I’ve learned in the practice room. It feels like the true test of where my Jiu Jitsu is at.

I did my first Jiu Jitsu tournament in my first 6 months of training. It was such a fun and intense experience I could not wait to do it again. I remember feeling so nervous as I waited for my bracket to start. My anxiety peaked when me and the rest of my bracket were standing by the mat waiting for our names to be called but once my first match started my nerves dissapeared and I was full of excitement. I lost my first two matches (it was a double elimination tournament) and all I could think about was how badly I wanted to do another one so that I could do better. Six months later I did another tournament and got silver. I think the dissapointment of losing those first two matches made me improve much faster than I would have if I never competed, it made practice so much more important to me because now I was working towards a specific goal. I just wanted to win a match.

I think everybody who trains should experience competition at least once. It’s such a fun and rewarding experience. It is also stressful and a little bit scary but that is part of what makes it so special. I’m very excited to test myself on those mats again this year and excited to watch my teammates do the same. 

Coach Danny

Tournaments

Jiu-Jitsu World League Tournament: AJJ Syndicate wins 1st place!

 JJWL Golden State III Reflections

On Saturday many competitors from El Dorado Hills BJJ drove down to Stockton for the Jiu Jitsu World League tournament. It was a very fun and well organized event. The day started off with the kid competitors, then later adults in the gi and no gi last.

Coaching the kids is always an incredible experience. It was so amazing to watch them go out there and do their best. A couple of our kids made it to the podium but what I was most impressed with was the way all of them displayed good technique, hustle and a lot of bravery. It will be fun to study the matches and use them to learn and improve as a school.

All of the adult competitors went home with a medal! American Jiu Jitsu Syndicate won first place against the other teams competing at the event. Watching and coaching the adults was interesting because of all of the various gameplans and styles. We had some athletes with a takedown oriented game, others with some impressive guard play and even some aggressive submission focused Jiu Jitsu! I thought everybody did really well and had a great time.

I had a total of four matches. I won my first match by points, lost my second by points and then won my next two by points earning a bronze medal. I made some technical and strategic errors that I will be working to fix in the gym before my next competition but overall I fought pretty well. I was able to get a few takedowns and guard passes but unfortunately I was not able to get to the back and finish like I had planned.

Jiu Jitsu tournaments are always great experiences. They are especially fun and memorable when we have a big team presence and can support, coach and cheer for each other. I am very excited for more to come. 

Coach Danny

Tournaments

BJJ TOUR ALL STAR in Stockton, CA

BJJ TOUR ALL STAR
On Saturday several competitors, coaches and supporters went to Stockton to attend the BJJ Tour All Star tournament. All of the EDH BJJ competitors did really well, many of us took home gold medals. It was really nice to see people from the team there just to spectate and support their friends.

This was the first time I have worked and competed at the same event. Working as a score and time keeper is a pretty fun and easy job. I got to watch a lot of matches and joke around with the referees, it’s always fun to make new friends at tournaments. That being said, I would have much rather spent the day coaching the kids before it was my turn to compete. I probably won’t work at a tournament again if we have many kid competitors going.

Watching my adult and master teammates compete was exciting. Everybody looked really sharp and was hunting for submissions. For a couple of them it was their time competing. It was nice to see those guys have a fun first tournament experience, they went out there and fought hard. I am excited to see how everyone grows at the gym after this one.

I was disappointed after I lost to my first opponent in the Gi. It was a frustrating match for me because I ended up in a couple positions that I usually do well in and still got beat. I also ended up in positions that I have been working hard on getting better in and got beat there too. I won my No Gi division later on in the evening taking down all of my opponents and getting a submission in the final. I feel really motivated to get back on the mat and to keep improving. 

Coach Danny

Kids Jiu Jitsu, Tournaments

Ruckus in the Hills Jiu Jitsu Tournament

This weekend I refereed for my second time at the Ruckus in the Hills in house tournament at EDH BJJ. It was a very fun experience for me as a referee and as a spectator. At this tournament there were a lot of PeeWee competitors, which is something we did not have at all at the last event. It was great to see some of the PeeWee students getting their first competitive Jiu Jitsu experience and it looked like they all had a great time. My daughter is in the PeeWee class and competed at the tournament for her first time so it was really special for me to get to watch her go out there and play. All of the kids in that age group showed a great attitude and exceptional sportsmanship.

I was really impressed with the kids and juniors who competed. They all displayed good technique and fought hard in their matches. Those were my favorite matches to referee. The brackets were put together well and there were a lot of competitive matches that were fun to be a part of. I hope the in house experience inspires a lot of the students from these age groups to do some more tournaments, it would be awesome to go coach those kids at some bigger events.

There were not a lot of adult matches but the ones that we had were great. Even though it was an in-house tournament and the people competing were teammates there was definitely still a competition level of intensity in the matches. Everybody was working hard to finish with submissions which made the matches very exciting to watch. Overall it was a great tournament and I look forward to doing more of them!

Coach Danny

Tournaments

Tournament preparation and the big picture

With a lot of tournaments coming up soon, it’s been a lot of fun getting myself prepared and watching my teammates prepare for their tournaments. Tournament preparation creates a really cool environment when everyone is working hard towards a common goal.

The process of tournament preparation is so interesting to me. The way we peak at a certain time and try to capture ourselves in a most prepared moment is a skill I have not yet mastered. One element of preparation is mental. I think many people start to feel nervous about competition as we get closer to game day and everybody’s mental preparation seems to be a little different and unique. This nervous energy is a great force to be captured and channelled in a way that helps us prepare ourselves.

In general I think most people are nervous about results, the win or the loss. When thinking about the big picture tho, the result of the tournament is almost irrelevant. Everybody wants to win, including me but winning or losing the tournament isn’t what makes us grow as martial artists. When we lose, there are always big lessons to be learned. These lessons help us get better. However, where we really grow most is during the preparation. I think many people forget about this. That extra focus, drive, and determination that we have when getting ready to compete seems to be impossible to replicate in casual training. For me, the fear of not working harder than my opponents and the fear of losing makes me push myself harder when I know I have committed to a tournament.

I look forward to competing at my next tournament and am excited for all of my teammates as they prepare for different events. The overall experience of competition is difficult to compare with other things in life. The tough training leading up to game day, the nerves and excitement right before stepping out to compete, the fast paced battle on the mat, and the way I grow and get better from my experiences are all things that I love about Jiu Jitsu competition.

Coach Danny

Tournaments

The Ruckus in the Hills in house tournament at El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was a pretty awesome experience for me. It was my first time Refereeing a tournament. I got to watch a lot of kids that I teach compete, many of them for their first time. Seeing everybody come together for such an event and feeling the sense of community was very special.
I had a lot of fun being one of the referees. It’s a pretty difficult and very important job at Jiu Jitsu tournaments. The responsibility of keeping the athletes safe felt like a daunting task. Having that up close view of each match made it very rewarding. In my preparation for refereeing the tournament I reviewed the IBJJF rules which i thought I already knew pretty well. Something that I learned was the rule on stalling is a lot more objective than I thought it was based on my experience competing and watching competition. They even have video examples of what should be called and time limits for their stalling rule. I thought that was really interesting.
The competitors all fought really hard which was awesome to see. Everybody also showed really good sportsmanship. It was cool to see people compete hard with their teammates while still being good teammates and friends. Watching the kids deal with the nerves of competition and then conquering that fear by stepping on the mat and doing their best was one of the highlights of the day for me.
The overall experience of the tournament was really positive for me. It was cool seeing everybody hanging out, chatting and enjoying the matches. I think the feeling in the room was a really good example of the strong, family friendly culture of EDH BJJ.

Coach Danny