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