2012 Nogi Worlds (Post Analysis)

Caio Terra (Gracie Fighter) x Fabbio Passos (Alliance)  Rooster Final

I unfortunately missed this match but thankfully Budovideos posted it on Youtube for our viewing pleasure.  Note that at the beginning of the match two funny things happen.  First, there is discussion about the IBJJF forbidding the use of thong underwear for female competitors and Caio takes a timeout prior to the start of the match to fix his hair.  This match was nothing short of brilliant on the part of Caio Terra.  As the match begins, Passos moves into a sitting guard single leg and transitions into deep half guard.  It looks like Passos wanted to sweep into a single leg but Caio is almost two steps ahead of him.  Caio responds by grabbing a kimura before Passos can initiate the sweep which allows him to sneak around to the back of Passos.  VERY SLICK!  Caio moves into the top rear mount position and slaps on a RNC.  As Passos attempts to bring his left arms out to defend the choke Caio traps it with his left knee which enables him to finish easily by RNC.

The stream was improved in some ways this time around by Budovideos.  For this tournament they utilized instant replays which was GREAT.  All too often I miss crucial moments that happen and one glance away from the screen is all it would take to miss out on something amazing.  They also made the mat assignments available so the viewer was aware of everything that was going on.  There was an aerial view provided which made it much easier to know if switching to a different mat was even worthwhile since not all mats always have a match ongoing.  My only complaint about the stream this year was the quality of the video stream seemed to be down a little bit.  There didn't seem to be too much lag (not anymore than normal) but that could be a combination of traffic and/or my Internet connection.

Onto overall impressions from the tournament.  My initial impressions (at the black belt level) was that the brackets seemed a little thin.  I have to wonder if some of this is due to the increasingly busy IBJJF schedule and upcoming IBJJF Pro shows.  The IBJJF Masters/Seniors tournament was less than a month ago as was the Metamoris PPV event.  I was unable to watch the stream on Saturday but did see a good portion on Sunday.  I came away from this having a new found respect for Team Lloyd Irvin.  I have been following them more closely since last summer and they have a recipe for building top level competitors.  Their results at the Worlds this year speak volumes.  DJ Jackson is now officially the first TLI adult male to claim a world championship.  They were only two points behind Alliance in overall adult men's rankings which shocked me.  Some may argue with the style and/or marketing of Lloyd Irvin but it's hard to dispute that they are creating some awesome competitors the likes of Ryan Hall, Jonathan Torres, DJ Jackson, Jordon Schultz & Kennan Cornelius (who by the way submitted everyone on his way to gold).  It will be interesting to see if they can keep this momentum when the 2013 Pan Championships roll around next Spring.

Academy Results

Adult Male: 

1 - Alliance - 82
2 - Team Lloyd Irvin - 80
3 - Gracie Elite Team - 50 

Female:

1 - Gracie Humaita - 53
2 - Gracie Barra - 38
3 - Alliance - 35 

Juvenile:

1 - Gracie Barra - 22
2 - Nova União - 21
3 - Carvalho Teixeira BJJ - 18 

Masters & Seniors:

1 - Gracie Barra - 103
2 - Brazilian Top Team - 86
3 - Nova União - 76 

The remainder of the results can be found here on the IBJJF website.

https://www.ibjjfdb.com/Campeonato/PublicResults?CampeonatoId=149&CultureInfo=en-US

I've added some videos that Budo just released from Lloyd Irvin's matches.  I thought it would be cool to post them because there aren't a ton of competition videos out there of Lloyd.

Match 1 is against Paul Halme of Peak Performance

Match 2 (final) is against Mark Zuber (assistant instructor from our school NDBJJ)

Keenan Cornelius (TLI) Match 2

Keenan Cornelius (TLI) Match 4 or 5?

2012 IBJJF Nogi Worlds Brackets

Here are the Black Belt Adult Men's Brackets.  I will try and add others as time permits.

Women's Black Belt Brackets

Men's Black Belt Master Brackets

Mens Brown Belt Adult Brackets

Being Injured (Popped Ribs) SUCKS!

I've been training BJJ for just over four years now and I've had my fair share of injuries.  I have managed to do the following:

• Hyper-extended thumbs
• Strained groin (borderline hernia)
• Dislocated pinky toe
• Torn MCL
• Fractured orbital
• "Popped" ribs

The popped rib incident happened a week ago from last Monday.  This occurred while trying to escape side mount against a larger rolling partner.  It was definitely not something that happens very often.  In fact I have only popped one rib a while back (again with a larger rolling partner) but it wasn't that bad and healed up in a couple to few weeks.  Well this latest incident involved three popping sounds.  The feeling of having this occur just takes your breath away and hurts like HELL.  I would equate it to getting hit in the ribs with a sledgehammer.  It sucked pretty bad but I've managed to stay on the mats and focus mostly on drilling.  I'd be lying though if I said I've not pushed it a bit too much (errant bumps) and simply trying to roll "light" with larger people....just not a very good recipe for getting healthy.  I got a terrible reminder this morning rolling light with one of the black belts at our gym.  That feeling should last at least a few weeks and remind me not to push it.  I think the biggest problem is twisting the upper body while bearing weight or load from other people.  Unfortunately a large part of my game is playing from various guards and that just isn't a viable option with any sort of resistance.  Should be a good time to get in a ridiculous amount of reps drilling.  

So moving forward I'm going to follow my own advice.

• Stop being a dumb-dumb and train around the injury
• Stop pushing it and let it heal

If you made it this far, here's a really cool match between Caio Terra and one of his friends (co-instructors) Osvaldo Augusto Queixnho from last year.

Playa del Carmen 2012 (Honeymoon)

Lindsey and I got married earlier this year in February. We had a small, private wedding at our favorite drinkery....Mercy (http://www.mercywinebar.com/).  We had a nice mixture of family and friends.  Lindsey and I took off to Playa del Carmen the next day.  We had an wonderful time and thought I'd share some of the pictures from our visit.  Lindsey had never visited the Yucatan (my second trip) and it was a great experience.  We stayed at La Tortuga which is a really exclusive place (not to be confused with inclusive) and basically in downtown Playa.  The accommodations and staff are nothing short of amazing.  I highly recommend this place for those that aren't married to inclusive resorts.  They have a restaurant (El Bistro) that provides complimentary (FREAKING AWESOME) breakfast with lots of choices.  This isn't some buffet like you get at most resorts.  They have a nice lounging area for drinking and using their Wi-Fi which came in very handy.

  

Mamita's Beach Club & view

One of the coolest places we went was Akumal Bay to swim with the sea turtles.  They have a dive shop for those that need equipment, scuba, want to do a dive trip, etc.  We had our own snorkel gear and rented a locker.  The water was a bit cold but the tortugas were awesome.  What we didn't expect to find was lots of  reef out there.  We probably swam out about 100 yards (still in the bay by a long shot) and found Rays, lobsters, plenty of diverse reef fish, giant Gorgonians, lots of Porites, Barracuda, and a trio of CUDDLEFISH swimming!  That was the biggest surprise by far.  Unfortunately we didn't bring the camera but the memories will last forever.  Coolest part is you don't need a guide to do this.  Just swim out there and see it on your own.

We used the collectivo (bus) to get around about 95% of the time rather than more expensive taxi's.  It's literally dimes on the dollar if you want to save some money.

We also did a guided snorkel trip in Puerto Morelos which was nice but having to wear a life jacket was super lame.  It's a National Park so it's mandatory apparently.  We'll do that one differently.....like go further down the beach!  Here are some pics from that gorgeous area.

We attempted to do a cenote dive but (unlucky) found a place that wasn't snorkel friendly....Cenote Azul. It would have been suicidal to try and dive down and come up into the cenotes at this place without scuba.  It was a really beautiful spot though with really pretty freshwater fish.  

One of our favorite places to eat by far was El Fogon.  This was a small restaurant that made PURE AWESOME on the grille.  

Carboncito's is also another really good restaurant with AWESOMELY large margaritas.

Downtown Playa