2010 New England Grappling Championship – Twin River Casino, Rhode Island

So today was the day we went to the New England Jiu Jitsu tournament run by NAGA (North American Grappling Association). It definitely had the potential to be a very long day. The guys who were competing had to weigh in at 8AM. They could do that or could have weighed in last night. One of our guys stayed at a hotel last night and took advantage of option two. Our other guy woke up wicked early this morning and took care of business then. That was a little early for us and since we really didn’t have to be there for that, my lady and I arrived a bit after 11.

On a side note, my lady is apparently now an avid Jiu Jitsu fan. She has suggested that I compete. I suggested that I don’t. I recollect the days of me trying to climb the tennis ladder and I would prefer to keep any competition related obsessions at bay. As I explained this evening, once I know I am going to go up against someone in a competitive environment, I lose all track of life. I would rather stay focused on work and keep this sort of thing on a more casual level. Although, I will say that as I watched all the other matches this afternoon, I had an insane urge to jump in there and roll around. So with that, I will not completely rule out getting into something like this in the future. I’m the “morning of” kind of guy.

Awesome day – When we got there, the place was packed. I mean packed. I was a little surprised because this was my first tournament. People kept saying that once the kids left, the place would clear out. It didn’t. Actually, I think more people showed up.

We watched our guy Chris compete once with no gi and once with gi. We were also there for our guy Pete to compete no gi. They both did great. I was proud that they got out there and did this. You should have seen us with the camera and video camera on the sidelines watching. There was so much adrenaline running through my body, I was shaking. I’m not sure who was more nervous, them or me.

Here are a few pics from the event. They are basically just crowd shots, but they are pretty good. Tomorrow, I am going to upload some real photos and some video.