Graplers Quest, Las Vegas

This weekend we went to Las Vegas for a grapling tournament Trevor signed up for. The tournament was on Saturday but we got there on Friday night and came back right after the tournament.
Trevor lost his two fights by points. The interesting about this tournament is that, in grapling, you can mix wrestling, jiujitsu, judo, etc. Trevor has training in jiujitsu, which has no time limit and no point system, you go till you submit someone - getting them to tapout of the fight. Some jiujitsu fights can go on for over 20 minutes and it really only ends when someone's joint is broken or a tapout is seen.

In this tournament, there was a time limit of four minutes per fight and points were given when a fighter held his opposer in different positions for four seconds or more.

For example, in jiujitsu, being under your oponent on your back doesn't mean you are in disadvantage, it can actually be a good thing. At this tournament you lost three to five points for being put on your back.
So, for me it was frustrating to watch because even though I saw Trevor doing awesome moves, he wasn't being awarded points either because he didn't hold them for long enough or because in this tournament those moves just weren't as "point worthy."
People that had experience in wresting had a lot more advantage because that is exactly how their tournaments go.




This picture is after his second fight, Trevor is wearing the blue gui and he had actually started choking the guy towards the end of the fight. Had this been a jiujitsu match, with no time limit, the guy would have tapped out or passed out eventually. Here, he was litteraly saved by the bell because when he was starting to faint, time was up and he was the winner, by points.



This was the first ever martial arts tournament that Trevor didn't win, among over 20 that he has participated in. But he loved the experience and had a lot of fun learning new things. He is happy that he wasn't submitted and that he had the opportunity to fight against such skilled oponents.

I also had fun watching the whole thing, especially when there were little kids in this tournament, just SO CUTE!
Oh, and I couldn't pass a chance to meet and take a picture with one of my favorite fighters, Randy Couture.


There is a jiujitsu tournament in Utah at the end of this month and Trevor will most likely participate. I will keep you posted.