A Brace of Competitions
Some of you who check my page regularly will know that I enjoy competition and always try to compete as much as I possibly can. Searching through social media it seems there are two new tournament circuits out there. I have added one of these new tournaments to my "Tournament Links" page and will add the other shortly, but first a bit about each.
The first tournament is a new incantation of the Rickson Cup. Scheduled to have it's inaugural event this weekend (September 9-10, 2017) in Albany NY, the Rickson Gracie Cup is going to be more then an ordinary tournament. With a Jiu-Jitsu Industry expo, a seminar with the Maestro, Rickson Gracie, and a tournament, it could potentially be some ground breaking stuff, especially for the Capital Region of NY. From what I've heard and read the concept arose from a seminar last year which was hosted by Black Belt Eddie Fyvie, where he managed to get Rickson Gracie to give one of the largest seminars ever in the U.S. Over 200+ people attended, including locals and people from other states who traveled in specifically for the event (I had to work as usual). Hopefully for Eddie and the local Jiu-Jitsu scene both days go off without a hitch. I had planned on competing, but because of my injury, I will have to be happy with going to watch and taking some video. There are at least four of my teammates competing and I will gladly help coach them if need be.
The other new tournament is the KASAI Elite Grappling Championships. Scheduled to have its inaugural event on October 21 in NYC. Kasai appears to be the brain child of Rolles Gracie and Jiu-Jitsu hobbyist and businessman Richard Byrne, and will consist of both professional and amateur events. My general impression is that they envision their amateur tournament to help fill the mid-level tournament scene by providing an alternative to an IBJJF tournament, and something on par with a Grappling Industries or Big Apple Open event for example. My other thought is that not everyone competes in IBJJF, so having another option for competitors can't be a bad thing. For those who do compete in the bigger tournaments, they can use Kasai as a warm-up for those larger events on their calendars. Once Kasai hosts a few events, they will hopefully get a good rep and have some staying power. Regarding their professional events, it's always a good thing for fans to be able to have more of these events to watch and for top level competitors to be able to scoop up some cash. Hopefully Kasai will put a solid rule-set which encourages action and penalizes stalling.
Personally, my tentative plan is to sign up to compete in Kasai as long as my injury is healed enough. Cross your fingers!