| World Sambo Federation Nationals In today’s ‘positionally dominated’ grappling tournaments, it is difficult to find a competition whose rules stress submission over point-based victory. Kipp Kollar’s North American Grappling Championship would be a good example of a competition where competitors are rewarded for going for a submission win. Another example of this would be the World Sambo Federation Nationals. Though still in its formative years, the 2002 W.S.F. Nationals had a great turnout and is expected only to grow larger in the coming years. One reason for this expected growth is the fluidity of the tournaments format. As one competitor put it: “This was one of the better run tournaments I’ve been to. No endless sitting around for hours on end waiting for your division to begin. This and the Grapplers Quest are definitely two of the most well run tournaments around.” What can this fluidity be attributed to? One possibility would be the lack of belt divisions. Tournament founders believe that at a national level the skill of the competitors is and should be extremely high. As such, belts become less of a concern than, say, experience or weight. Combine this with the fact that it is very common for varsity wrestlers, Judo black belts, and NHB competitors to enter BJJ and Sambo tournaments as white and blue belts, and it become apparent that belt divisions often are unfairly stacked. Because of all this, the Nationals have weight divisions as the only limiting factor. It is also believed that fighting up a few levels pushes the competitors to train harder, stick to a game plan, and of course gain valuable experience. The rules of the tournament are simple and try to favor no particular style of fighting. To assure that each competitor can show his/her best, the tournament is of a double elimination format. The competitors face off in one five minute round. If no winner is determined in that time, one sudden death overtime is utilized with first takedown being declared the victor. Points are not nearly as prominent but are awarded for takedowns (more for those throws that leave the initiator standing), gaining an advantage position (mount, sidemount, etc), and reversals. However, in most cases only 1 point is awarded for each, and multiple positional scoring is not awarded (for example, passing the guard to knee on stomach, then to mount, and back to sidemount only results in the 1 positional point.) In most cases this forces both competitors to focus on submission as the key to victory, as it ends any match regardless of score. All submissions are legal, from neck cranks to heel hooks to knee bars, and submission did end most of the matches at this years Nationals. On November 8th the competitors weighed in, and after a quick reminder on the importance of good sportsmanship in competition, they then met on the main mat for the rules meeting. Moments later, the matches began. The days competition was fierce, often leaving the competitors sprawled out on the mat desperately trying to regain their breath. Some of the competitors might have been considered favorites coming in, but the skill level was such that no one was ever really out of the running in most divisions. LIGHTWEIGHT This division had one name: Russian Vadim Ivanov. With his coach Dr. Darrin Pordash in his corner, Vadim swept through the competition in extremely impressive fashion. Using great takedowns to gain a dominant position, Vadim went on to submit every opponent he faced, some of them very impressive in their own right. The finals saw Isanov needing only one win to secure himself the gold. His opponent, Brad Renzi, had looked impressive in his earlier wins, including his win over bronze medal finisher Iizuka Mineo in the match immediately preceding the finals. In fact, once the final match began Renzi looked good early and appeared to be taking control, but Isanov once again turned it on and caught Renzi in an armlock, leaving Brad no choice but to tap. MIDDLEWEIGHTS A hotly contested division, this one was up in the air until the end. Dan Reinhart of Cleveland, Ohio and Scott Myers of Shawn White’s Advanced Combat Systems had met earlier in the day in the very first round of the tournament. In that first meeting, Reinhart was successful in getting numerous takedowns and defending even more submission attempts in securing the shutout victory. However, by the time the two met again in the finals, conditioning had reared its ugly head and become a huge factor. Needing only one defeat to be eliminated, Myers turned up the pace. With Reinhart beginning to tire, Myers used some very nice guard work to catch Reinhart in not one, but two consecutive submissions for the gold medal finish. The real story of the division was Cathleen Adams of the Grappling Concepts competition team. With no women’s division to compete in, Cathleen could have opted out. Instead, “Cat” as she is affectionately referred to by her team mates, fought valiantly and showed great technique in the men’s division and secured herself a bronze medal for her efforts. LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS “Unless it’s NHB, never fight from inside the opponents guard. Either fight from a dominant position, or use your guard to secure one.” This was Kristopher McLeod’s strategy coming into the tournament and he stuck to it perfectly. Never once in his opponents guard, he found himself in the final against Sean Thurston of Grappling Concepts, who also had not tasted defeat that day. The finals would require two victories for either man to walk away champion. In what were considered by many as the fights of the day, the two went at it tooth and nail, with all three fights being necessary. The first match saw the round end with McLeod attempting to secure a rear choke, but Thurston conserved his energy and defended. The match went into the sudden death overtime where Thurston used a good takedown for the win. Obviously upset, “Macaco” (called that because he “apparently looks like an ape climbing his opponents when he wrestles”) would not allow the second match to go the distance, securing a tight triangle on Thurston for the victory. The third and rubber match saw Macaco control the mount and rear mount, but was once again unable to secure the choke as time expired. Both men fought hard for the takedown, but nearly 3 minutes of overtime was necessary before McLeod could hit a whizzer for the takedown and the first place finish. Thurston’s coach, J.W. Wright would later say that McLeod had a “guard from hell, but Sean’ll have it figured out by next year.” The bronze medal went to Dan Adams of St. Louis. HEAVYWEIGHTS Vincent Fields can easily be described as a phenom. At well over 200 pounds, he not only walked through his division, submitting everyone he faced, but did so with lightning fast speed not normally associated w/anyone his size. Ankles, knees, necks, arms, Fields attacks them all and seemingly without breaking a sweat. What’s more, Fields, who operates the Southern Illinois University Martial Arts Club in Carbondale, Illinois, continued his dominance into the Absolute division where he tapped out two of the other divisional gold medallists on his way to that title as well. Total time on the mat in BOTH divisions? Less than 10 minutes. Every competitor was impressed, but not surprised. Fields is a phenomenal competitor who has fought and experienced success in both gi and no gi competitions, as well as NHB and kickboxing as well. This was just one more medal for the young grappler. Also making impressive showings were silver medallist Dusty Waldschmidt, and bronze medallist David Adkins. The W.S.F Sambo Nationals were nothing short of impressive in their first outing, and their founder Darrin Pordash wants everyone to come test their skills next year as well. “This is not a traditional Sombo tournament, so those unfamiliar with Sombo rules should not be afraid to compete.” It is a fact that one half of all competitors who enter a tournament will lose their very first match. Because of this, there are many whose ego and reputation prevent them from competing and thus becoming better at what they do. As light heavyweight gold medallist McLeod put it, “Martial artists must learn to leave their ‘comfort zone’ and branch out in order to improve. A Judo specialist SHOULD enter a BJJ tournament. Likewise, a BJJ stylist SHOULD enter a kickboxing match and a kickboxer a NHB event , and so on. Being humbled in a competition you’re not familiar with sparks your desire to train harder and thus improve.” An important theory to keep in mind in the realm of mixed martial arts, and one that the W.S.F. Nationals seems to take to heart. |