Abu Dhabi World Pro 2014
In my laid up post-surgery state I’ve been watching lots of matches. If you are planning on being a competitor, watching matches is one of the best things you can do. You really get to see what is the most effective and what isn’t. It’s also a great place to start when you’re looking for ideas of what to add to your game. On a side note, I love watching a guy who has the newest DVD out doing all sorts of wacky stuff, only to go back to a rather basic game during the tournament.
The World Pro just happened and I got this idea to break down the moves used during the matches and make a “World Pro Week” at my gym. Each day I will teach a series of techniques used in the tournament. Just something fun to mix it up a bit. After watching the matches and taking notes I’ve got plenty of good stuff to show my students when I get back on the mats to teach. But after watching the event something else stood out to me more than the techniques they were using. What stood out to me was the effect the time limit had on the matches. If you didn’t know, the World Pro’s matches were all 6 minutes. That’s it! I loved it! Almost all the matches were exciting and action packed. I really think that making the matches shorter is something that is better for the more casual fan of BJJ. Hell I’m not a casual fan and I enjoyed it! The downside to a 6 minute match is that the rate of submissions will go down because opponents can typically keep up a solid pace for 6 minutes and unless they just get caught, they will probably have the energy to defend themselves. The positive end is that a shorter time limit doesn’t allow for that boring feeling out process in the beginning of a longer match that’s essentially only used to conserve energy so you don’t gas out later. Really, a 6 minute match among high level competitors doesn’t allow for a conservative game at all.
I bring this up because the recent Metamoris event had 20 minute rounds that were submission only with no points or judges and the matches (most of them) were fairly boring. Again, this is of course my opinion. But during the last Metamoris event I watched competitors who were normally aggressive, play a slow conservative game and just didn’t go after it like they normally would. It just seems to me that the competitors weren’t pressed with a sense of urgency that a shorter time limit and points provide. I’m not saying that shorter matches with points are always necessary but I think it is part of the equation. You then get into the argument of purity vs sport and that whole mess. Fun fact; wrestling and boxing both used to do unlimited time limits/rounds. I believe if you are trying to market a BJJ event to the masses and make it something that is digestible to both the BJJ community and the public alike, shorter exciting matches with a winner and loser definitely look a lot more appealing than longer more conservative matches with no one awarded the victory.
If you haven’t watched the World Pro event, get on Youtube and check it out! If you have watched it and have an opinion about the matches, I’d love to hear it.
As always,
Thanks for reading!
Chewy
