So it seems customary to start off a blog with an introduction post.
A little about me:
- I currently train BJJ in Raleigh, NC.
- I got my purple belt under Gustavo Machado / The Pendergrass Brothers about 3 years ago.
- I have since moved on and train under a Royce Gracie affiliate.
- I have been reffing sport BJJ matches for US Grappling for 3 years (since I got my purple belt).
- I would guess I've reffed around 500 matches.
What are my goals for this blog?
- I want to help increase rules knowledge and the quality of referees, including myself.
- The current competition rules leave room for interpretation and I would like some consensus on the controversial edge cases.
- Reffing a match is a skill, just like rolling. The only way to get better at a skill is to do it more. However since the opportunity to ref can be somewhat rare, I think video training is a reasonable supplement.
- I want to help competitors learn the rules. I'm surprised by how many people show up to compete and aren't aware of the rules.
- I haven't really seen anyone else doing this, so I figured what the heck, I'll give it a shot.
What to expect:
- I plan to find sport BJJ matches I think are interesting and/or controversial and break them down as I see them. Then, I want to see if anyone would have made different calls and why.
- I also want to critique the performance of the referees in those matches so that we can make better decisions in the moment
- Post my own experience reffing because somebody can probably learn from my mistakes.
- I want to share rules primers (Scoring, Slamming, Knee Reaping, etc) to help prepare newer competitors.
