As I hoped, this was a sort of 'coming out' tournament for
'Britto Jiu Jitsu' and Toronto BJJ on a Canadian National level. We arrived with a team of 35 competitors and when the dust settled our Academy had 15 medals and 1 fighter - Tommy Beach - heading to the ADCC finals in The United Arab Emirates later this year.

I went with 2 personal goals. Reach the Podium and Pull off a 'Flying Armbar' (mentioned in a previous article). But I had injured myself 2 days before during practice. I had pulled a muscle in my shoulder blade but not too badly. I kept it on the d/l.

We arrived in Montreal on Friday night after a cramped 6 hour drive to weigh in and I hit the scales at 152.6lbs (a very light lightweight) but they put me into Featherweight instead (-150lbs). This triggered a new confidence as there were no other TBJJ teammates in this division so I immediately felt I had a really good chance. All the fighters would be my size of smaller.

We found a hotel and more junk food and then settled in for the night. It's a trip being in Canada and not really knowing what people are saying but I did make an effort when at Tim Horton's...Jorge also had txt'd me and asked to rally the troops in the morning for a pep talk before the tournament started. I had a restless night but got a few hours sleep...better than our driver Mike who hit the casino instead of resting...

The way this tournament was ran was as follows:

• 3 Mats - White, Blue, Advanced (Purple, Brown, Black in 1 divison)
• All the 1st round fights took place  through all divsions. Then the 2nd round of fights for each division then each quarter, semi then final (so you had hours between fights).
• All the women in 1 division(!)

We had our cheering section in the bleachers and the tournament started. I tried my best to keep Twitter and Facebook up to date and the web-stream provided a great way for everyone in Toronto to watch what was going on

I recorded some of the qualifying fights which you can see here. I hope other fights start to appear on line soon (hint)

From about 11am until 7pm Toronto BJJ fought valiantly and had many victories. We had a gold Medalist and Silver Medalist in the Advanced Division. We had many medals in the white and blue belt divisions. Jorge, as always, has to fight hard for bad calls. 1 call in particular was changed when the ref ended up reversing a controversial decision which was keeping Oliver from taking gold in his division.

It's really inspirational watching your team mates performing on the mats - Like Jonny Stephan featured here. You have shared in all the time training. You know their games. And win or loose the way the team rallies around each fighter for each fight is truly an exceptional dynamic. I have never ever experienced this level of comradery before ever.

You can read a review of my own experience - here on the blog very soon. That's it's own topic. But I went 2-1 and lost in the Quarterfinal. I did not reach the podium...but I did pull out the flying armbar (sort of).

After the Medals were given out we grabbed a team photo and then jumped in the car back to Toronto. Some tea mates stayed and did the absolutes or went to Party but it was nice to get home to rest in my own bed.

And that was that. In a flash it was over.

I'm already looking forward to next year and
I can't wait to see how Tommy does in ADCC 2010!

- Jorge was a true legend this weekend and I'm so proud to be his student
- My Teammates are all legends too and the pride extends to all of them.

Notes

• Tournament T Shirts should be FREE not . Some people got put out in the first round and payed to be there so it would be a nice consolation prize. I do not think promoters should not make money off Tournament T Shirts (which I might add had dirt on them)
• The event Appeared to be mostly Toronto Organizers and teams (could it not be in Toronto)?
• The Tournament was very well ran. Clean - good venue with places to eat - rest warm up or watch. The staff were accessible and friendly. The refereeing was fair. Nice Medals too.
• Good web exposure with the web stream. Win.
• A few people said 'your the guy with the blog' a few times during the event. I did a double take.
• I had a lot of ideas about what I should bring in a 'day kit' to the next tournament which I have listed here
• Is it just me or do Quebecers not wash their hands when leaving the bathroom?

I would also like to say - my 'lap of honour' after my 2nd fight was totally spontaneous and I ended up going over to my opponent and saying sorry. Usually you stand up and compose yourself but I jumped up and ran around like I won Gold at Mundials. I'm not Brock Lesnar by any means but it goes to show you what adrenaline does when you rise to the occasion and do what you set out to do.

So again. - Sorry. It was not intentional and I did not mean any disrespect.

If you have any experiences to share from the weekend please leave a comment or drop by facebook

...Now it's back to training...Scott

Look at some Pictures here