'In the 70s and 80s the Japanese lost control of their dominance in Judo when many Russian Sombo experts began using gripping and throwing strategies foreign to the Japanese. So in response, rather than improve their own gripping and throwing strategies, they imposed rules banning those grips and throws to retain control of their sport. Sound familiar?' Yeah, the modern IJF rules leave so much to be desired.

I’ve never competed at a grappling industries event before. However, I follow them on social media and they have been selling lifetime passes to help cover expenses with all of their cancellations. I whole heartedly believe that having more competitions available is good for the sport. For that reason, I purchased a lifetime pass. My experience with this process has been incredibly positive. While it’s a lot of money up front it may be a huge money saver for some people. Will I get my money out of it? Who knows, but if people buying the passes keeps them in business then I will benefit from it indirectly at very least.

I've done 6 of their competitions. The basic concept is that you're paying roughly double (£60 vrs £30) compared to what it might cost to enter a local tournament. But you're getting up to 8 matches, guaranteed. That's compared to 2 guaranteed at most tournaments so it's much better value for money. The organisation is all on smoothcomp which i love, makes it easy to change divisions if you want more / less matches. Weigh-in when you get there, none of this bollocks getting DQ'd an hour before your match because you drank too much water. No bullshit about you wearing Gi's with patches or its the wrong shade of blue. Better rule set than IBJJF in my opinion too. Prolific sandbagging in the NoGi divisions though....

Appreciate the feedback. No gi registration should go by belt level in my opinion.

It's something that is being debated and they will likely change it fairly soon-ish. As a purple belt, do you think you should be Intermediate and mixed with Blue belts or advanced and mixed with Brown and Black?

Due to the length of time I’ve been training I couldn’t justify going intermediate although skill wise I don’t belong in advanced lol.

I've competed in both IBJJF and Grappling Industries multiple times. The main difference I see at this point is the level of professionalism. IBJJF runs like a legit major sporting organization, while Grappling Industries does not. Dave Aguzzi lets his emotions gets the best of him and goes on public rants if anyone says a bad word about GI or him in a public forum. It's some real bush league behavior for someone who is trying to legitimize his promotion. You'll never see IBJJF do that. The first Grappling Industries tournament I competed in, one of the guys in my division said that he didn't even weigh in. Admittedly, this was like 4 years ago and they have likely made improvements. Also, the first GI tournament I did, their t-shirts that they gave out (do they even give out t-shirts anymore?) were cheesy as fuck (Make Grappling Great Again).....so cringey. This is just my opinion, but makes a huge difference. The IBJJF t-shirts that they give out are fairly tasteful and well branded. I'm going to have to disagree with the article on this one. When it comes to gi jiu-jitsu, the IBJJF is here to stay. No other organization or tournament holds the same notoriety as they do. When you say you're a World Champion or that you won 'Worlds'....everyone thinks IBJJF. They've done a great job putting themselves in a position to be the authority and 'governing body' of BJJ up until now. While I love the fact that I can compete for free at Grappling Industries as a brown belt, I hold an IBJJF gold medal in higher regard than a GI gold medal at this point, and I don't see that changing for quite some time..... Just my opinion, though.

I've done 6 of their competitions. The basic concept is that you're paying roughly double (£60 vrs £30) compared to what it might cost to enter a local tournament. But you're getting up to 8 matches, guaranteed. That's compared to 2 guaranteed at most tournaments so it's much better value for money. The organisation is all on smoothcomp which i love, makes it easy to change divisions if you want more / less matches. Weigh-in when you get there, none of this bollocks getting DQ'd an hour before your match because you drank too much water. No bullshit about you wearing Gi's with patches or its the wrong shade of blue. Better rule set than IBJJF in my opinion too. Prolific sandbagging in the NoGi divisions though....

8 guaranteed matches? That's awesome

I haven't done an IBJJF event so I'm only going on what I've heard

Hi Alexander, My experience with IBJJF has been very different than the experience of people you heard from. I've done a variety of tournaments, and IBJJF by far is the most professional one with the most qualified refs (yes, there are ref mistakes, but the overall level is def higher than other comps). As far as the specifics of what you've heard: - Not (really) an issue: 'having to wait in an isolation pen for over an hour before a match without proper access to water or food' Yes, you definitely might wait in the pen for more than an hour, but you can bring in as much water and food as you want (I do), and your mates can also hand you whatever you need from outside the pen. - Not (really) an issue: 'being prevented from drinking water before a match because they were near the mat' Yeah, step back from the mat and drink your fill. - This one is true: 'disqualifications because of weight and having no time to lose it.' You definitely have to be on weight. The time of your first match is published several days before the competition, and you are required to be ready to weigh in an hour beforehand. One can't really do UFC-style weight loss, draining yourself of water up to the second before stepping on the scale - nor do I think it's healthy to do so. Pick a weight class that does not require dehydration, and get there with at least a day (or a week) to spare. - This one is kinda true: 'disqualifications over minor Gi violations like patches' - you are NOT going to get disqualified, you just can't compete in a GI that does not fit the criteria. You can change into a different GI, though, no disqualification. Give it a try sometime, whenever we are back to competing...

It seems insane to me that the IBJJF does so much to discourage weight cutting, but relatively little to discourage sand bagging or steroids.

Does this also bother you about every other organization as well, or just the IBJJF? GI doesn't do anything about those things either. Additionally, how does the IBJJF discourage weight cutting? You pick the weight you want to compete at, not them. It's up to you if you want to compete at a weight class that's close to your walk-around weight, or if you want to move down in order to be closer to the top of your weight division.

Yes it also bothers me that ADCC doesn't have any drug testing programme. Juicing isn't really a problem at Grappling Industries since the participants are primarily hobbyists, but if that changed then it would bother me there also. IBJJF is the only organisation i know of that weighs you in so close to the match, i can't think what other reason that is for other than to discourage weight cutting.

I would say that weighing in close to the match levels the playing field for all. Many people compete for fun and can't really commit the time to weight cutting around their daily lives and other responsibilities. I tell my team when they compete to cut out any extra crap in their diets the month before a comp and choose their weight the week before. I actually discourage my team from weight cutting apart from that. It's more important that they're hydrated and fed than trying to get some mystical advantage by being 1kg heavier than someone else. My experience with AFBJJ comps (Australian version of IBJJF) is pretty much on par with Oleg's experience.

it's just genetic luck

yep sucks when others have better genetics than me!

Well, Vitamin S is a big equalizer in that regard :P

I've been actually considering going on HGH to help me with recovery. Hearing good things about low dosages on a 4 month rotation. Not sure if I will do it but considering it.

Probably need a new thread for this subject, i'm not an expert, but from what i understand TRT would be a better option than HGH. If HGH makes everything grow, including your organs that'll end up indirectly killing you. It's not something i've ever dabbled in, but i know people that have so just trying to relay why they chose TRT over HGH. I haven't fact checked it, could be bro-science though.