Our team has worked hard for the last several weeks. We worked on our techniques, getting our game-plan together, building our cardio. The journey to get to this point has been filled with a lot of sweat, endurance and heart. There is always a goal in mind. The goal was to get to our “Best Versions” of ourselves for the upcoming Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament.

We are proud of how our competitors performed at today’s Oregon Open BJJ tournament. There is always room for improvements, a lesson to learn whether you win or lose. I’m also proud of how everyone else in the team helped each other. As a sparring partner, as a coach, as a motivator, being there to help each other up. Everyone who came out to Hillsboro and made that 2 hour drive, to be there for the competitors and the team, shows the strong bond that we have. for each other.

We’re more then a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team or BJJ school, we are a family.

Joey competed in this weekend’s Sub League Qualifier 2 Submission Only Tournament. He won 2 matches, tied 1 match and lost 1 match. Placed 4th overall and eligible to participate in the upcoming BJJ Championship Tournament in June.

We are proud of what he has accomplished in his first ever BJJ tournament and look forward to seeing him compete more in the future!

Late February marked the heavyest February snow storms for the last 100 years. Our power was off, taken out from fallen trees and tree limbs. The roads were full of snow and ice, making travel difficult and impossible at times. The lines for propane were long.

The weather started to clear up at the start of March, and the Tournament being held in Redmond, OR, was not cancelled.

The drive to Redmond was unfortunately eventful, with a swerve on the road from the ice when we were driving up towards Hoodoo’s peak. We were fortunate enough to have avoided the oncoming traffic. We attached our tire chains and continued onward to Redmond.

After the 4 hour drive, we’ve reached an even colder town of Redmond, with icicles hanging over a foot in length. The tournament was being held at the Oregon Army National Guard Armory.

Nate had to move up in weight division to have an opponent. The rules for the tournament and for his division, was Submission Only, “Best of 3” Rounds, with each Round being 5 minutes.

Round 1 – Tied with no submission
Round 2 – Tied with no submission
Round 3 – Tied with no submission
Round 4 (Overtime) – Tied with no submission, Lost due to Referee’s Decision

Nate earned his Silver medal for this division, after 20 minutes of hard-fought competition and for not getting submitted.

Nate was going to compete in the Absolute GI, NoGi & Absolute NoGi. But his rib shifted out of place again, so we were done for the day.

We thank Connection Rio and Professor Dennis Ashe for hosting and organizing this event.

Our team went up to Portland through the morning fog for the first tournament of 2019. Dan represented our school for this submission only competition and went through 3 tough matches against the other purple belts in his division.

We might have not achieve some of our goals, we all gained knowledge and pin-pointed areas where we need to improve as a team. We will come back Monday with a new set of goals to achieve and continue prepping for the next tournament.

We had an excellent time at the Oregon Submission Showdown competition this weekend at Springfield, Oregon.

Had a lot of great matches with Nate winning Silver, Jesus and Jay winning Bronze for all of their hard work this weekend.

Grateful for all of our team members for all of the training that we put in together to make this happened!