Name: Tate Wright
Record: 1-1-0 (Win-Loss-Draw)
Weight: 170 lbs
Team: Roseberry's Martial Arts Center
Discipline: Jiu-Jitsu
It was just like another day at the office for Tate as he pulled out an easy win over his opponent, Issac Hansen, with Team Cestus (Rochester, MN). Tate had the usual pre-fight jitters in the hours leading up to the fight, but he had his support team there to keep his mind focused and get him warmed up.
James started the warm-up with a set of traditional warm-up exercises, called Daruma exercises. Sensei David Ossian would be proud of us. Although I've talked about these exercises in a previous post, I'd like to give a brief overview again for those who don't know what they are. According to legend, the theory behind the Daruma exercises taught in Okinawa traces back to around 520 AD. At this time the Buddhist monk, Daruma (aka Bodhidharma), traveled to the Shorin Ji temple in China. On arriving, he discovered the monks were weak and unhealthy. Daruma taught the monks a set of exercises to restore their strength and health. Since the monks at the Shorin Ji temple couldn’t own weapons, they began to practice unarmed martial arts for self defense. It didn’t take the monks long to discover that the exercises Daruma had taught produced tremendous internal power for the martial arts. Daruma's method of Kiko, recorded in two books called Ekkin Kyo and Senzui Kyo, eventually reached Okinawa and merged with the Okinawan fighting arts. Today most Okinawan masters still regard Daruma's teachings as the "most fundamental precepts of Karatedo."
Mark and I followed with some Yoga movements to round out the warm-up. James then slipped on the focus mitts to work on striking with Tate, and it wasn't long before Tate was ready to go.
I kept glancing over at Tate's opponent to see if he was going to get warmed-up, but he never did. That was his first mistake. Every fighter should know that you should never start a fight cold.
As the first round started, Tate exchanged some strikes with Issac, then got an easy takedown. Tate maintained top position while his opponent burned a lot of gas trying to hold Tate's head and arms. Tate stayed calm and worked his ground game. James and I were cornering him and realized Tate was focusing a little too much on straight Jiu-Jitsu techniques, rather than thinking MMA. With a little coaxing from the corner, Tate started setting up his movements with strikes and ended up doing a considerable amount of damage to the other fighter. Tate had inflicted enough damage on the guy that he called it quits just before the 2nd round started.
Tate was in such good shape that he said he was ready to fight again. Tate's performance was a thing of beauty. Congratulations, Tate. All your hard work paid off!
6/27/09
Jiu-Jitsu Prevails, Again
Best of the Best Tournament Videos
***UPDATED***
I have all of the videos of the individual fights uploaded to The Jiu-Jitsu Fighter YouTube Channel. I created a Playlist for 10th Best of the Best BJJ ProAm so they should be easy to find. Below is an embedded player for the playlist.
Tate Wright Fights Tonight
Tate has his second amateur MMA fight tonight in Council Bluffs, IA. Tate has mad ground skills, so I'm predicting a win by submission. James, Mark and I will be there to support him. Anyone else who is interested in going is welcome to catch a ride with me or any of us who are heading up there.
"Outdoor Wars"
Saturday June 27, 2009
Jack Daddy's Bar & Grill
2327 S. 24th St.
Council Bluffs, IA
Doors open at 6:30 pm, Fights start at 8:00 pm
General Admission tickets are $20.00 at the door
6/26/09
Vote for Drew Dober
I stumbled along something while suffering the net and thought I would pass it along. Fight Magazine is having a contest to give one amateur fighter the "Full Time Fighter Experience." Basically the winner gets to spend a week in Las Vegas working out at Extreme Couture with trainer, Shawn Tompkins and getting to see what it's like to be a full time fighter. The contest has been narrowed down to four finalist and Drew Dober is one of them. For those you who don't know, Drew fights out of Omaha and trains at Mid-American Martial Arts. I don't claim to know Drew all that well, but I have met him a few times at the Best of the Best BJJ tournaments and he seems like a really nice guy and a heck of a fighter. He was involved in a great match with Tate this past weekend. Drew was up late in the match when Tate pulled off one of the coolest finishes I've seen, catching Drew in a knee bar with 20 seconds left in the match. Many guys probably would have been upset in that spot, but Drew showed himself to be great sport. From what I've seen and heard, he seems like a deserving person for this chance. Honestly after watching the videos and reading the bios, he seems like the one guy who would make the most of it. No offense to the other fighters up for the contest, as I'm sure they're all great fighters too, but Drew does have clearly the best resume. Moreover, he's by far the youngest guy at 20. Pretty much all the other guys are in there late 20s and if history shows us anything, it's that it's hard to make it to the big time as a pro if you don't get started young. Anyway if you want to vote for Drew or vote for any of the other fighters here is the link: www.fightmagazine.com/fighter/
6/24/09
Team Jiu-Jitsu Fighter
Team Jiu-Jitsu Fighter competed at the 10th Best of the Best BJJ ProAms in Omaha on Saturday, June 20th. Overall, for the team competition, Team Jiu-Jitsu Fighter placed 3rd in Gi and 3rd in No Gi.
I'll be posting the individual results by the end of the week, along with the highlight video.
Congratulations to all of our fighters who competed and especially to those who placed in the medal brackets. I was proud of everyone's performance. We have a very young team, with no pre-qualifications to be a part of our team. With that in mind, I believe we stood up nicely to the other competition teams in attendance.
2009 Sho-Rei-Shobu-Kan Annual International Convention
This week Sho-Rei-Shobu-Kan is hosting its 2009 Annual International Convention. Shihan has students and affiliate schools throughout the world and once a year he invites everyone back to the Hombu Dojo for testing and fellowship.
This year's convention theme is "Growing from the Trunk." There will be classes in Jui-Jitsu, Judo, Pakua, Daitoryu, Kobudo, and Aikido. The Karate portion will include kata, bunkai, and drills, with the focus on kiso kumite. They will also work on knife defense and dahruma exercises.
Due to the convention, this week's Jiu-Jitsu schedule has changed.
We will have class on Thursday, however we will also have convention attendees in the class with us. I am encouraging all of the regular students to attend so as to assist me with the class. Many of the convention goers are primarily Goju-Ryu Karate practitioners and some Judo folks, so Jiu-Jitsu is not their primary martial art.
There will not be any Jiu-Jitsu class on Friday, June 26th. We'll resume our regular schedule on Sunday and have our 1100-1300 class.
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