Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship & the IBJJF.

This weekend is the Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship (formerly known as the Pan-Americans or Pan-Ams), one of the biggest jiu-jitsu competitions around, with over 2,500 competitors this year. The competition is one of the many International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation* tournaments and will be at Cal State University Dominguez Hills in Carson, California.

As of this moment, the only person I know of who is competing is Kia, so let's all wish him goodluck and try to be there to support him if you can. Besides being there for Kia, the tournament is bound to bring out some of the best fighters around, which makes it well worth the time to go down there and pay a visit. I would also like to wish the best of luck to our friend, Troy, who came from Hawaii to train with us while he was in town for the Pan Jiu-jitsu Championship, make sure you cheer for him if you see him around!

If you are interested, the IBJJF is looking for scorekeepers for the tournament, and if you can - you should get ahold of Mike Buckels, he will hook you up with all you need to know about scorekeeping. It's an easy job and it comes with lots of benefits and you can work as much or as little as you want. You can understand how much help is required with a tournament of this capacity, and it runs from Friday to Sunday.

For more information, contact Mike Buckels at usjjfeventstaff@gmail.com.

* The purpose of IBJJF is to unify jiu-jitsu as a sport, to bring it together and make it more organized. This is done by making a single set of rules that will apply at all tournaments, if you have been to multiple tournaments - you know that the rules are a little bit different from tournament to tournament - but, the IBJJF is looking to fix this and help Jiu-jitsu move along as a sport. The IBJJF also will be collecting a complete roster of schools and members of the schools, and making it more difficult for people to fight in inappropriate divisions or "sandbag".

How to bookmark with an RSS Feed

So, you want to know when there are new posts to the A-Team Times without Ali telling you, or having to go check all the time? Well, I'm going to tell you. Create yourself an RSS Feed for the Times, so that way you can check to see whenever there is an update.

1. Open up your web browser of choice ( I used Firefox for the example picture ) and go to the A-Team Times.
2. Once you are there, click the orange RSS-Feed button, circled and pointed to in the picture. ( It will be in a different place on different browsers, but, you should be able to tell what it is. )
3. You will then add it to your bookmarks through that button, and it will become a feed, that will show you new posts and updates to the site whenever you look in the A-Team Times folder that it will create.

I am kind of strapped for time, so this is a rushed explanation. If further explanation is required, please say so in the comments and I will expand on it when I get the time. Thank you!

Grapplers' Quest Results.

We took a very small team to the Grapplers' Quest in Del Mar on Saturday and came out with some pretty good results. Our whole team did great, but, did you really expect any less from the A-Team? Congratulations to the following members of A-Team for placing at the tournament.

If there are any corrections, or if you have any pictures from the tournament, feel free to send them my way.

No-Gi ( Kids)

• Anna - 1st
• Robert - 1st
• Ryan - 1st
• Wyatt - 3rd
  

Gi ( Kids )

• Robert - 1st
• Tye - 1st*
• Kade - 2nd*
• Anna - 3rd*
• Ryan - 1st
• Wyatt - 1st
  

No Gi (Adults)

• Tim - 3rd
• Kia- 3rd

* Tye, Kade and Anna were all in the same division, and we got all three places because they all tied against eachother.

Grapplers' Quest

Tomorrow ( Saturday, March 21st, 2009 ) there will be no class, as Ali will be taking a few of our team members to the Grapplers' Quest tournament in Del Mar, California. Please wish them luck if you see them before the tournament, and don't come in on Saturday!

Tournament season is really kicking into high gear, as there will be quite a few tournaments in the next few weeks, with some even bigger ones coming in a few weeks to months. Let's get our training in so we can go represent A-Team in the tournaments and let them know how good this new team is.

Good luck at Grapplers' Quest, keep your eyes open for an update with how our team did.

Promotions and Pictures (from the Tournament).

A big congratulations to Devin, Tyler, and Brennen Jones, as well as Jake Fassino, who got their first stripes this past week. Congratulations, you deserved it!

Also, check below at the tournament results for pictures from the tournament! If you have any additional pictures, please send them my way and I'll do my best to get them up here in a prompt manner.