DEMOCRATIZE THE GRAPPLING EXPERIENCE
1. Make competition more rewarding (financial awards, better competition)
The growing fad in grappling competitions is to decrease the utility returned to the competitors. Tournaments buy medals in bulk to decrease the cost and recycle the medals over multiple events. The PGO awards unique, custom medals for each competition. Many tournaments come into communities to make a profit and take all the funds back to their home city/state. We solve this discrepancy by offering financial rewards for the winners of each open belt weight class. This will eliminate the costs grapplers incur from traveling, lodging and dining, and training. We also aim to increase the level of competition by offering our open belt divisions. These divisions are open to any belt ranked competitors of that weight. This allows competitors to test their skill set against a wide variety of grapplers.
2. Make competition more relevant to self defense
Current tournament rules have taken away the significance of using competitions to prepare grapplers for self defense situations and MMA (mixed martial arts) sport competitors. The modern sport BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) scoring system uses very poorly thought out criteria for the point system. More often than not, most sport BJJ competitors look to get to the bottom position as if it's advantageous. This decreases the growth of the grappler for self defense because it does not teach the grappler how to get the initial dominant position. The PGO makes linking competition to self defense a priority.
3. Make competition more fair (easier rules)
There is always a discrepancy concerning points that competitors believe should or should not have been rewarded. The PGO simplifies this by using a more intuitive point system which also better corresponds to developing the self defense and MMA sport mindset.
4. Add excitement (quicker match time, reward more positional changes, attack stalling)
To make grappling more friendly to spectators we are limiting the open belt professional divisions to 6 minutes. We believe the longer the match the less action you will have. In short, competitors pace themselves. Moreover, all Olympic recognized grappling forms are either 5 or 6 minutes in match duration. To facilitate more action we will also reward positional changes that sport BJJ does not, i.e. escapes and reversals. It is imperative to reward a grappler for improving his or her position. In addition, it is necessary for grapplers to realize the benefit of not losing their dominant position. Another key measure we are taking is a no tolerance stance on stalling.
TTT 