My name is Mike Martin, and I own and teach Brazilian Jiu-jitsu at Strong Heart Martial Arts Academy in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm a Black Belt under Joe Moreira, and have been training in jiu-jitsu for the last ten years. I am holding my first tournament, No Heart No Victory No Gi on Saturday, Feb 27, 2010 at Deer Valley High School where I first learned wrestling as a high school student, which later influenced me to learn jiu-jitsu.
I wanted to throw this tournament for a number of reasons; because I wanted to bring a high quality, no gi tournament to the valley; because we're a young, limited resource school in our second year of operation out competing with the larger schools backed by a number of investors and I wanted to give my guys a place they could show their skills and dedication as a school in tournament. I decided to pick Deer Valley High School to host my tournament because I wanted somewhere not just comfortable and nice and hold a tournament, but somewhere in the West Valley since so many martial arts schools have arisen out here, and I wanted to bring the tournament to them instead of making them travel so far to compete.
I'm also happy to announce that Joe Moreira will be coming out to referee and hand out medals -- I consider my self not only lucky, but honored that he agreed to do so since it was Joe Moreira himself who brought the first tournaments to the country. We're also honored to have Ben Henderson from The Lab coming out to compete, and to have had Shannon Ritch offer to help us out in any way he could from www.Siegemma.com . It means a great deal to me that all these guys from other schools have been so helpful and willing to back me in undertaking this challenge, and it has helped me reach one of my foremost goals: To throw a tournament with skilled, knowledgeable referees. All of the refs at No Heart No Victory No Gi will be Brown and Black Belts, which I feel will give all of the competitors an amazing tournament experience.
Mike Martin
Strong Heart Martial Arts
www.strongheartacademy.com
mike4martialarts@hotmail.com
(602) 487-9828
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sounds fun.
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Mike just had all the time keepers/officials/etc. go through a dry run of everything. This should be the best run tournament in AZ.
Also some good rules to prevent stalling. Even if you are not competing stop in and check it out. Will be fun and should be some good matches.
(I know he spent a fortune on the medals)