Clubs competing at Pan Pacs

All Martial Arts that have become a sport have gone to shit. The total point of the art changes when you start to create strategy and a game around winning by the various rules.
Remember, MA is and was for self defence. There are no refs on the street. That 2 points for contact to someones leg to get the gold doesn't exist on the street. Same as pulling guard and waiting to do that special sweep you've been working on for 2 mths could get your head smashed in on the street. Simple, sport has rules, the street doesn't.

As of boxing in the Olympics i dont think it has helped really. Proberly help a few kids have an goal to get there. But as of boxing in general no one really gives a shit about amature boxing. In general it reaks even more than pro boxing of rigged judging (exept maybe in germany) ;).

As of boxing, Judo, Wrestling, Tkd ect... very very hard to even see them on TV at the Olympics... If its not swimming, track and feild it hardly gets a look in.

Have always followed boxing and hard to even see a replay little lone see it live on TV. Also was chasing Wrestling and Judo at the Sydney Olympics and found it very hard to see any of those either.

Looking forward to the Commenwelth Games in Melb as i'm going to try to go to the Boxing, Wrestling and Judo, thinking i will get tickets as not many people will be trying to go.

wow .. this thread was a good read, some great responses here.

I took a non-bjj friend to the PanPacs on Saturday, he said he was
surprised at the sense of community amongst all BJJ "factions" he
saw that day, and the sportsmanship that was evident in all the
competitors. Just an outsider's impression of the scene at the
PanPacs.

By the way this Jason Berman guy looks like Bas Rutten.

Dutch Law a.k.a Jason "Bass Rootin'" Berman

I LIKE IT

Keats: re why you didn't/haven't seen much Judo on TV - each and every year the Japanese TV station/s buy like 99.9% of all rights to it. That is why despite Australia winning medals in 2000 the best we could do was show passport photos of our champs! (I think it was the Sydney Judo organisers (Loui or John) who told me about that).

I agree with Cam to a degree: MA's may not be extremely 'practical' on the street, but I'd suggest any training is likely to be better than no training. We could also go into the whole "Arts" vs. "Way" thing e.g., Judo, Karate-do, Tae Kwon Do are all Arts, while Ninjitsu, Jiu Jitsu are Ways... Arts by their nature are appreciative of the astetic aspects of the activity.

To me, all this looks like the big fish in the pond are fucking things up for everyone in australian bjj to get together have a roll and fun.
sad really in this day of age,tit for tat shit is very jokable.

"big fish in the pond"

Can I ask if it is only a small number of students who share (and openly express) the same political views as their respective big fishes?

Or, if given the chance, a majority of their students would also want to compete freely in various tournaments regardless of political affiliation?

I guess this question doesn't apply to the Machados and GZ guys because they are already competing openly.

BJJWA, so you should have won a few if you had the chance to warm up for 6 hrs... ;)

bjjwa - were you the one in the corner doing continual situps pushups tiger crawls side escapes handstands jogging in one spot jogging in circles lunge steps the lord of the dance spring step calf stretch knees in circles squats single leg squats for 6 hours straight?