Ciara

Ciara stood very upright against Cilan (Group Winner) in the opening exchange. Cilan was using a double neck tie, which we haven’t trained a defence against. Ciara’s shoot was good, but from too far out. Cilan secured the hooks and got the win.

Download here (mpg, 40 secs, 5.8MB)

Conor was too much for Ciara today. Normally in training their matches are closer but Ciara made a mistake of rolling away which gave Conor a chance to take mount. While she shrimped out Ciara didn’t manage to use her guard (most children don’t have very offensive guards overall – it seems to be something that only develops after they’ve been working with submissions for a while)

Download here (mpg, 1:21, 11.6MB)

Ciara worked well against Stephen, she timed her sprawl well and took side control. Stephen showed some nice mount defence and even came close to reversing Ciara. Ciara broke down Stephen’s defences and took mount for the stoppage.

Download here (mpg, 1:28, 12.6MB)

Ciara looked tired against Sulon, and slipped which gave him the takedown, but she shrimped to her hands and knees and took the single leg to reverse and take mount. Again, solid mount won her the stoppage.

Download here (mpg, 1:01, 8.8MB)

Overall what impresses me most about Ciara is her doggedness. Not having the natural ability of some of the other children she never goes less than 100%, always keeps smiling and always get’s back up. Which is why I’m posting this vid:

Adam Adam gave Andy some trouble in their opening match. Adam’s grown quite a bit in the last while, and is beginning to get serious about his training. It’s showing too. Andy’s technical superiority won over in the end. Adam didn’t do anything wrong, just that he couldn’t react fast enough to the change in attack.Download here (mpg, 1.08, 9.8MB)

Adam got the takedown against James and kept good balance as James tried to sweep. In the scramble, Adam turned his back holding onto James’ head. This is a common mistake with beginners, who are too focused on upper body control and forget about hip placement (I wonder if I’m mentioned hips before ) James took mount and even though he left a lot of space, Adam hadn’t the shrimping technique down for an escape.

Download here (mpg, 46 secs, 6.7MB)

Graeme

Graeme had no one to challenge him in submissions this time around so went in with Group Group – the heavyweights of the juniors.

Adam’s size didn’t prove a problem for Graeme, as it did for Andy. He quickly took him down with a bodylock throw and took a solid high mount.

Download here (mpg, 29 secs, 4.2MB)

Graeme again got the takedown with James, although James was able to prevent Graeme from taking mount. Graeme had the traditional side control hold on, and he should have switched grips with his hands (see Chicken Wing Armbar, photo 2). James tapped himself out by digging for an underhook and wrist locking himself, d’oh!

Download here (mpg, 43, 6.2MB)

In what was essentially the final, Graeme and Andy squared off. Graeme took the takedown by trying a whizzer and then switching to a knee tap (nice technical switch there dude!) Andy should have stood up or shot a single leg when Graeme gave him such space. By staying in guard, Graeme got the pass and eventually took a high mount.

Andy tried a “backdoor” escape, almost triangling himself in the process but pleasing the crowd with the high risk maneouvre. Graeme took the win on points.

Download here (mpg, 1:28, 12.7MB)

Andy

Has “The Wizard” lost his powers? Andy did not take home the gold from the Dublin Open this year, his first time not to finish in top place. (Don’t worry, he fell to another Spartan, not some outsider)

Group Group was dominated by the Spartans. Against James Andy busted out a text book double leg takedown to side control. Andy took mount but abandoned it when James began to shrimp. This is a result of Andy training more submission work – he’s developing a floating top game, which suits his lighter frame. He retook mount for the stoppage.

Download here (mpg, 1.12, 10.4MB)

Andy got his revenge on Graeme in the submission match. While Graeme looked closer to getting the win with a kimura from side control, Andy was in no way going to lie down. Andy tried a few submissions from Guard but couldn’t control the bigger opponent.

However, the crowd was noticeably impressed with the technical display put on by Andy against the much bigger Graeme. I received several compliments after the tournament.

Download here (mpg, 2.15, 19.4MB)

So while Graeme is the current champion, perhaps Andy is The People’s Champion?