Local Tournaments - Full Body No-Gi

This might not be an issue for you other folks but I live in Utah and there is no true No-Gi tournaments other than NAGA in our area. There are traditional BJJ tournament but as you know, most traditional BJJ tournaments exclude 50% of the body.

I am curious to hear feedback from other people that have tried to start or successfully succeeded in a local No-Gi NAGA (EBI) style circuit in their home town. What were the insurance costs, faculty fees, competitor requirement to break even etc. to possibly create a business plan. What were your experiences good and bad? I'm not trying to make any money here, just trying to give our area more options than what we currently have.

As the times are changing, so is the art.. It sucks as a competitor to only have 1-2 tournaments a year to focus on, be disciplined for, to train for that actually allows full body submissions.

We have local tournaments that we can compete in but to actually apply what the other 50% of NO-GI training is about and not get a watered down style of grappling, we either have to lobby against the local guys or create a circuit of our own. I don't see the local BJJ guys modifying any rules...especially with NAGA just removing some leg attacks from the lower divisions.

If there were more exposure to the full body attack in competition, traditional schools would be more willing to train for the lower half and fear of turning legs into bone powder would a fairy tale. If you don't attack, you don't know how to defend. Just like starting on your knees.....if you don't know how to do a take down, you don't know how to defend or fall. That's where people get hurt.

This is the philosophy of our club and it sucks that the major grappling tournaments are so far away.

Anyways....if anyone has any experiences they could share, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
B