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The 1st video is of Coach Mike and Jacob helping Cora polish up her rubber guard. Got to meet John and all his family from 10thplanet Sherman. Really great bunch of guys. I "thought" I know the rubber guard, but after while watching Coach Mike, I realize I didn't know Jack!!! LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvbHavJbdEA
Cora's 1st NO Gi match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6B5h_hekH8
2nd NO Gi match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnFfBDyGpY
1st Gi match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg2FpTzm1XE
2nd Gi match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsm-aTyFQIU
So yall seen all the matches, now please help me understand something. It seems we always running into something we never encounter before at each tournament. The last one was the "cup" incident. Now its this. After Cora won her 1st NO Gi match, they started to change things in the bracket. Usually its OK by me, but this time it was different. You see they had put that 13 yr old boy that had beaten Cora before to go against her. Cora is fighting in the 9-10 yr old bracket. This boy had finished and beaten all the kids in the 11-12 yr old bracket. Once I see this going on. I went and talk to the organizer of the tournament. I told him "I didn't sign my daughter up to fight a 12 or 13 yr old boy and that's not right that he just jump into her division like that". So he put Cora down at the bottom of the bracket and that boy end up fighting some other kid. Then when Cora won her 2nd NO Gi match, she was to face the same 13 yr old boy!!! Frustrated, I told the ref that Cora isn't going to fight him. So Cora took 2nd place. If that kid didn't jump into her division, she would have 1st place. THe kid is good I'm not taking that from him, but he is fighting down...which is a true definition of "Sandbagging". What really ticked me off is that the tournament allow this to happen. If a kid has beaten everyone in the higher age division, why allow him to come down to fight the younger kids????? So am I wrong for pulling Cora out of that fight???
I am personally of the opinion that if someone beats everyone in their division and they are going to be moved anywhere it should either be to the next higher weight class, next higher age group (for kids), or the next higher skill division. Moving someone down in any of these ways is not fair to the competitors in the division. If the reason you didn't want Cora to face him was for safety sake (which is understandable) then no doubt you were totally justified, if you didn't want to let her compete because you did not want to condone sandbagging then I am not sure. Your protest in that regard would no doubt fall on deaf ears in terms of the organizer since he already has your money and if you choose to not compete next time no skin off his nose. I feel like it is unfortunate that Cora missed out on first place and another chance to compete and the whole event just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I was thinking of hitting one of these events but I think I will steer clear. Hope Cora didn't feel down in anyway. She is the first place winner as far as I can see.
Yeah it doesn't sound right that they would let the boy sandbag like that. Sandbaggers will eventually meet their maker. They'll end up being short timers anyway or they'll forever be sandbagging and never go up a division. I find their logic amusing.
On the flipside, Cora could have taken it as an opportunity to see how well her defense has improved against the very person that beat her. A litmus test if sorts. Always take a win or a loss as a learning experience. Had Cora went against the boy, she would have gotten 2nd, in a loss, or 1st, in the win.
I know that most of us, if bracketed against, say Marcelo/Lavato/Mendes/Cobrinha, probably wouldn't win the match. But, we've been underdogs from day one. To have the opportunity to give it your all and possibly upset the expected victor... Yeah that would be awesome!!! Nothing to lose.
Rick: I understand where you coming from bro. But after seeing this boy face crushed and hurt a couple of kids in his division, we just didn't want to take that chance. We tested her against him already and feel that aalthough she has improved, she is not at his level yet. But more importantly we did it as a protest against sandbaggers. If we agree to fight, they will always sandbag, jumping down to find more fights. But if we refuse to fight then they will know we won't accept this type of sportmanship.
I like that Bruce! A protest against sandbagging is nothing to feel bad about at all.
Rick: you absolute on the money with this one "Sandbaggers will eventually meet their maker." During his final GI match in his division, that kid was dominating the other boy. Took his back and went to work. They fight for a long time, the other kid was defending the RNC really well. THen this boy put on a body triangle (the subject of my other thread on how to escape it), well once he put that body triangle, the other boy somehow lasso his leg and just arched his back really hard and high. He was screaming in pain as his ankle probably popped. Don't get me wrong, I never like seeing any kid get hurt, but this one had it coming for a long time. During this tournament he hurt 2 kids with a fail RNC, so he face crush them instead.
You tell me if this is a legal RNC...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...45444612_n.jpg
Lots of very competitive action! Cora fights hard til bitter end, she has mad heart! Congrats Cora! :)
Master Eddie: your advice on preventing boys pulling guard on her really help A LOT!! I over heard many coaches telling their kids to pull guard on Cora 1st. But they couldn't when she Black Mamba them first...:) She tried a bunch of new stuff, but its so new that she hasn't perfect them yet. She had a great time. THank you
It was great meeting you & your family as well Bruce, Cora is extremely talented. I really enjoy watching her in action!! Hopefully Jacobs matches will be up in a bit. I really suck at this computer thing.lol Hoping Woolsey will help me out so they should be up soon
Bruce: I think you have a point on the sandbagging at the lower divisions. It shouldn't happen. But believe you me, I would welcome the best grappler in my division regardless of how much better they were. I would test myself and see where my holes are. A medal lost but an education earned. I like to find holes in my game and always throw myself to the wolves.
If someone pulls guard on me, I double guard pull lol This usually freaks them out because it's a whole different game, which makes for easy wins if you're the more experienced one. Just another thing you could add to her game :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Cora Sek
John: it was great meeting your family as well. You have a super tight group over there at 10thplanet sherman and an awesome coach. Sometimes I get jealous of you guys. For the size of our gym, there isn't that much bonding like yall are. Well with the kids anyways. I just feel that the main focus of our gym are for the adults and their fighters. I would see my FB wall with their promo and recognitions. But when it comes to the the kids, there are very little to none. Cora was the only one that competed this past weekend from her school and fought her butt off as you can see by her videos. And not to mention she ranked also, but there is no words of encouragement or anything coming from her gym. I'm very sadden by this...:(
BTW I'm new to this online video stuff also. I'm a very low tech person.
Rick: I clearly understand where you are coming from with the challenging yourself thing. I'm like that with basketball bro. JJ isn't my sport but basketball is. For 25 yrs, on any given day, I will be the only asian guys hooping with all the black guys. I say "black" because to be honest, all my other non-black friends don't like to play where I play at. I play there because that is where all the ballers are and were I can get very competitive at. My other friends don't see it like I do. I want to play against the best so that is where I hang out. I first started as an asain guy among them, but throughout the years, I've proven myself to them and they don't see me as an asian "chink" guy anymore. They see me just as one of the guys.
However, we are talking about kids. Kids are different from us grown ups. They need rewards and recognitions. They need a tangle thing to give them a sense of accomplishment. In these 2 years that we been in JJ, I've seen kids come and go. I seen kids started to compete, but when they get smashed at the competition, I don't see them anymore at the gym. These kids didn't even stay that long to find the beauty of the sport. There is a limit that you can test a kid, pushed further than that limit, it will have an adverse effect.
Justin: Double guard pull??? LOL bro have you seen any of Cora's video at all?? That is what those kids are starting to do to her. When she about to pull guard, they pull also...LOL That is when I know they or their parent have been watching Cora's video. We since work all that out now. They haven't found an answer to the Black Mamba yet...:)