50/50 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

8 matches, 7 submissions, 2 absolute titles

Jen Flannery headed out to LA for the Gracie Nationals tournament ahead of Felicia Oh’s Womens Grappling Camp the following week, looking to get in some much-needed competition in preparation for the fast-approaching International competitions later this year. Initially registered for the <135 lbs weight class (in spite of tipping the scales nearly 25 lbs lighter than the limit), there weren’t enough purple belt women registered to justify a series weight classes, so Jen was placed into the Absolute (open weight) class.

Jen in the Purple Absolute Division

In spite of giving up over 50 lbs to her first round opponent, Jen was able to take the back and secure a gi choke to finish off the Maxercise purple belt in less than two minutes. The semi-final match saw her face off against a Gracie Torrance (Gracie Academy) purple belt, where she controlled position while constantly attacking on her way to a dominant 22-0 victory. In the final, Jen competed against another considerably larger purple belt from Gracie Barra, and despite a strategic error on a take down that had her short two points and playing from the guard for over 6 minutes, she was able to flash some excellent mobility, invert for the triangle, and pull out a key-lock submission with seconds left on the clock to become the open weight champion. Excellent showing from Jen!

Day 2 was to host the no-gi portion of the event and Ryan Hall came down to coach Jen after spending the week training at Paragon Jiu-Jitsu in Santa Barbara, CA with Jeff Glover and Ricaro “Franjinha” Miller. Unfortunately, there were no Advanced-level women for Jen to compete against so she was out of luck on a bracket. Rather than forfeit her registration, Rose Gracie was kind enough to allow Jen to transfer it to Ryan–so on the fly he decided to compete in the men’s 155-170 lbs and Absolute divisions. Demonstrating his signature submission-oriented style, Ryan finished his first four opponents in less than five combined minutes before having to chase down his fleeing opponent in the finals of the Open to secure the win via rear naked choke.

Ryan at Gracie Nationals

Congratulations to Jen and Ryan! Jen is already on her way home while Ryan is training in Santa Cruz, CA with Paul Schreiner in preparation for his superfight in Tokyo on February 6.

Read more about Jen’s experience at the tournament and the women’s grappling camp at BJJ Cailin.

Tags: 5050 bjj, bjj, gracie nationals, jen flannery, ryan hall, tournament.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Competition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.