An interesting point: an interesting point from last nights EBI 8 tournament is the relative size of the competitors. The weight limit was 185 pounds. The winner, Gordon Ryan walks around in daily life at 187-8 pounds and often competes at 160 pounds. As such he was one of the smallest competitors on the night. Most of the athletes dropped considerable weight to make the limit (it appears Joe Baize was the only other athlete who did not have to lose weight though I can't be sure of this). The squad has a good history of fighting much larger opponents and prevailing. I believe this is due to our strong emphasis of ashi garami. In this position there is no chest to chest top pressure – which is where weight discrepancy has its most effect. The most important determinant of success in this position is knowledge, rather than size as there is relatively little body contact. Mr Ryan will next compete at EBI at 205 pounds where he will be very small compared with his opponents indeed. Still, our team is getting used to this and are proud of our ability to use our tactics and techniques to control and submit larger opponents – a test that we consider the fundamental desiderata of jiu jitsu
