Great day of Grappling at Studio 540 San Diego: The squad went into a tough day of grappling under extended time limit EBI rules today in San Diego with mixed results but all positive experiences. Fifteen year old Nicky Ryan lost in over time to the very talented 19 year old Kennedy Maciel in a great match of two super talented youngsters with a world of grappling ahead of them. Mr Maciel showed great positional skill with excellent passing and pinning control along with a superb transition from back to triangle (sankaku) in overtime to get a great win and show his potential. In the adult matches, Garry Tonon took on a very impressive Kim Terra, who came out looking to play a positive attacking game – very praiseworthy given that he is a weight division below Mr Tonon. Within regulation time however, Mr Tonon was able to make a very nice transition from back crucifix to high elbow guillotine and follow Mr Terra' defensive maneuvers through to a beautiful submission victory. In the final match It was Gordon Ryan's turn to match a larger opponent. He did a fine job of dominating the submission attacks, whilst his world champion opponent, the very talented Felipe Pena, dominated the positional attacks. At the 42 minute mark however, Mr Pena capitalized brilliantly on a mistaken entry to ashi garami, took the back and sank an excellent strangle to take a great victory. There was much for the squad to take away and learn from, much to be happy about and much to be improved upon. Tomorrow I shall teach a seminar in la and then it's back to the basement of wisdom in NYC Monday to start making the changes necessary to improve and win. Thank you to Studio 540 and flograppling for putting on a great event. Thanks also to Eddie Bravo for another great job of impartial and skillful referee work. Most of all – thank you to my athletes who give their all and who have come so far in such a short time – I am immensely proud of all you have done and extremely confident of even greater future success
