NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Andrew Smith and Chrissy Linzy of US Grappling.

The next event for US Grappling takes place Saturday, July 20, at the Kerr Vance Academy in Henderson, North Carolina, called Grapplemania XVI.

US Grappling is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission grappling tournament circuit which describes itself as "run by grapplers, for grapplers". They are mainly based in the eastern half of the USA. US Grappling runs tournaments with both gi and no-gi divisions, and tournaments with a point system as well tournaments which are submission-only.

Their next submission-only event will take place Saturday, December 7, 2013, in Richmond, Virginia.

We spoke with Andrew Smith and Chrissy Linzy by phone Tuesday about their vision of grappling and their events.

"We've been around for about seven years now. We've run 100 events now. We actually just had our 100th event in Richmond, Virginia, which is kind of our home base, to a degree," said Andrew Smith in this interview.

"We want to do a different sort of grappling tournament that's just 100 percent catered towards the competitors' experience, from start to finish."

About one-quarter of their events have been submission-only, with no points or time limits. They started these in 2008, and have found that the average submission-only match length has been about eight minutes.

When they decided to start submission-only tournaments, "I think it was more a, 'Could we do it? Would it work? What would happen?'" said Chrissy Linzy.

They had some data on other submission-only matches, also with similar average lengths, so were not shocked by the results. "We've really found that to be true over the years," she added.

We also discussed Grapplemania XVI, one of their biggest events, which has a point system. And we discussed exactly how they have run their events so that they are competitor-friendly, the future of submission-only events and overcoming the resistance to them by some, how they encourage the use of video and social media at their events, and much more.

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ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.

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American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.

The First Annual Liberty Bell Classic East Coast King of Catch Tournament, organized by the North American Catch Wrestling Association in conjunction with Scientific Wrestling. This catch wrestling tournament will take place Saturday, August 31, 2013, at the Klein JCC, 10100 Jamison Ave., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19116. No points! No politics! Only submissions and pins win! For more information, go to http://nacwa.weebly.com.

Labels: Andrew Smith, BJJ, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Chrissy Linzy, Eddie Goldman, Grapplemania XVI, No Holds Barred, only, submission, US Grappling