The Bow Valley Jiu Jitsu (BVJJ) club added accolades to its ranks with a successful tournament showing, April 9.
Canmore’s Carter Haines turned heads (and twisted arms) after a trio of tapouts earned him gold at the Canadian Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation (CBJJF) tournament held at Calgary’s Mount Royal University.
Haines, 21, won all three of his division matches by submission – triangle choke, arm-bar and kimura arm lock – a feat the white belt tells with pride.
“I’m very happy with this (tournament) because it was three submissions and I was trying not to win on points, I’m always trying to win on submissions,” said Haines.
Jiu-jitsu is a martial art that combines ground fighting, grappling and submissions.
All of the competing BVJJ members brought home hardware in their division matches at the CBJJF.
Gina Breiteryte earned a silver medal performance and so did Morgan Bateman, while Dion FitzGerald scored duel bronze medals in his weight and open weight divisions.
The divisions are determined between students’ skill level rank and weight, usually between 10 to 15 pounds difference.
FitzGerald, 26, from Canmore by way of New Zealand, spoke to the respect level among the competitors and audience at the event.
Although just four months into strictly jiu-jitsu training, he had a bit of a disappointing moment after being disqualified just a few moments into one of his matches.
“In my first match, I got disqualified within four seconds for dumping a guy, which you’re not allowed to do,” said FitzGerald. “I guess coming from a (mixed martial arts) background I didn’t think too much about whether I can slam someone.”
Despite the DQ, FitzGerald got back into the mix with a pair of third-place finishes.
Watching over their pupils at the tournament with pride on their faces, BVJJ owners and instructors Travis Erlam and Richard Mueller spoke to exciting and nerve-wracking moments as coaches.
“It’s totally different from a coach’s perspective, from seeing them win, they get the gratification of the win and stuff, and seeing everything we’ve taught them and they turn around and use it, the pay off is immense,” said Mueller.
While giving some pointers to his students during the interview with the Outlook, Erlam said the tournament provided an opportunity for them to learn how to teach classes more efficiently.
“Watching that, it shows what we need to work on ourselves,” said Erlam. “We see what they did very well, but we also see where there could be technical improvements … it all comes back around, you’re instructing, but you’re also seeing what areas you need to instruct.”
