Learning Your Way Around the Mat: A Beginner's Guide to NAGA tournaments
Slightly tailored for the masters division.
Being a little bit competitive, I decided to up the ante a bit on my grappling training by planning to compete in a BJJ tournament. Out of all the ones that I could have chosen, I decided to go with the North American Grappling Association (NAGA). I went with them for a few reasons:
They have a lot of tournaments nearby
You can win medals, a cool belt, and a sword if you’re a child
They have gi and no gi
So what drove all this?
As I might have alluded to in other posts, I just want to test my skills to see if I have truly learned what I am practicing. For me, the real test is applying them in higher-stakes situations. In my case, competing in a grappling tournament. Plus, who wouldn’t want to walk around with a sick championship belt - ha!
By the way, most of the stuff in the rest of the article will be focused on the master division and gi since I will be competing there.
Down to the rules
On pointing, here’s a nice table from the actual rulebook:
Personally, I wouldn’t worry about the 3 seconds so much, since if an opportunity presents itself to improve your position - sometimes you just gotta go fast.
On weight classes for adult master males, here’s another screenshot:
They can weigh you on the day off without your gi since those things might actually add to the scale, which is a nice perk.
On-time limits, basically have to last for a few minutes before the clock runs down:
Respect the Technique
NAGA actually has certain rules on which moves are banned, so it’s good to know them.
How to win a NAGA championship belt?
For adults, you pretty much can’t be a noob. It kind of sucks in my case, since I am still new, but it does give me motivation to prep and rank up.
So, the top three of an event will have some type of medal. As for me, I have to reach more than two years of experience for a belt. But one thing that they did not update was that they now included blue belts for a shot at winning the championship under the absolute intermediate division.
Wrapping Up
Hope this short little guide helped out you as it did for me. I will treat the competition as a learning experience before I qualify to win the belt. But I am definitely prepping hard for it. Even got into the advanced class to get more hours on the mats. Anyway, best of luck to your competitors out there!