The SCA tournament I ran last weekend...

Last Saturday I ran a tournament at an SCA event. But this wasn't any old rock-'em, sock-'em tourney, this had an extra element to it.

At the annual "Feast of John Barleycorn" event held by the Canton of Northpass in the Crown Province of Ostgardr, His Etceteracy Viscount...(etc, etc, etc)...Sir Edward Zifran of Gendy would run his "unbelt challenge." This was a tournament in which in addition to the fighting, there would be a written exam in the knowledge needed by any unbelted fighter if they should ever wish to become a knight. This included knowledge of such things as heraldry, forms of address, chess, medieval song and poetry, dance, and history. Comportment, courtesy, chivalry, and honor were also traits expressly to be displayed at this tournament.

Sir Edward was not available to run the tourney this year, so I stepped up and took it over. Though my daily work life prevented me from printing out the usual exams, I was determined to make this tourney still serve the purpose of enabling the fighters in attendance to display their knightly traits.

Though the event was more lightly attended than it had been in previous years. There were four fighters, Lord Ronan, Shandor, Decklin (sp?), and Gavin, a new fighter who had just authorized that day.

Before the tourney began I recruited the highest-ranking nobility present, Countess Brekke Franksdottir, and the King and Queen of Acre (a separate group from the SCA, but which is treated as a kingdom in the SCA as a courtesy), to sit as judges and watch the tournament, along with whoever was attending the event who was not otherwise engaged in an activity (as there were several concurrent activities that day).

First I had each fighter present themselves to the nobility, that their graces and excellency would know whom they were watching. Then I hit them with the first part of the competitions: the exam.

I asked them questions bout the heraldic tinctures. I pointed at various articles of my clothing and asked what the heraldic name for the color was. One challenging moment came when one fighter said my hat was azure and another that it was purpure. I had to pull out another had that I had that was more clearly a blue color and had light blue trim to get agreement on that. It also illustrated that azure was azure was azure, no mater the brightness, shade, or tint.

I closed that round of questioning by pointing at my brown pants. This was a trick question as there is no heraldic for "brown," but it is a default color for certain items of nature, like bears and tree trunks, when blazoned as "proper."

I then informed the fighters that it was time to don their helmets and prepare to fight, At this time, however, I got a phone call. A friend of mine, who was to meet me at the event, was calling to inform me that he had arrived. I told him to ask his way to the troll, and that I would keep an eye open, and join him when he got there (I could see the "troll table" from the tourney field).

That taken care of (so I thought), I returned to the list field, where two fighters were ready to fight. I had them go at it. Then the other two fighters fought, then I had them switch partners and fight again. After that I gave them a rest and lined them up before their graces and excellency for more questions.

This time I asked the forms of address. I made sure to ask four questions, so that each could have a chance to offer an answer. When two of them raised their hand at the same time for an answer, I picked the one who had not answered yet. There was some clarification needed on the last question, the form of address of a prince or princess of a principality. I thought there might be some sort of modifier before the term "highness," but the authorities present assured me that there was not.

So we fought the next round. There were still two matchups of fighters that had not yet been made, so I let those pairs fight each other. In between rounds, I was glancing over to the troll table, and did not see my friend yet present. His text messages were talking about things that made me wonder if he was actually at the correct location.

The next round of questions I made about chess. I asked how a knight moved, what "castling" was, and finally pulled out the trick question for the round: when does a pawn become a king? One fighter said it was when they made it to the other side of the board. Another fighter (Gavin) corrected him, saying that the pawn would be made a queen, not a king. The Authorities clarified that the pawn could be made anything but a king when they reached the other side of the board.

In the course of this round, of fighting, Gavin's leg armor strap had broken, so he needed time to get it repaired. By this time also I really thought that my friend would have made it to the troll table, but I did not see him there, so I needed some way to stall, but also needed to keep the fighter and attendees "in the game," as it were. So I asked their graces and excellency if they would like to engage in casual conversation so as to better get to know the fighters. They agreed, and so I invited the fighters to attend and engage the nobles in conversation.

I ran to the troll table to ask if my friend had arrived, and they confirmed that he had not. A trot up the road did not bring him into sight. Then a text came through stating that he saw some mutual friends that I would not have expected to be at this event.

You see, part of the point of him driving to this event was that the following day we would go to a renaissance festival in Sparta, NJ to help the NYC Armored combat team in their exhibition of full contact medieval armored combat with steel weapons. It turns out that he got the directions mixed up and had gone to Sparta, thinking that that was where this SCA event was happening. Once I realized that, I excused myself from the conversation with him, because what I was to do now regarding getting to that event would require more time than I had at the moment to figure out, as I was still running this tournament!

At that moment, a fellow who knew me was at my side, and I asked him to run to the tourney field like the messenger at Marathon and inform the folks there that the fighting part of this round would begin soon. When he collapsed after his run and delivery of the message, he was reminded that he was supposed to die right there if he wanted to truly reenact that famous dash.

Before the break, one of the fighters had started to suggest that we do a melee. I had cut him off because not only did I need the time to take care of the messages coming from my friend, but I wanted to announce the beginning of melees in dramatic fashion. So when I returned, and asked the fighter (Lord Ronan) to repeat his request. So he requested that, since one of the fighters had just authorized that day, and he had not yet tasted the sensation of melee, that we engage in such combat now. So I turned to the audience and, in my best Michael Buffer/Dwayne Johnson-inspired delivery, hollered "Are you ready for a meLEEEEEEEEEEEELALALALAAAAAAAAA! The audience replied in the affirmative.

So the fighters divided themselves up into teams of two, fought two rounds, then mixed up the teams, fought two more rounds, then mixed the teams a third time to finish off. I identified the teams as "This" and "That" in the first set, "Tastes Great" and "Less Filling" for the second, and, because in the third set they deliberately put both of the polearmers on one team and both of the shieldmen on the other, "Long" and "Short."

When all this was done, I had the fighters thank their Graces and Excellency one by one, and then held a brief discussion with the Authorities to determine the winners.

We decided that Ronan had shown the most prowess in the fighting, and that Gavin had performed the best in answering the questions. In addition, Decklin had proven to be best prepared, with extra weapons and assistance for fighters with broken equipment and other needs, and Shandor was judged to be the most skilled in his use of polearm.

So I had about an hour and a half before court was to begin to find some sort of prizes for the winners (all of them). I found a small goblet, a charming little medallion, a nifty lion-headed cloak clasp, and a small ceramic vial from the event's merchants and craftspeople. I did not want to impose a value judgment or particular appropriateness to any of the prizes, so when court came I allowed the winners to select those which they wanted. I first called forth the winners of the fighting and the questions, and Ronan jumped at the cup, while Gavin selected the medallion. Thus I declared Ronan the winner of the "cup of combat" (upon reflection, I should have said the "Goblet of Glory") and Gavin the winner of the "Medallion of Knowledge." Decklin selected the cloak clasp for his achievement, and to Shandor, who missed court, I presented the ceramic vial later, and he seemed quite pleased with it.

Between selecting the prizes and awarding them in court, I got in touch with my friend, and he said he would come from Sparta back to the event, and he wound up arriving just in time for the feast.

After such a full and long day, I enjoyed some socializing and song-singing around the fire after the feast, then went to bed and slept for nine well-needed hours. The next day my friend and I went to that Renaissance Festival in Sparta, N.J and helped out the NYC Armored Combat team in their exhibition. I will be going back there this Sunday.

I came away from the day with a few things learned or reinforced:

When running an activity, find a way to have moments of action and moments of stillness to minimize the effects of exhaustion.

If you don't know the answer, finding it in a public forum can benefit more people than just you.

When giving directions for two events in two days, be multiply redundant about which event is on which day.

People at a place for the first time don't know what's going on as well as you do, if you have been going to the same event for nearly 30 years.

REport from SCA 50 Year Anniversary - Part 2

(Continued from yesterday's post.)

After the fighting on the first day I sat in on a class on the use of the shield by Duke Stephen. He gave some interesting advice on the various shapes and typos of SCA shields and the different ways in which they can be used.

The next day I spent most of the morning repairing my armor, but I made it to a “known world fighter practice,” at which Duke Visivald showed a couple of principles of polearm. I had replaced the thrusting tip on my polearm, and then proceeded to use it, and the principles Viz had taught, to great effect in practice.

Next came the 5-weapons tourney. At first I had not intended to fight, considering how long it had been since I had fought and that I might not have enough weapons. My lady and I were talking to a friend when {Prince Edmund of the Middle came over to my friend and asked if he would join the tourney to help balance the brackets. “You just need to be an organic pop-up target,” he said. My friend declined, but I figured that since that's pretty much what I had been the previous day, what did I have to lose?

The format of the tourney was double-elimination in which in each match the fighters would have to choose either polearm, two-sword, sword & buckler, two-handed sword, or spear for each round, and each match would be fought best three-of-five. I wound up fighting quite well. I lost the first match in three rounds straight, but won the second three-to-one. The third match was an epic that went the distance. I lost the first two rounds (sword & buckler and two-handed sword) but won the next two (poleaxe and two-sword). We then faced off with 6-foot long spears (a form with which I had never really fought before). Already the other guy was really enjoying the fights. He was a short, active fighters whose ducking had saved him from at least two kills in the sword and buckler fight, but who left enough opportunity open in defense for me to hit in the head in two-sword and in poleaxe.

With the spears, we alternated periods of cautious probing with furious thrusting and parrying. Some grappling ensued that almost resulted in short-range stabbing, but the marshal broke it up. In the end it was a shame that either of us had to lose, but he managed to get a thrust in on my face that I was not quick enough to block, and I was out of the tourney.

It is noteworthy to mention that in my polearm victories I did use the principles that Duke Visivald had taught earlier that day.

(To be continued...)

Unique Way to Sponsor my Grappling Movie

Hey folks, I got an idea that I hope will make sponsoring this movie fun and exciting!

As you should know by now, "Redemption" is being screened at the NY State Grappling Championships this Saturday, July 17th in Fishkill, NY. Well, I've been inspired by walk-a-thons to set up a plan that will encourage me to fight harder than ever before!

All you have to do is decide on an amount of money you would like to pledge for every point I score in the tournament. Then, when the event is over, I will post the video of the matches, and you can see all the points I score. Then you can go to Indiegogo.com and donate your pledge. You will notice that each pledge there comes with a collection of "perks" commensurate with your level of contribution.

Now I have a 2-32-2 record in competition and I don't think I have scored even as many as a dozen points in my entire career, but I have been working out, training, and improving, as you can see by this video...



...so you are taking a gamble by pledging here. Can you handle it?

The minimum pledge is 25 cents a point. And just to put as little more competition in, the person who pledges the most will receive a copy of the preview DVD screener, a copy of the finished movie, and a copy of the all-original soundtrack CD once it is all done!

Here's the way scoring will work at the tournament, according to the rules posted at the Acom Sports website:

Scoring Points: To gain points for any move or position, the competitor (aggressor) must show clear control for a 3 second
count by the referee – this is the key in point scoring for ACOM-SPORTS – TOTAL CONTROL FOR 3 COUNT TO EARN POINTS

1. Takedown or Throw: Land on Top in Guard or Half Guard= 2 points Land on Top in Side Mount or Full Mount= 3 Points
Note: Points will be awarded separately for Full Mount after an additional 3 count of control.

2. Sweep with Legs (from Half Guard or Full Guard) or Arm Drag from Open Guard to Turtle: 2 points (must hold for 3 count to
be awarded). NOTE: Inversions (Power Rolls from Side, Full or North/South are NOT considered Sweeps & will not awarded any
points or advantages

3. Passing the Guard (open or closed) - 3 points (must hold for 3 count to be awarded points) – MUST CLEAR ARMS & LEGS

4. Mounted position (both knees on the ground): 4 points (must hold for 3 count to be awarded)

5. Back Mount with Leg Hooks (or Knees on the Ground with Opponent Flat on his Stomach): 4 points (must hold for 3 count to
be awarded)

In addition, for the purpose of this pledge drive, if I win by points, that's worth 5 points plus points scored in the match.
Should I get so lucky as to win by submission, that will count as 10 points, plus points scored in the match.

Thanks in advance, those of you who will be contributing. I look forward to doing my best and living up to the confidence you have put in me!

Captain Z Competeing at Renegade Grappling League this Weekend!

Hey friends, if you have been following my Facebook announcements and YouTube channels (Captain Zorikh and CZRedemption) you know what’s going on this weekend. For the rest of you, here’s the news.

I have recovered enough from the injury I suffered at that grappling tournament where I won my first match to consider myself ready to re-enter the ring. I’ll be doing so on Sunday, April 25 (tomorrow) at the Renegade Grappling League even!

This went will take place at John’s boxing gym at 436 Westchester Ave in the Bronx. It’s just one block from the 3rd Ave-149th St. stop on the 2/5 train.

It will be a round-robin, open-skill level tournament (anyone at any skill level may compete with anyone else) divided into 6 weight divisions, with an open weight tournament also.

If you want to compete, it’s only $35 (the cheapest tournament fee around). Spectators are free, just walk right in.

There is an event announcement on Facebook with more details and I posted an event announcement on Going.com as well.




I hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it, wish me luck and safety!

Captain Z
Zorikh@juno.com
917-865-1214
http://www.captainzorkh.com

Captain Zorikh GETS HURT!

Here's the video that explains that injury...

My first grappling victory!

I finally scored a victory in a grappling tournament match! And I am not going to feel bad about it! Here’s how it happened…

I had signed up for the Long Island Submission Tournament in Port Jefferson, NY some weeks ago, and had done what I could to train and prepare for it while editing my movie and working for the NY Comic Book Marketplace event. I had been watching instructional videos, drilling moves with the Twin Towers Wrestling Club, and reading up on Musashi’s “Book of 5 Rings. I had also competed in the Renegade Grappling League’s first tournament. I fought well there, but still failed to secure my first victory.

A friend of mine from Twin Towers was supposed to go with me, but when I called him early in the morning to catch the LIRR, he bailed, so I was there on my own. Several people recognized me from other tournaments that I had been at, though, such as NAGA and the NY Submission Shootout.

The event was held in a gymnastics school, and there was a pit filled with foam blocks. I swore that I if won a match, I would do a flip into the foam pit. In fact, I had been envisioning what I would do if I won all week, and this seemed just too outrageously perfect.

I realized once I was there, though, that I had forgotten my protective cup. This tournament did not have any dealers set up other than the refreshment stand, and the nearest sporting goods store was miles away. There was, however, and Karate/MMA school right across the street, the United Martial Arts Center. Their Shihan, Andrew Stigliano, was kind enough to help me out. They had a small store of martial arts and training supplies, and he gave me a brand new cup.

At this tournament I weighed in at 177.5 lbs, about what I weighed at the last one, and about what I’d expected. Due to the number of competitors and the structure of he tournament I was placed in a division defined as “middleweight, 168 – 177 lbs.” I signed up as a “beginner” (more than a novice, less than intermediate).

My record going in stood at 0-19-2.

There turned out to be four people in this division, and I had the first match. Not surprisingly, my opponent was short and stockier than me. I went into the match with the intention of “treading him down,” like Musashi says. We engaged standing, and I fought to push his head down, looking for a guillotine (something I had worked on). After a few moments of that, all I accomplished was being able to control the rate of descent after he got underhooks, and establish half guard with him on top of me. He passed the half-guard and moved into north-shout, going fo a choke which I blocked with my arm, but he crushed my shoulder into my chest, forcing me to tap.

I lost. My record now stood at 0-20-2

I do believe that is where an injury occurred. As I am typing this there is a pain in my chest that remains after the general soreness of the tournament has gone away. I will look into it later. But at the time my adrenaline was still up, and I was still ready to play.

The way the bracket was set up, they guy who beat me would fight the winner of the next match, and I would fight the loser. The match went on for the full five minutes and into overtime. Of course both competitors were totally gassed, so they held an “exhibition” bout between two teenagers to let them recover. I suggested that I could fight a bye or a gauntlet to match my opponent’s fatigue, but nothing came of it.

So my next match would decide the third-place finisher of the division. I was faced up with a fellow who must have been the smaller person in the bracket, meaning I outweighed him by almost 10 pounds. He was also about a foot shorter than me, but he appeared to have some cauliflowering on his ear and carried himself klike an experienced fighter, so I did not have any reason to expect, going in, that this match would turn out any differently than any other match I had ever been in.

Again I went for pushing down his head, treading him down, and again he achieved the top position in the takedown.

Sadly the guy holding my camera only got the first two seconds of the match, and a lot happened, so I’ll try my best to reconstruct it here.

I found myself on my knees defending the neck from a guillotine choke. I couldn’t feel any slack to get our either side, but he spun around to take my back faster than I could spin with him. I kept a tight hold on at least on of his arms the whole time, and looked to dump him over my shoulder (one of the first tricks I learned, but I recognized that the grip he had on my left arm would put him in a great place for an arm-bar, so I was being very cautious about it. He got leg hooks in. I tried clearing one leg out, and he tried flattening me out. Neither of those things worked. He pulled me back, and was working on the rear naked choke, when the referee called time out.

Apparently there was blood coming out of a cut on my head. While they were getting something to staunch it with, I asked the guys at ringside how it looked, and they said it looked pretty horrendous, so I chanted “ECW! ECW!”

We restarted in the same position. He was able to get his right arm around my neck and was in the process of locking his left arm over my head, when I remembered the defense for that (something they taught at Renzo Gracie’s the month I was there). I pulled his left arm down over my shoulder and attempted to get a submission lock on his elbow.

I didn’t get the lock in, but the distraction gave me a chance to adjust my position in his leg hooks. I forced myself around to face hi, and thought that I would then me in his guard, but he didn’t close his legs around me, allowing me to attack him from something side-mount-ish. I grabbed one arm, his friends warned him to watch out for the arm-bar. I switched to the other side, and as I tried to put knee on belly to take mound, he grabbed my left leg with the intention of an ankle submission.

Something switched on at that moment in my brain. I don’t like leg submissions. They are fast, painful, dangerous, and at my skill level, not used often. From my limited experience with them I knew that I had to get moving, quickly, in order to save my leg, and that’s when I realized, this is a fight. This is not a show, an exhibition, a practice roll, or a cooperative exercise, this person is trying to do things to my that could break me, and the only way to make him stop, is to do it right back to him. Suddenly the time lag between thinking of a move and doing it disappeared, and each move was done with more strength than before.

I extracted my leg and found myself over him as he turtled. I spun to take his back. He semi-blocked me but I was able to get my left arm around his neck. I stuck my right leg into his leg (gaining a hook) and pulled him back. As I fought for the other leg hook, I remembered a training video that showed rear naked choke technique. Rather than grabbing my bicep and swinging my forearm down behind his head (easy to block), I slid my right hand over my left as I snaked it behind his neck until my right bicep reached my left had. That was probably the best rear naked choke I have ever applied.

I realized then that I actually had a chance to with this thing. This was a realization, and a sensation, I had never had before. All I had to do was keep on squeezing tighter…and tighter…and then I felt that gentle tapping on my left shoulder.

I won! My record now stands at 1-20-2! The streak is over!

I jumped up, raised my hands in the air and shouted “First win ever!” I turned to give my opponent a hug, and he had turned away. I felt kind of bad about that, but the ref turned him around and I hugged him and shook his had.

Then, as I promised, I ran to the foam pit and did a Geronimo flip in. High-fives and congratulations all around. I recorded a little piece for my YouTube channel and looked for the guy I defeated so I could shake his had again and tell him how much this victory, first after 22 tries, meant to me. I couldn’t find him. I kind of felt bad about that.

But wait a minute here. Yes, I was a foot taller than him. I outweighed him by almost ten pounds. I’d had a short match and a long rest; he’d had a long match and a short rest. These were all advantages for me.

But I am certain that he trains more often than me, fights more often than me, and has less bodyfat. The order and matching of the bouts was essentially random. Having the endurance to do multiple matches in short order against different sized opponents is part of the game.

So dammit, I am not going to feel bad about winning!

One final thought: Earlier in the day there were kids’ matches, and some of the kids took losing pretty hard. I was speaking with the fellow next to me and he said there is no reason to get upset about losing, because you always learn something from losing, you never learn anything from winning. I told him I’d have to get back to him on that. Well, here’s what I say: I did learn some things from winning. I learned that I knew how to execute a rear naked choke. I learned that I have a fighter’s mentality when I want to. I learned what it felt like to win, and that is what a successful redemption is about. You take everything that you have, that you are, that is inside of you, and you cash it in and find out what you are worth. It feels good to know that you have what it takes to get what you want.

Now I have another tournament next week, the Long Island Grappling Challenge. Let’s see if I can get that second win, and get it on camera this time!

Renegade Grappling League tournament report: Why I am glad I saw "Avatar" the night before

On Saturday I was not sure that I would go to the Renegade Grappling League tournament the next day, but then I saw Avatar (read my review of Avatar here), and that inspired me to go, and I am glad it did.

Avatar is about a man who finds something he had lost in learning the skills and lifestyle of an alien tribe. Without going into all the details (that’s for another time) let’s just say that his adventure mirrors my own in the world of submission grappling.

Specifically, the joy the hero, Jake, felt when experiencing the physicality of his alien avatar body felt much like the way I feel when experiencing the physicality of a properly executed grappling move, and I knew that the more I practiced and competed, the more I would get to feel that thrill.

Also the more Jake did with the tribe, the more he was accepted by them, and who doesn’t want to feel that acceptance?

So I trekked up to Johns Boxing Gym in the Bronx for the inaugural tournament of the Renegade Grappling League. It was a modestly-sized affair, with about a dozen or so competitors of various weights. It was set us as a round-robin tournament, with fighters getting multiple matches against other fighters in their weight bracket.

It was run by the good folks from Sadistic Athletics, who definitely allowed a sense of fun to pervade the afternoon. Most everyone there was more experienced, stronger, better conditioned, and shorter than me, which is pretty much par for the course wherever I go, but I was determined that no one would have more fun than me!

We fought in a boxing ring, so of course I had to mount the ropes and make like I was going to dive off before my first match. I was paired up against a short, stocky, quick wrestler guy who had fought one or two hard bouts already. He was not very aggressive in the opening, so I got to establish the clinch, but then he got a headlock on me and took me down into side control with an arm triangle. I pushed out of the triangle, and while I was bringing my leg in front of his face to go for the armbar, he stuck my arm between his legs and put pressure on the elbow, forcing me to tap pretty quickly.

Well, I generally get at least one short match like that in every tournament, so I guess it was just as well to get that out of the way quickly, so I would be fresh for my next bout.

I was paired with a guy about my height and about 10 lbs lighter than me for whom this was only his second competition. This match lasted the distance. In this event each match was three rounds of three minutes. Again I mounted the ropes, and by then I was beginning to win over the crowd. I had been chatting with the Sadistic Athletics people earlier about possible work involving my grappling movie “Redemption,” and a fellow who had been involved in the rehearsals of that movie was also there, and they all were shouting advice to me during the match. I followed the advice as best as I could.

In the match, I was able to control the takedowns so that my opponent wound up in a guillotine hold, though I was unable to complete the choke. I avoided several submission attempts, and escaped a rear-naked choke that almost got locked in. I almost got a toe hold/leg lock locked in, but not enough to make him tap. I escaped from under his half guard once or twice. I may have been “saved by the bell” at one moment (and in between rounds I almost spit water on someone accidentally), but when the last round came I laid it all out. I leaped off the second rope, the crowd was cheering, and rather than a handshake, my opponent and I high-fived.

I almost got the guy in an upside-down leg triangle and kimura, but he grabbed my shorts and pulled his head out. I wound up in his guard but stayed on top of him till the end of the fight. He almost arm-triangled me there, but I held out, then fought out, and was working on a kimura when the match ended.

The judges were not scoring by “points,” during the match, but did make decisions when no submission was scored. They said it was close, and in a split decision, gave the victory to the other guy. I have to agree with them, as it felt like he was on top of me, one way or another, through most of the match.

After the regular matches were concluded and the prizes awarded, there was an open-weight tournament. I was paired against the shortest, lightest guy in the tournament, a 135 lb. guy who can’t have been more that 5’3” tall. But he was a strong, , trained, ninjitsu fighter with great endurance and used to fighting folks bigger than him. I made the joke that it would be like Rey Mysterio fighting Kendall Grove. He fought in gi pants with no shirt, so I took my shirt off as well.

The match was scheduled for three minutes. My feet slipped on the mat at the first clinch, and after a brief struggle, he pulled guard. He attempted an armbar on me, which I stacked him out of. He was able to pull back to guard, and eventually went for another armbar. I had it defended, but he fell over and my elbow got pushed painfully sideways, so I tapped out at about 2:30.

So now my grappling competition record stands at 0-17-2. But I had fun, and I definitely won the crowd over. The Sadistic Athletic boys had, in fact, asked me to continue bringing the entertainment, which I did every time I entered the ring by standing on the ropes like a pro wrestler. I was appreciated for who and what I am, an entertainer who is learning skill as a grappler. I was, in fact, complimented on how well I did and how well I was taking instruction during the match. And that was the payoff I was looking for, and why I am glad I went to see Avatar the night before.