Grappling and Wrestling New Zealand

Again for the second straight year Scot and Jess were the King and Queen of the Mat.

Saturday, April 13 at the Edgar Centre Dunedin the NZ Combat Sports School hosted the New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association National Championships.

There is a selection of photos at the bottom of this article from the nationals.

This was the largest combined grappling and wrestling styles championships ever to be held in Dunedin, if not New Zealand.

With over 200 entries in freestyle wrestling, female wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, submission grappling and gi submission grappling, there was plenty to offer for both competitors and spectators alike.

The New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association in its second season has really achieved some excellent results.

The Association is owned and operated by the clubs and there is no registration fee for clubs or competitors.

Major decisions are made by referendum with each club having a single vote with majority ruling and deciding.

The Association very much listens to its members and this has brought about the change to a summer season and Saturday competitions, as well as the preferred knockout draw by member’s request.

The New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association now has more than 50 member clubs nationally and is receiving regular enquiries and new clubs joining up.

There were many highlights at this year’s national championships ranging from some very young and talented up-and-coming wrestlers, through to some highly skilled and seasoned grapplers.

Officials at the national championships came from competing clubs and the atmosphere and environment, although fiercely competitive, was extremely friendly with clubs quick to recognise and applaud competitor’s standout skills.

The support the Combat Sports School received from participating clubs was greatly appreciated and added to the smooth running of the national championships.

With the New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling associations IT online registrations and entries functions available to all member clubs, makes the conducting of a tournament for club fundraising possible, especially with the assistance of member clubs providing their members to officiate.

There were so many standouts, but none more outstanding than Scott MacGregor of the South Canterbury Olympic Wrestling Club winning four gold medals, and as such four national titles in freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, submission grappling and gi submission grappling.

I have never heard of any individual from any NZ grappling and wrestling governing body at a national championship previously achieving this.

The King and Queens of the mat, where competitors must win their division in senior freestyle or female wrestling as well as submission grappling was once again taken out by two wrestling specialists in Scott MacGregor and Jessica Todd.

There are minor hosting improvements that can be made but they are only small improvements and with every competition and season we grow in clubs, competitors, officials, and resources and the future looks truly positive.

In these busy times host clubs do not expect to receive emails and phone calls of gratitude for hosting competitions, however this has been the reality since the nationals were conducted at the Edgar Centre and this is a most pleasing status and testament to the appreciation of our member clubs.

It is truly an endorsement of the association and what has been achieved to date.

The automated online entry system and knockout draw has made the conducting of championships that much more efficient and user-friendly.

With competitors competing in multiple styles on the same day the old round robin draw system simply does not work and will not fit into a manageable and reasonable timeframe.

Mainly wrestlers are competing in both wrestling and grappling styles at present but we hope to have more grapplers competing in wrestling styles as well, once we have conducted more combined high-performance grappling and wrestling training camps.

The practices we have experienced of previous with long days of spread out competition followed by tedious prize givings and social functions simply do not work well today for our members where people are working long hours and often more than one job.

They also have tight budgets and travel considerations in relation to flights often affect their abilities to stay away at competitions any longer than necessary.

They simply want to participate and get away as quickly as possible.

The change to the knockout draw system also enables the younger competitors to be able to leave without having to wait around all day for post competition presentations.

Parents have applauded this new initiative and clubs have advised they would prefer the certificates and medals to be forwarded to the club post competition so the club can present them to their members.

The week before the national championships, the hosts of the National chairmanships, the New Zealand Combat Sports School purchased and received from overseas yet another full size Olympic wrestling mat, adding to the two other grappling mats enabling major competitions to be conducted in Dunedin.

Now to some of the highlights and standouts of the national championships.

In wrestling Kasib Murdoch of New Zealand Combat Sports School was a crowd favourite with his enthusiasm, commitment, and high level of skill for a young wrestler of just 12 years of age.

Jacob Smith of the Rangiora wrestling club provided some powerful performances in freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling.

Ben O’Brien was at his usual best taking gold in the under 74 KG senior male division of freestyle wrestling.

Jessica Todd took gold against her long-term top line opponent in Tayla Ford and these two leading national female wrestlers will only prosper from training with each other in the elite South island squad at upcoming South island training camps.

The Fight Shop Club grappler/wrestlers from Palmerston North performed extremely well with Joshua Fitzell placing second in the 10 to 13-year-old 47 to 53kg freestyle wrestling division and Shekayne Rees winning the 10 to 13-year-old 59 to 66 KG freestyle wrestling division with fellow Fight Shop club member Regan Chambers taking second in the same division.

Shekayne Rees took gold in both his gi and no gi grappling divisions with fellow Fight Shop club competitor Joshua Fitzell taking gold in his no-gi grappling and a silver in gi grappling.

Regan Chambers of the Fight Shop club took silver in his 12 to 13-year-old no gi weight division and picked up gold in his 12 to 13-year-old gi grappling division.

A very proficient grappler and strong competitor in Rena Secco of Carlson Gracie Queenstown took gold in the 84 KG gi grappling division as well as the gi and no-gi grappling absolute divisions.

Forest Goodwin took the silver with Jason Smith taking the bronze in the senior male gi grappling 84 kg division.

In the senior male no gi 84 KG division Peter Menhinick took silver and forest Goodwin bronze.

There were 22 competitors in the grappling no gi 84 KG male senior division with 18 competitors in the 84 KG senior male gi grappling division.

Jessica Todd and Tayla Ford had wins in their respective no gi grappling divisions.

Stephen Hill of the Rangiora Wrestling Club took out the under 96 KG senior male freestyle division against willing opponents and is a major driving force behind the South Island Grappling and Wrestling Club and the selection of a South Island elite training squad.

The Senior 74 KG no gi grappling division was taken out by Scott MacGregor South Canterbury Olympic wrestling club on his way to achieving his four national titles in four different styles with second place going to Maddison Prattley of Shoot Grapple Roll Christchurch and third place to the Kort McNaught. Strike Force Canterbury.

Philip Lindsay of Gracie Oceania took out the Grappling no gi veteran 96 KG division showing his many years of grappling training and competing.

In the Grappling no gi veteran 84 KG division a versatile Benoit Auvray of Gracie Oceania took first and also competed in freestyle wrestling.

In the Senior no gi 96 KG division Brogan Anderson of Hammerhead MMA Mosgiel took gold with fellow team member Joel Gibson taking bronze to the Silver medallist Chris Sage from Strike Force Canterbury.

Senior no gi 66 kg division Stefan Callaghan. Ground worxBJJ Christchurch took gold with Luke James Carlson Gracie Queenstown taking silver and Craig Wright Hammerhead MMA taking the bronze.

In the Grappling no gi senior 120 KG division a very capable Ashley Clinch Gracie Humaita took gold with Eddie Hei Hei Ultimate MMA Invercargill Taking silver and Johnny Aldworth South Canterbury Olympic wrestling club bronze.

There were so many standout performances but for sheer improvement and determination Gary Dellow was a stand out taking second in the 74 KG senior grappling gi division to fellow team member Scott MacGregor.

He also took fourth in the senior 74 KG no gi division up against a very strong field of competitors.

The most successful club at the national championships was the NZ Combat Sports School Dunedin taking six gold medals, nine silver medals and six bronze medals.

The New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association in the South Island will now select an elite squad of wrestlers and grapplers to attend three planned upcoming training camps to be conducted in the South island in the next several months.

With the New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association now having the South Island grappling and wrestling club registered with the New Zealand Olympic wrestling union this will provide even more competition for the selected elite wrestling and grappling squad.

The second-tier grapplers and wrestlers will attend the training camps and over time with the increased competition and available coaching expertise at camps, force their way into the tier one squad.

This will future proof grappling and wrestling in the South Island and hopefully not only achieve growth but also raise standards. We have had North Island enquiries from member clubs and new joining clubs of the New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association wanting to do the same in the North Island as the model is truly working.

We have managed to conduct two full seasons and two national championships with a zero budget proof that getting back to grassroots and listening to the coaches and competitors has worked for us and does not require a big budget and committees and subcommittees.

There are now many opportunities and invitations to compete internationally at our disposal and having an elite squad in the South Island will really provide many advantages including increased funding prospects.

The results and photos from the nationals are soon to be posted on the New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association website.

http://grapplingwrestling.org.nz/

Thank you to all the clubs competitors officials spectators parents and supporters of the New Zealand Grappling and Wrestling Association national championships 2013.

Clubs wanting to join the NZ Grappling and Wrestling association which is free registration for your club and club members can do so on-line at

http://grapplingwrestling.org.nz/

New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association training camp August 25th and 26th.

Everything in relation to this camp went well including some of the finest weather we have had for a long time.

The capacity turnout meant the mat was a constant hive of activity.

This is the second camp that the New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association have conducted at the Todd group’s Wesleydale camp.

We thought the first was a major success and this latest camp has surpassed the first by considerable in all aspects.

It was apparent from the outset that all coaches in attendance were willing to assist one another and also assist wrestlers and grapplers from any club in attendance.

The NZGAWA recognise and respect our long serving highly experienced coaches and the new generation of younger coaches that have been some of our best competitors over the past decade.

Every wrestler and grappler in attendance at this camp presented themselves with an attitude of commitment to training and learning.

Peter Berry pointed out and rightfully so how every single attendee conducted themselves with such enthusiasm maturity and simply doing their utmost to achieve self-improvement.

The coaches included Kevan McLaughlan, Peter Berry, Caleb Steven, Aaron Miller, Ben O’Brien and Scott McGregor.

The old and the new working together with a common goal in mind is a recipe that can only achieve the best possible results.

Scott and Caleb provided some excellent submission grappling training and seeing the two of them working together to help all the attendees was a pleasure.

The wrestling coaching provided an opportunity to see Caleb Stephen continue with the work of Alan Rolton and Ben O’Brien continuing with all the years of work of Peter Berry with the benefit of still having Peter there to assist.

Having Aaron Miller active again in wrestling will benefit all wrestlers that are lucky enough to experience his coaching based on his training and competing in wrestling since the age of five.

His national and international experience and achievements are considerable and he adds much to NZGAWA coaching capabilities.

Kevan McLaughlan as always brought to the camp not only his vast coaching knowledge and experience but also so much information in regards to the conducting of competitions and on rules and regulations.

There is simply no substitute for hard earned knowledge and decades of experience and we are very fortunate to have Kevan leading the way by example with our development.

A meeting of NZGAWA attendees was conducted to decide on important matters for the upcoming summer season in relation to rules regulations weight divisions and the date of competitions.

This meeting was positive from the outset with some valuable contributions from all clubs and many club members in attendance.

The following is a brief of the subjects covered decisions made and works in progress.

NZGAWA rules and regulations and conditions for provincial and national Championships.

Weigh in’s will be conducted immediately before going on the mat and competitors must make the weight they entered at to compete or will be disqualified.

Competitors will only have to weigh in once immediately before their first match.

The weigh in’s will be conducted by officials, timekeepers or host club provide the staff. Competitors must weigh in wearing what they will compete in:

· Wrestling singlet’s and boots or bare feet.

· Grappling shorts and a rash guard with boots or bare feet.

· Gi grappling competitors will weigh in wearing their gi pants but not their gi jacket or belt.

· Grapplers competing in non-gi must wear either a proper fitting rash guard or a wrestling singlet and cannot compete in a T-shirt or with no top.

Both fingernails and toenails must be checked that they are cut short.

Unopposed competitors must go up one weight division and compete in order to hold their uncontested weight division title.

There will no longer be a requirement for competitors to have to have handkerchiefs but coaches and the host club must provide hygienic wipes for competitors in relation to blood and hygienic sanitising safe mat cleaning agents and equipment.

Coaches/Teams must provide their own first aid supplies and expertise.

Scales will be available one hour before the championship start time for test weighing.

Regional competitions test weigh in’s 12 noon with competitions starting 1 PM.

National Championships test weighing one hour before the advertised competition start time.

Weekend Championships and competitions entries must be in via the online entries facility by 9 PM on the Tuesday before the competition.

Entry fees must be paid to the host club no later than 9 PM of the Thursday before the competition, no exceptions.

The host club are providing the opportunity to compete and it is the competing clubs responsibility to meet all the conditions and deadlines.

Anything less is not in line with major competition conditions and makes the administration and organisational aspects that much more difficult for the host club.

The days of making exceptions for those that do not comply are over and requests will be declined so everyone needs to be well aware and make sure they meet deadlines and requirements.

The required rules for national and provincial championships for all wrestling and grappling codes are Fila rules.

Medals should be presented at real time on the mat following finals by the referee and certificates sent out to the clubs post Championships. Allowance may be made to have medals sent out following the championships as the ordering of medals has to be a long way in advance of the tournament. This makes it difficult as entry numbers are only finalised days before a tournament.

Other non-provincial national championship competitions conducted by NZGAWA member clubs under the NZGAWA banner can be conducted employing other official grappling or wrestling rules as long as they are advertised to all member clubs well in advance so they can make the decision if they want to enter or not under the said rules.

Required officials to conduct Championships are as follows.

Pair/Draw-master, Referee, Judge, timekeeper, score recorder, mat announcer if available.

Some of the required equipment to conduct Championships.

North Island, South Island and National Championships are all “medal” tournaments.

Multiple mats in relation to entry numbers.

Scoreboards in the form of one laptop per Mat and one flat screen.

The programme for scoring is available for NZGAWA member clubs.

The host club will need to provide a soft red and blue coach protest throw onto the mat baton or rectangular like object.

Each club, if they want the right to protest, must have their own video camera and be able to immediately on protest show the footage to the judge and referee.

Only the judge, referee and the protesting coach will be permitted to view the footage and the final decision will be made by the judge.

After a failed protest the coach of the said competitor will not be able to lodge another protest in that match and the competitor will lose a point.

If the protest is successful the competitor will be awarded the relevant points as determined by the judge.

The draw system will be a compromise between the knockout and round-robin systems. The draw will be a double elimination type system that will determine every competitors place from first to last.

This will be less time-consuming than round-robin but will give competitors more mat time than knockout – a minimum of two matches.

In the event there are only two in any weight division it will be the best of three.

The final programme is yet to be completed and made available.

We are also working on providing a detailed guide on how to conduct competitions, draw system and Championships for our member clubs.

For junior and senior grapplers and wrestlers we have decided on unifying the weight divisions for both wrestling and grappling.

Children’s wrestling weights will remain the Fila weight divisions.

Competitors must be right on or under the stated weight.

Men

57 61 67 70 77 83 93 120 130

Women

45 48 52 56 61 65 70 75 80 85 90

tournament dates.

Otago Championships Dunedin Saturday October 6th.

Manawatu Championships Palmerston North Saturday October 20th

Dunedin Clubs Competition Combat Sports School Dunedin Thursday Thurs Nov 1st 6pm.

South Canterbury Championships Timaru Sat Dec 1st.

Canterbury Championships Christchurch Sat Jan 26.

North Island Championships Palmerston North Sat Feb 16th.

South Island Championships Timaru. Sat March 16th

National Championships Auckland April 13 and 14

The Kaiapoi club was a great venue for the first NZ Grappling and Wrestling Championships with two mats and a warm-up mat upstairs and full meals and refreshments facilities running continuously downstairs.

Friday night the Greco-Roman wrestling was fast and furious with some spirited competition and the competitors enjoyed the non-stop action and this code being over in just two hours testament to the new processes.

This enabled everyone to get away smartly rest and prepare for Saturdays competition.

Saturday, November 19th and the day started with freestyle wrestling and gi grappling.

There was some real talent on show and the ten to 13-year-old freestyle wrestlers showed skill way above their years considering their time in the sport.

Competitors from the fight shop team in Palmerston North competed in both freestyle wrestling and grappling and you could see the results of Kesta McLaughlan’s coaching and just how good these new wrestlers were.

The gi grappling had good numbers of entries in most divisions.

There were many different gi’s and colours and styles of gi  featuring many club and grappling style prints and patches  making it a most colourful competition.

Some leading BJJ competitors and  judo international  Jason Koster  who has qualified for the Olympics were in attendance and  testament to the calibre of competitors along with Commonwealth games competitor Sam Belkin competing in both his sport of Greco Roman wrestling as well as freestyle wrestling and submission grappling.

Fellow Commonwealth games competitor and a leading NZ wrestler Stephen Hill was in attendance and part of the host club organising committee with his contribution being very much appreciated.

It was great to see father and son Kevan and Kesta McLaughlan respectively at the organising table together working as such a good team.

There were some very big lads in the gi competition and to see so many over 100 KG competitors was unusual to say the least.

I have been reporting on events for the NZ martial arts magazine and Australasian martial arts magazine now the Fight times e-mag for the past 17 years and this tournament was best wrestling and grappling championships I have been to and hosted a lot of very good competitors.

Such a friendly atmosphere helpful people and committed competitors were very apparent as soon as you walked in.

The female gi and non-gi grappling was good to see even though the numbers were not as high as we would like and this is something we need to work on.

The non-gi female grappling produced some good matches that were very close.

Like in international MMA competition the benefits of wrestling showed through with the grappling providing some definite advantages.

There have been a lot of wrestlers grappling this season with good success but not so many grapplers trying wrestling competition and we hope to encourage more to try it out in 2012.

The new king and queen of the mat titles where a competitor must win both the senior freestyle wrestling and non-gi grappling titles in their respective weight division made for some excellent matches.

There were two Kings and one Queen of the mat for 2011 and they were all wrestling stylists in Scott McGregor, Sam Belkin and Jessica Todd.

These three really were the best in both codes on the day and fully deserve the titles of kings and queen of grappling and wrestling at the 2011 NZ  Championships.

Click here to see the results

Click here to see the photos

Outcomes and to the future.

2012 will be huge if the 2011 Championships accolades and joining enquiries are anything to go by.

A new era in combined grappling and wrestling competition has been and the future is looking great.

November 18th and 19th set new standards in the conducting of National Championships for combined submission grappling and wrestling.

Friendly and very competitive was the nature of the event.

Never before have so many grapplers been entered at a combined national wrestling and grappling Championships.

The New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association in its first year as a national governing organisation for grappling and wrestling already  has more  member clubs than any other combined grappling and wrestling governing body in New Zealand and by considerable.

These the first national Championships have created a lot more interest and we expect many more clubs to join the New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association in 2012.

The association has many member clubs competing internationally year round in a wide range of combat sports codes.

There were several major clubs that put in apologies as they were away competing overseas or returning from international competitions that made them unable to be at the nationals and yet we still had over 200 entries.

The New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association is a completely democratic organisation run by the members on a majority decides majority rules referendum basis with every member club having a single vote for all major decision making.

The association is completely transparent with all member clubs receiving complete referendum outcomes.

There are no annual registration fees for clubs or competitors in the People’s Association as we call it. Member clubs are listened to and changes made when the majority decides. To many this is very different to the way they have known things to been done in the past.  User friendly and cutting unnecessary red tape has made all the difference and the results show in the numbers of member clubs coming on board.

We have the support of combat sports corporates in NZ and abroad and this has provided some top line sponsors and future negotiations are underway that will grow our combat sports codes in NZ.

We even had a visit earlier in the year from a CEO of a major US corporation who publically spoke to attendees at the Kodiak cage wars promotion that he sponsored of how he intends to get behind combat sports in NZ supported by his business partner in NZ the Todd group and Fight times.

Amongst our supporters and sponsors is a media leader in a category that focuses on combat sports and they like the changes we have made and the way we are doing things.

Registering club and club member is all done online as is with placing tournament entries.

The old draw systems that were complex time-consuming and killed forests have been replaced by systems that have all but made pair masters obsolete.

All that is needed now is minimal support to manage the user friendly draw and results systems.

This was brought about by new association members with expertise in running major international tournaments with several times the numbers of entries of national Championships offering their assistance to improve and speed up competitions.

The grappling clubs support and assistance with the draw systems at the New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association championships made an immediate difference and brought us out of the dim ages.

The nationals with over 200 entries and five combat sports codes were over in just under nine hours of competition over one evening session and one day session.

We have really made the New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association the peoples Association by taking on board the suggestions of members with experience and making such changes that meet Kiwi requirements and benefiting from listening to our rank and file who have much to offer. We still have some major changes to make in relation to things like the timing of the competitive season.

2012 could see a change to a summer sport and have most competitions on Saturdays as well as unifying the grappling and wrestling weight divisions so athletes will be more likely to compete in both grappling and wrestling codes.

We allow competitors to wear wrestling singlets or grappling shorts and rash guards.

They can opt for wearing wrestling boots or compete in bare feet.

Weigh in options can be on the day before or on the day of the competition and medals will most likely be presented by the referee at the completion of the match finals to avoid lengthy prize giving’s  after competitions that hinder visiting competitors return travel.

There are many more positive changes that set the New Zealand grappling and wrestling Association apart as a ground breaker and prove the importance of listening to the member clubs and making the changes that improve things that make all the difference to the success and growth of the organisation.

Times have changed and so have we in there is no looking back only forward to more growth and even more innovations to make wrestling and grappling more user-friendly and appealing.

We have training camps overseas competitions and visiting coaches planned for 2012.

There was a string of seminars immediately after the nationals hosted by Yoshi and conducted by his Master, Master Kenji Ogusu MMA world number 2 Pro Shooto and BJJ black belt and Asia champion From Japan.

To have so many clubs approach the organisers and congratulate us on organising what they called the best national Championships they have been too is extremely positive and satisfying and a reflection of Kevan McLaughlan and the Rangiora wrestling clubs hard work.

They certainly deserve praise and congratulations for conducting tremendous national Championships.

Those that could not make it missed out on a real championship experience and no doubt will be lining up for next year’s nationals once the members have voted and decided on the location.

Now we just need to furnish our reports on the first season to the required official organisations and in the off season conduct our camps and have our member clubs decide on the required changes to the competitive season and other aspects of the association methods of operation.