Incredible newbie win @ ca pankration championships

**dwkfym** · Posted On: 9/04/2008 9:05pm

This guy INSISTED coming to this competition despite my warnings, after I told him I was preparing for the tournament. He kept telling me that his goal was just to be able to face somebody. His training only consisted of 6 months of Hapkido Instruction that he received from me a few years back.(believe it or not, I am technically qualified to be "assistant instructor" whatever that means)

So the six months that lead up to the tournament I met with him every week so he could get as much as practice and experience as he could. (he is a family man with a job that keeps him working around the clock.. so he can't train much more) I remember we sparred with fairly hard contact so he wouldn't be afraid of getting hit. I threw him with less remorse, went right for submissions (though I deliberately slowed them down so I would not injure him)
This tourney allowed for no head strikes so I thought this was the way to go for someone like him.

This guy is pretty strong too; a couple of times I tapped out to a couple of shoulder lock type submissions that would not work 95% of the time.

The last ditch effort training paid off :D
[media]YouTube - 08 California Pankration Championships

Well, he almost won his first match (very small point gap)
The video above is his second match
He had a shot at his third match- he was against a pure muay thai fighter and had he known how to properly take someone down once he had one leg, he probably would have won via points.
(But I still think he should have waited until he was better before he competed)

This guy was a very competitive runner in high school-held world records at one point for his age bracket.

I'm posting this in the newbie section to emphasize to fellow newbies how important fighting spirit and conditioning is. Like the quote Codos has; "First brave, second strong" before "third skilled" is considered.

I'd like to add a disclaimer, however. The skill levels of the two fighters are in no way representative of the average skill level of all of the fighters in that tournament. You pretty much depended on luck in order to be lucky enough to face less skilled fighters (my first match was against a JJ instructor and I got creamed.......only to face him again at the last consolation match)

**fanger123** · Posted On: 9/14/2008 9:06am

i enjoyed the vid. pure aggression ish dirty boxing.

but 6 months of training for that tournament? that sounds like a decent amount of time... you should have at least shown him to sprawl.

**SuperGuido** · Posted On: 9/14/2008 12:25pm

Weird.

All the guys I know who fight Pankration start off with a solid grappling base, then progressively add strikes and compete under Pankration rules to acclimate themselves slowly to MMA rules.

As such, all Pankration events I've seen end up as glorified grappling matches with some body shots thrown in to prevent stalling. To see a Pankration fight with little groundwork looks odd.

Good for him. It takes balls to compete in anything.

**dwkfym** · Posted On: 9/16/2008 12:53am

Originally Posted by fanger123

you should have at least shown him to sprawl.

Yeah, and I should have learned a bit better too! *grumble*

Originally Posted by fanger123

but 6 months of training for that tournament? that sounds like a decent amount of time...

he only trained 1 day a week. 2 hour session. Sometime skipped.. 24 sessions.. Unless I was a BB in any of the grappling arts, I don't think it was possible for him to get all that good.. (BTW, I'm very very very far away from a BB in Judo or BJJ)

His next match he received sooooo many leg kicks that for 2 weeks he couldn't see his knee anymore. He made a 100% recovery but I was pissed at my corner for not tossing the towel.