After a fantastic showing last week at the US Grappling tournament, a few of the guys were hungry for more competition. So we headed up to Morristown, NJ for the Copa Atlantica tournament yesterday. As usual there was a big turn-out for this one- it's one of the biggest tournament circuits in the U.S.
First up was Chad Bender, who's been super busy lately and hasn't had much time to train. Even so, he trained as hard as he could and entered the tournament with about a week's worth of preparation. Although he lost his first match 2-2 (by advantages), he was pleased with his overall performance and felt as though he did the best he could. He fought hard till the very last second and that's all you can really do. Next time we'll make sure to get in the proper amount of training beforehand.
Kevin Macmullen was coming off a bronze medal at last week's US Grappling and looking to add more hardware to his collection. He won his first match 16-0 and as always was fresh and ready for the next one. Unfortunately, his opponent was able to exploit a few weaknesses in Kevin's game. Kevin escaped a super tight triangle and battled but came up short on points in the end. We discussed a few of the areas he needs to improve and I'm confident that once those mistakes are corrected he's going to terrorize the tournament scene.
Next up was Mike Tenaglia, who took second at the US Grappling last week and was back to battle again. Despite escaping a fully extended armlock Mike lost 6-0 to the eventual champion. We watched the footage afterwards and focused on a few details that could have changed the outcome of the match. Not surprisingly Mike was back in the gym less than 24 hours later drilling these moves and I'm excited to see him execute them next time he competes.
Despite the fact that we didn't come home with medals this time, I was pleased with the overall performances and happy that we were able to correct some things that will help the guys win next time around. Check back soon for pics and video!
