“The first S.A.W tournament in Australia”
About two years after I came to Australia and established the S.A.W Australian branch, my students were finally at a level where they could compete, so I wanted them to compete, but at the time, the only grappling tournaments were judo, and there were no MMA-style tournaments.
So, in order to spread the S.A.W style, I thought that I had no choice but to hold a tournament by myself.
When I told Phil, Paul, and Ron about it, they said, “That’s interesting, and UQ Judo club would love to help out.”
They also promised to provide the venue and time.
The next step was to recruit participants.
About five people from my dojo wanted to participate.
Since the match style was planned to be both grappling rules and MMA styles, I went directly to martial arts gyms and dojos all over Brisbane to find athletes who were interested in participating, but it was very hard to get participants because they were worried about the mysterious match rules (Grappling rules: all joint locks and chokes allowed. MMA rules: all striking and ground techniques allowed.） that were still unknown at the time, and the tournament hosted by an unknown Asian person (me).
So in the end, the participants were all from gyms I knew, including a few from Chris Haseman’s gym, who started participating in MMA events in Japan called “Rings” led by Akira Maeda, a few from UQ Judo club, and a few from the gym of a kickboxing instructor who I was teaching private lessons at the time.
Since there weren’t enough people to hold a tournament style, it was a one-match style round system, with two MMA style matches and four or five grappling style matches.
However, considering that it was the first tournament, it turned out pretty well.
Cameron Quinn’s Kyokushin Karate dojo also showed us a demonstration and cooperated.
The fighters were not confused by this new style of match, and all tried their best, so I think it was a success, despite the hard work of preparing for the first S.A.W tournament.
