Shady competitors are now knee reaping themselves to get you disqualified!
This past weekend I traveled with my teammates to the 2012 IBJJF Master & Seniors Worlds Championship. Although I wasn’t competing, I was pumped up because of the amount of work we put in to prepare ourselves for these tournaments is immense. I was interested in seeing my teammates do well with our newest tournament prep tactics and skill building strategies. The tournament got under way with our instructor taking silver via a razor thin ref’s decision in the final match of the masters lightweight division against Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro.
After a long break, one of our blue belts was up next. The match started with his opponent jumping into full closed guard. After a little monkeying around, Randy secured his grips to start working his stand up guard pass. As he progresses through the pass, an opportunity presents itself and Randy, being the submission maniac that he is, went for the ankle lock. His outside foot placement on the hip was within the gray area where it’s not definitely illegal, but it wasn’t 100% certifiably legal either.
His opponent was much more keen to the knee reaping rule, because, as he stood up to defend, he was staring at the referee telling him it was a knee reap. The referee stood there watching not fully convinced, until the opponent forcefully moved Randy’s leg into the definitive red zone area for knee reaping. At that point, the opponent fell via soccer flop and complained of pain like a total wimp.
This isn’t the first time someone was DQ’d for reaping the knee and, likely, it will not be the last.
Allow me to make it clear that I completely agree with rules made to keep competitors safe. In fact, I have no qualm with the knee reaping rule. Although, I sometimes I accidentally reap the knee in training. =/
However, I’m sure I won’t be alone in having disdain for people who use the rules to cheat their way to victories. I don’t even understand what type of psychological ego disorder you have to have to rationalize cheating in order to win. How can you call yourself a champion knowing that you didn’t man up and go toe to toe with your opponents?
End rant. So, all of you bjj competitors planning to compete in ibjjf tournaments, keep in mind that your opponents can cheat you out of your tournament by forcing you to reap their knee. And, according to Marcelo Ribeiro, “It is the responsibility of the person applying the leg lock to
adhere to the rules and be knowledgeable in the placement of their own legs and their opponents…. Regardless of what the opponent does.”
Check out Randy’s fight, and tell me what you think.
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Yeah, definitely your buddies fault. He fell to the inside, first mistake. Second, the reap was happening before the guy even touched the leg, and it appears to me he attempted to push the leg down.
Also the guy definitely didn’t put on a show like soccer players, looks more like he lost balance honestly.
Hey Dustin, I appreciate your input. I will concede that perhaps my perspective is skewed. While his execution was off there is a little more to it than the video lets on. The video doesn’t show what the guy was saying to the ref leading up to the dq.
Ultimately, it does rest in my teammates hands to make sure to not put himself in situations were this could happen, so, to a large degree, you are right that it is his fault.
I was just reading about knee reaping as I was unaware of it until reading about it relating something else. It seems like a stupid rule IMHO. The thing I’m scared of is that people that can benefit from being DQ’ed in that situation will cheat (allow/facilitate a reap) just to show the ref for the DQ. Kind of like the basketball players that take a small bump and fall to the floor and slide 10 feet back on their rear like thy got ran ovr by a truck when in fact it was a small bump. Bad stuff here.
I agree Chris, it is definitely deplorable that cheaters can, have, and will facilitate a reap and get their opponents DQd. I think it’s very dishonorable. The IBJJF needs to pay more attention to this and do a better job of having a standard for the referees. They are all mandated to take the classes, but are they tested on their knowledge of the rules? I have seen way too many different “interpretations” of the rules at competitions. Very frustrating stuff.
Randy was rightfully DQ’d for knee reaping. In an ankle lock your outside foot must be on the hip. If your foot is on your opponent’s stomach that is knee reaping. That is not a “grey area” that is black-and-white knee reaping.
Source: IBJJF official video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhUO4XcGkAY
Hey Shawn, thanks for putting in your two cents. Did you see the opponent forcefully moving the leg into his stomach? Randy’s toes were wrapped around his opponent’s waist firmly prior to the opponent moving the foot into the illegal area himself.
Watched the video a few times, stopping at key points, and I agree with your assessment completely. He was in the “almost reaping” zone before the guy hip heisted and pushed his foot across his thigh. Pretty weird.
Hey Justin, thanks for dropping by. Yeah, weird indeed. I have seen this drop off considerably though, so I think the issue is mostly gone.