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FILA Grappling second world committee meeting notes
By Zach Arnold | March 4, 2009
Press release
The second World Grappling Committee (WGC) annual meeting took place at the FILA headquarters in Corsier-sur-Vevey (Switzerland) on February 28th, 2009. The members of the newly structured WGC were brought together to discuss and establish the standards that will guide the sport of Grappling and its organization for the next four years. Attended the meeting Mr. Raphael Martinetti (FILA President), Mr. Jean-François Court (WGC Coordinator), Mr. Jason Towsend (Head of Grappling Pan-America), Mr. Rafael Perlungher (Head of Grappling Europe), Mr. Lazaros Papadopoulos (Head of Grappling Oceania), Mr. Hideo Kamaga (Head of Grappling Asia), and Mr. Willem Putter (Head of Grappling Africa). Under the new WGC structure, the continental representatives will be responsible for supporting the growth and development of the sport in the countries within their respective continents, as well as promoting the organization of FILA sanctioned events and Continental Championships. Contact details of all Committee members are available on the FILA website under “Grappling”.
After conducting an analysis of the first World Grappling Championship that took place in Lucerne (SUI) on 20-21 December 2008, the Committee decided to bring some modifications to the International Grappling Regulations. The following changes are in effect as of February 2009 and will remain in force until the end of 2012:
- New weight classes for males: 60, 66, 74, 84, 96, 120 kg and Absolute (open weight category).
- New weight classes for females: 55, 59, 63, 67 kg and Absolute (open weight category).
- The referees will no longer be able to declare a technical submission (“catch”) for senior competitions.
- The duration of senior matches will be 5 minutes with 1 minute overtime.
- The half guard restart position will no longer be used and half mount will no longer be considered a dominant position
- 1 point will be awarded for takedowns (if there is top control for 3 seconds).
- 1 point will be awarded to disadvantaged grapplers if they manage to escape and go to neutral or top position.
- In overtime, the choice of position, either top or bottom, will be given to the grappler who received the most passivity infractions, and if there is a tie in this criterion, to the grappler who scored the lowest value of points. If no grappler can be decided between by these two criteria, the red grappler will get the right to choose the position.
- Sweeps shall now be considered escapes and will be awarded points as so.
Other minor changes were made and can be consulted by downloading the complete International Grappling Regulations here.
Another major decision made in this meeting was to held the second World Grappling Championships in the United States, the American National Grappling Committee will soon announce more details of the competition which will be held in the second semester of 2009.
Tiago Okamura
For the World Grappling Committee
Topics: Media, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Ah, FILA. The same FILA who added Beach Wrestling in 2005 to their list of grappling sports because, and I quote, to “bring popularity to the grappling arts”. They failed to realize that Beach Wrestling isn’t popular. People who like or love grappling arts will like or love it regardless (like myself), and people who don’t like grappling arts (mostly North America) won’t like it regardless of the rule changes. They can devalue the guard and half guard all they want (which is bullshit) they won’t be getting any new fans any time soon. Oh, and I’m sure Turkish Belt Wrestling Alesh will catch on quickly outside the Caucasus Mountains!
FILA aren’t the only naive fuckers out there. USA Judo have added rule changes that took effect this year that are pointless to try to make Judo more popular in the States. They got rid of Koka (one-eighth point. Not really, considering that kokas and yukos don’t accumulate) scoring, which I can understand because Kokas and Yukos (one-fourth point. Again, not really because they don’t accumulate) were added in the seventies for tie-breaking purposes. And they tried to make certain collar grips a thing of the past (I can’t explain it. You have to see for yourselves). Oh, but the worst thing? Well, they have been doing this for a while now, and it’s all international judo organizations, but they stand the competitors up after just a few seconds of ground work if there is no pin nor a submission right then and there. That’s not going to make judo popular. Instead what they are doing is alienating Judo and grappling fans who want to see good ground work, effectively dumbing down the sport. What’s next? Grip fighting outlawed and if you don’t score a throw within 15 seconds then you get penalized?
How exactly does this litany of drivel command so much space on an MMA website?
Zach posts press releases sometimes.
The fact that FILA picked up beach wrestling and dropped Sambo is hilarious, to me. I couldn’t take them serious after that.
“How exactly does this litany of drivel command so much space on an MMA website?”
Grappling is part of MMA? If you don’t know good grappling, wrestling, striking, you aren’t going to know much about your sport.
I remember reading the reasoning behind beach wrestling being added as being about having “muscular bodies rolling in the sand” with the hopes that it would bring in the female fan base and found that the most astonishing thing any organization could state. I fully expect greco roman to be dropped for apartment wrestling before too long.
The problem with that is that ground work isn’t allowed AT ALL in Beach Wrestling. Only standing work. That’s understandable because who wants sand in their ass cracks? It’s funny that the Keystone Games (held every year in July in York, PA) recently added Beach Wrestling. Think about this. Beach Wrestling…..in Pennsylvania. They actually will get 55 tons of sand to be sent to York, Pa for Beach Wrestling and Beach Volleyball. Beach Wrestling is basically a fucked up inbred baby of Judo and Sumo because of the rules and scoring system.