Learning the rules

This past Saturday, I attended a 7 hour referee's clinic put on by Alvaro Mansur, the head referee of the International BJJ Federation. It was long, but somewhat interesting.

I learned some details of tournament BJJ rules that I was not sure of, but, more importantly, I learned the thought process behind ALL the current rules. Basically, they are designed as much as possible to reward the person trying to finish the fight with a definite end (submission or high amount of points) and punish the guy just trying to survive with the minimum. Like any set of rules for human endeavor, they are fallible and not perfect, but at least it is an honest attempt. The fact that you are not rewarded for doing what you should be doing (i.e. escaping a bad situation) and only rewarded for trying something beyond that is kind of cool.

So, after this, I can now referee an official IBJJF event. I am not a certified ref yet, though. I am basically, a ref-in-training. I need to actually get some real world experience, and sometime in the next 2 years, I have to attend another clinic. I don't really want to do too much of it, but every now and then acting as a ref might be fun.

At least, until I make a call that pisses off some famous black belt!