As with so many things in jiu-jitsu, the concept for Older Grappler was passed down to me from a black belt.
In early 2022, Greg Lew, the owner of Grapple Academy (GAMA) reached out to me to ask me if I would be interested in hosting a jiu-jitsu scrimmage for jiu-jitsu practitioners over the age of 40. As it turns out, the majority of Greg’s adult students were 40+ working adults who had concerns about competing in jiu-jitsu out of a (justified) fear of injury. So Greg thought that an inter-academy scrimmage would be a fun way for them to get competition experience without the risk and cost of a tournament.
Before we could put together our first scrimmage, however, Greg suggested that we start with an open mat. This way, we could get a bunch of older jiu-jitsu folks together in the same room to meet each other and to roll, the hope being that the open mat would be a good way to get people to warm up to the idea of a scrimmage. We hosted our first Older Folks Open Mat at Kogen Dojo in Annapolis, MD in April of 2022, and it was a huge success. Everyone had lots of fun, got in a ton of great rolls, and we all got to meet older grapplers from all over the area.
The next open mat, now called Older Grappler Open Mat, was hosted at GAMA by Greg and his team in June of that same year and, once again, the event was wonderful. Even more older grapplers showed up this time and now we had proof of concept. Older grapplers want to roll with each other and, when health and time allow, they are willing to go out of their way to do so. But then things got quiet. Winter came, Greg and I got busy with our families, our academies, and, as it does, time passed. Nothing was happening with the Older Grappler concept, but I could see the potential there and I knew I wasn’t done with it.
As an older grappler myself, and as someone who loves to roll and likes to compete, I have found it extremely frustrating that there are not enough people my age showing up to tournaments. I have consistently found myself signing up for tournaments just to wind up competing against people who are half my age. If I was frustrated, I was sure others were as well. So I reached out to Greg to ask him if he wanted to do more with the Older Grappler concept. He thanked me for including him, said that he was simply too busy with his family and his business to commit, and gave me his blessing to take the idea and run with it.
On May 20th of 2023, KD Events LLC ran the first ever Older Grappler 40+ Gi Scrimmage, and that was just the beginning…
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