Congratulations to Dave Freetage and Grove City Jiu Jitsu for the great performance at the EGO tournament!

From Dave via FB:

Results are in for EGO Columbus…gi TEAM CHAMPIONS!!! GCBJJ Team Ruffhouse. Great Job to all competitors, instructors and team mates who helped during training.

Our first competition as a team and we won the Team Title!! Very proud of you guys. Must be doing something right!!!

After over two years of sitting on the sidelines, watching my students competing, I decided that it was finally the right time to dust myself off and compete at the Arizona State Championship. Some of my students had never watched me compete and were thrilled at the idea of having me competing by their side. Competition has been part of my life since I was 4 years old when I competed in my first Judo tournament. Since then, I collected several medals, but I also have lost and with ever loss, I came back stronger. Most people don’t compete because of the fear of failure, the fear of letting someone down. In my house, my parents always taught me that the most important thing was to compete and that winning or losing didn’t matter as long I gave everything and left no stone unturned. I still believe in my father’s words and I preach this to my students as much as possible. You can’t fully appreciate winning if you have never lost. Losing is part of growing, part of learning, but only by competing will you be able to experience and really know who you are and what you are made of. At the 2012 Arizona State, I was standing at top of the podium, but two years ago I had finished in third place in a different tournament. Like everybody else I learned with my loss, I went back to the gym and trained hard for it. Your success depends on how much you want it, how much you are willing to give up for it, by not only reaching the possible but by reaching the impossible. I will always compete, maybe not as often I did in the past, but be sure that I will be ready and I won’t be on the sideline talking big and not walking the walk.

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

At the last Arizona State Championship, Ruffhouse, together with their brothers in arms from Tucson, finished second place in overall team points for the adults and kids division. At the adult divisions, BJJ Revolution collected 13 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 11 bronze medals. We had a lot of white belts at this edition of the Arizona State and they fought with an incredible indomitable spirit. The Ruffhouse Girls Team did great, with only 5 girls, they collected a total of 7 medals, including 5 gold medals!  Keep training hard, the next tournament in Arizona by the AZSBJJF is in October!

Congratulations to our affiliate Dave Freetage and his student Pat Vehr for the medals at the Ohio Police/Fire Olympics! Dave finished  first at the advance light weight division and Pat finished third at the heavy weight division! For more info about the Dave and his school in Grove City, Ohio go to  http://www.grovecityjiujitsu.com/

Congratulations to all the competitors for the third place overall team points. Even with small team we were able to finished at the podium! I will leave you guys with a great comment from of our Black Belts and good friend Jay Pages!

“Just a quick observation I made after yesterdays tournament. We may not always have the biggest team or highest number in competitors, but despite that fact we always place as a team. Never far behind the team in front. We’re always nipping at their heels. We don’t win by sheer numbers (however it does help), we win with high quality jiu-jitsu, heart, dedication, determination,drive and the the undying support from our family, friends, team, and the leaders of BJJ Revolution Team-OFFICIAL! Congratulations to all! Parabens Ruffhouse Jiu Jitsu, Jay Pages Jiu-Jitsu & MMA, Tucson Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Team Beauregard Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Pallaton BJJ! Find the closest BJJ Revolution school to you now for the best in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Training! OSS!”

Jay Pages