Jiu Jitsu Club rolls into The Revolution��

Several members of the Portland State Jiu Jitsu Club are joining their sponsor at The Revolution, one of the largest Jiu Jitsu tournaments in the Northwest, according to club leaders.

Coaches Tom Oberhue and Eric Dorsett said that five or six members of the PSU club will join about 20 members of club-sponsor Five Rings Jiu Jitsu for the tournament in Bonney Lake, Wash., on Saturday.

The team of roughly 25 competitors will be one of the largest that Five Rings has brought to a tournament, and Dorsett said it is due largely to the positive energy and enthusiasm of the PSU club.

“Revolution is a great opportunity to go out and understand how the sport works at the competition level,” Dorsett said. “It is great for them to grow as athletes.”

Held several times a year, The Revolution is a stand-alone tournament—meaning success at the event will not qualify competitors for any future tournaments. According to Dorsett and Oberhue, many use the tournament as a tune-up or as preparation for bigger tournaments put on by the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation, such as the Pan-American tournament.

There will be two divisions for competition on Saturday—gi and no-gi, based on whether competitors are wearing the gi, a long-sleeved canvas uniform. The stiff reinforced fabric of the gi is grabbed and used to bring opponents to the ground and used for some submission chokes.

No-gi fighting is done without the use of gi, and the fighting style is closer to wrestling. According to Oberhue, about 95 percent of the wrestlers competing from PSU and Five Rings will be in the gi division.

Members of PSU’s Jiu Jitsu Club typically meet twice weekly for about an hour to practice. The coaches encourage club members to go to the Five Rings Jiu Jitsu & Fitness on the weekends to experience what it is like to be a part of a training academy. Competition in tournaments is not required, but the coaches strongly encourage it to help them grow as competitors.

Oberhue said his main focus for this tournament is that the competitors go out and feel they competed well.

“Away from wins and losses, we want people to feel like they did a good job and had fun, and that it wasn’t a waste of their time and energy,” he said.?