Injury risk in different competitions

I signed up for a Grappling Industries tournament. Looking through the allowed list of techniques for blue, there's some I'm sure aren't allowed in IBJJF, some I'm not sure.

Sure of:
  • Knee bar
  • Toe hold (outside, inside, estima lock, boltcutter)
  • Bicep/calf slicer
  • Knee reap
Not sure of:
  • Hand smother
  • Groin stretch
  • Single hand attack to trachea (distinguished from single arm attack to trachea)
Don't even know what it is: Cloverleaf
Looks like the main thing you have to look out for is the increased variety of leg-lock attacks. That isn't necessarily a problem from a safety perspective as long as you are familiar with the techniques involved and know when to tap and how to not move in such a way as to injure yourself when someone is applying the lock. If these aren't techniques which get a lot of use in your gym, then I would ask your teacher to go over them with you just in case.
 
Looks like the main thing you have to look out for is the increased variety of leg-lock attacks. That isn't necessarily a problem from a safety perspective as long as you are familiar with the techniques involved and know when to tap and how to not move in such a way as to injure yourself when someone is applying the lock. If these aren't techniques which get a lot of use in your gym, then I would ask your teacher to go over them with you just in case.
I talked with my Professor about this yesterday. He said he'd show me a bit about them, and that he, the other black belts, and the brown belts would start setting those on me so I can be prepared.
 
Looks like the main thing you have to look out for is the increased variety of leg-lock attacks. That isn't necessarily a problem from a safety perspective as long as you are familiar with the techniques involved and know when to tap and how to not move in such a way as to injure yourself when someone is applying the lock. If these aren't techniques which get a lot of use in your gym, then I would ask your teacher to go over them with you just in case.
Best I remember, there are a few varieties of the Cloverleaf but they are all leg lock/entanglement?
 
The Grappling Industries tournament is next weekend. So far, there's nobody else in my bracket: Gi, Blue Belt, Masters (age 30-40), <170 pounds. The two options if I were to get merged into another group would be for me to get bumped up to 185 pounds (there's one person in that bracket), or get bumped down to Adult (I'm 37, the one guy in the Adult Blue 170 bracket is age 22). GI is round robin, or for groups of 2, is a Bo3 format, where you fight the same person twice. I'm not really interested in fighting a 22-year-old twice or the same 185-pounder twice. If another person signs up in any of the three brackets (my original one, the Masters 185, or the Adult 170), I will attend, but if it's just me in a Bo3 in a harder bracket, I think I'm going to back out.

Jiu-Jitsu World League is coming to our town next month. Our school is planning on attending this one. We have a few folks who want to do it. (This was decided during the IBJJF tournament last weekend, is why it wasn't really on my radar until now). If I back out of the GI tournament, I'll do the JJWL tournament with my school instead. That one also is either Bo3, round robin, or double elimination, so I would get more reps than the one-and-done that I've had with IBJJF. I would also have more support from my school. (And even if I do the GI tournament, I will probably do the JJWL tournament as well).

A couple of nice things about JJWL over GI:
  1. The age bracket is similar to IBJJF, where I would be Masters 2 with age 35-40 instead of Masters with age 30-40.
  2. The rules are more similar to IBJJF, with blue belts not being allowed to do reaps (although they call them rips in JJWL, at least I think it's the same thing), slicers, toe holds, or kneebars.
 
The only thing is if I go back to normal blue belt rules, the brown belts at my gym are going to be disappointed they can't kneebar me anymore.

Although nothing stopped them from kneebarring me before I asked them to...
 
I did end up backing out of this one. There wasn't much competition. I'm signed up for JJWL in a month. It's similar rules to IBJJF, so I'm not going in against unfamiliar positions. I also already have a 3-person bracket, and it's a month out, so more may sign up.

Edit: by "not much competition" I mean quantity, not quality. I'm Masters <170 pounds, there was nobody in my bracket, one in the Adult <170, and one Masters <185.
 
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