In a recent episode of the Partizan Grappling Podcast, renowned jiu-jitsu competitor and coach Lachlan Giles shared his thoughts on the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) Australasia trials and offered some intriguing suggestions for improving the ruleset in future events.
Giles, who serves as the CJI Australasia Misfit team captain, reflected on organizing the first-ever trials event. Despite the challenges of finding an appropriate venue on short notice, the team settled on hosting at their gym with a three-quarter pit wall. The event generated significant excitement within the community.
“I’m lucky that probably the hardest thing I imagine when you’re organizing an event is getting the matchups you want,” Giles explained. “With the prestige and the hype around CJI, like everyone wanted to be a part of it.”
Giles highlighted the performances of the two winners, Declan Moody and Belal Etiabari. He noted that Declan was “clearly ahead” on the day, securing three submissions in five matches. Interestingly, Giles observed a pattern:
“The people who like wanted to wrestle and do takedowns, they were also the people that got submitted, whereas the people who were pulling guard managed to [avoid submission].”
Regarding Belal Etiabari, Giles revealed that despite only training for four years, his progression has been remarkable.
“He’s very, very good, and I think we probably actually didn’t get to see everything he can do at the tournament. I think he’s got a lot more in him than what he actually showed,” Giles said.
Giles has assembled a formidable team for CJI, including Fabrizio Andre at 66kg, Levi Lucas, Lucas Canard, along with Belal Etiabari and Declan Moody. When discussing the quintet ruleset and team strategy, Giles offered some tactical insights:
“If you get up on the board early, that’s a huge advantage. So it really dictates how much risk your fighters have to take. You want the early submissions, you want your best guys out there, but then there’s a little bit of strategy… if you think the other team’s going to put their best submission guy out first, do you throw out your hardest guy to submit first?”
Perhaps most notably, Giles shared his thoughts on potential rule improvements for future CJI events. At the trials, they implemented a “shot clock” for stalling, similar to wrestling rules, but Giles acknowledged some challenges with this approach.
“I think if we had less harsh penalties… my preferred approach is you have 30 seconds to change position. Because scoring is quite tough,” Giles explained. “If you’re under-mount, you’ve not only got to escape, but then also get a submission attempt or a sweep.”
Giles suggested a more flexible approach:
“A 30 seconds to change position, so that could be recover to guard or even turn your back. Like, do something. If you’re standing and there’s two people wrestling, you think someone’s stalling, take them down. If you really want to be on top, go for it or pull guard.”
This approach would encourage action without necessarily penalizing a grappler who might be legitimately defending but unable to score.
“They cannot get the stalling penalty, but it changes the action,” Giles noted.
Giles also experimented with keeping scores hidden from competitors during the trials.
“My thoughts were keeping the scores from the competitors just because sometimes people [think], ‘I’m up by two points, I’m just going to hold on.’ If they don’t know, there’s a bit of uncertainty that’s going to make you hopefully think, ‘I better keep pushing forward.'”
With CJI continuing to evolve, Giles‘ approach to competition rules could potentially shape the future of the format.
