Today was the Subfighter No Gi Summer Challenge tournament. We didn't have any students competing this time around, so I got to go just to enjoy myself, hang out with friends and cheer for competitors from the other Subfighter gyms.

Turns out that Alejandro Perales — a former student of mine — was competing in the 165lbs intermediate division. His coach had multiple students competing, so I coached Alejandro through his first couple of matches. All four of his matches went relatively similar with him using his wrestling to get an early lead and staying dominant with his top position to win on points. Alejandro's final match was the an interesting story though. He went against a competitor named Jeff (I can't remember his full name) that had also beaten 3 other competitors on his way to the finals of the 16-man bracket. The amazing thing about Jeff is that he is blind! His blindness didn't stop him through as his path to the finals was similar to Alejandro's. He used dominant wrestling and top position to defeat everyone by points. It was actually really impressive to watch. I saw a couple of guys get DEEP on a takedown and he would still manage to stuff it and and either stay on top or take top position. In the end through, Alejandro beat Jeff 2-0 by a takedown and got the gold!