A Look In Between Competition.

The Spokane Gang (Daniel, Danny, Ryan). Austin, TX.

Jiu Jitsu is quite the lifestyle to live. For many practitioners, tournaments are a great way to test your mettle and skill level against those that may likely be from another school/gym and therefore someone new for you to roll with. The unpredictability in this makes competitions all the more exciting. It's no secret I love jiu jitsu and have been making photos in this community for a few years now. Even as far back as my point-and-shoot days, photographing jiu jitsu is something I really love doing just because. Usually I am at these competitions to cover any fights that seem interesting to me even though I don't know many of them personally. However over the years I am familiarizing myself with some of the competitors and even getting to know some of them the more I do this. So for this tournament I wanted to also make images of some of the competitors off the mats.

I met Danny at Dark Clan Fight Lab last year and through time we've become friends, thankfully. I've been sidelined for several months now and although I haven't been on the mats getting my ass whooped, I am still out here making photos at every chance I get. On this day, Danny introduced me to his brother Ryan and their friend Daniel who traveled from the Idaho/Washington area and were all gracious enough to let me photograph them between matches. This was an extremely rewarding experience for me to get a little more personal with my images rather than simply scrambling on the mats covering matches. It gave me time to relax and get to know these guys while they warmed up, shooting the shit and busting each other's balls along the way. I will have images from the actual competition up soon. For now enjoy this initial lifestyle approach to jiu jitsu.

I am definitely doing this again.

Never underestimate a great stretch.

Drilling makes for better competing.