2003 BJJ Winter Wars, hosted by Carlos Machado.


David "anti-Goliath" Thomas showed everyone what Brazilian jiujitsu is all about. Reminiscent of Royce Gracie versus Dan Severn, David had already swept his purple belt division en route to a Gold medal. David who over the last six months has entirely changed his game to better finishing, sweeping, leglocking, guard defense and offense and overall bjj, was not satisfied with his gold and entered the Open Class. Despite being the smallest in the Open class, David breezed to the final. Despite being outweighed by approximately 90 lbs., David showed fantastic poise, guard, and wolverine like(or pit bull like) mental dominance where fear or surrender was out of the question.... David almost got a kneebar and despite losing by points in a close match, he was what the epitome of bjj is really about when he displayed the poise of a smaller, lighter, technical man in BJJ is about... technique. Congrats David, your instructor is very proud of you, and even Carlos complimented you on your attacks and game.

To everyone, winning is sometimes fighting the demons within, whether we fight in a tournament to win a medal, or to overcome what we most fear, it is our conquering of our mental fences that show us how we learn and how we strive to get better. David showed how to conquer obstacles.

William Vandry

Very proud Instructor of my awesome students!!
 

Much appreciation to David and Richard who were making sure someone was in everyone's corner (at one point, there were Vandry competitors on 3 of the 4 mats at the same time)

And I have to echo what William said about David - everyone should have stayed for the open division. David was in true warrior form attacking his opponent. I admire your spirit David and expect to see you pushing me!

Ladies and Gents - it's back to training!

Tracey Graham