Rules
The Hereford Open will be run under the rules of The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF).
Article 7.1 of the IBJJF rules state, "The published guidelines of each individual championship shall overrule this General Competition
Regulations Book when need be"
Using Article 7.1, the following exceptions will apply.
1) The event will be run using the repechage (double-elimination) system, rather than the single elimination system. A guide to the repechage system can be found >here Where there are 3 competitors in a bracket pools (round-robin) will be used.
Please note: at IBJJF events (and many other BJJ events in the UK), if you lose your first fight, you are out of the event.
2) Weigh-in will take place approximately 30 minutes - one-hour before the bracket start time, rather than weighing-in immediately before the match.
3) If you fail to make weight we will attempt to place you in another category. However, if the next weight category is full, or has already started this may not be possible.
Please note: if you fail to make weight at IBJJF events (and many other BJJ events in the UK) you will be disqualified.
4) Medals will be presented to 1st 2nd and 3rd place.
5) Article 5.5 of the IBJJF rules state "The athlete who has proven to be a black belt in judo, has proven experience* in wrestling, wrestling
Olympic or Greco-Roman, or has fought MMA professionally, can not participate in any league as a white belt."
At The Hereford Open, the athletes identified above will be permitted to fight in the blue belt category wearing a white belt.
Please note: this is not permitted at IBJJF events. The athletes mentioned above must wait until they are promoted to blue belt before they are allowed to compete.
Resources
The 2013 IBJJF Rule Book can be found >here
A video guide to the referee commands can be found >here
Have a go at the following tests and see how you do.
What is it like to be a BJJ referee?
Read this article by Hereford Open organiser, Dave Coles about his experience at the IBJJF 2012 European Championships.
Click >here for the article.
