Mundials Motivation #7: Have your matches refereed by the most experienced

The referees for the black belt finals at the 2012 World Championship. Photo: Dan Rod

As part of our 18 reasons to support the 2013 World Championship at the end of this month, this next type of motivation is aimed towards all. The rules and regulations of the sport provided by the IBJJF are important to running tournaments and maintaining a professional foundation for the athletes involved. Simply speaking, there must be a set of rules that are enforced with fair matches for all athletes.

Reason #7: With the most experienced referees yet, matches will be well run and on time.

Being a referee is not the easiest job and quick judgements must be made in some situations on the mat. However, knowing the rules and being able to enforce them without hesitation is necessary. The referees around the globe have all been trained to do their job but as with anything, practice makes perfect. That’s why the IBJJF chooses the best referees to supervise the matches of all IBJJF tournaments and especially the most prestigious like the Mundials.

This year the IBJJF ran a referee rules course in nearly every city they traveled to for tournaments. If you signed up for an Open or just lived nearby you could pay a fee and earn a certification in the IBJJF rules.

Because of such a high importance on the quality of our referees and the evolution of our rules and regulations, the IBJJF has made it a priority to have the most experienced refs, a progressive approach to improvement of the sport,  and a variety of opportunities for anyone to learn them.

So this year’s World Championship will have only the best referees on the mats. If you’re a competitor, expect to know the rules well, including the three commands in Portuguese, (combate, parou and lute) the point system, the do’s and don’t’s, the visual commands and overall conduct. If you’re a spectator, expect to see some well run matches with an efficient system of making sure matches are on time. There will always be an element of subjectivity in the judgements made by referees, but the IBJJF’s focus on education will help to keep a level playing field for white belts to black belts.

The 2013 World Championship will be held from May 29 to June 2 at the Long Beach Pyramid in Long Beach, California.

If you would like to see the rule book for the IBJJF, which is the system in place for the World Championship, you can review it here.

For future rules courses you can see the schedule here.

>>And most importantly, to register for the 2013 World Championship click here. Today is the last day to register with a discounted price!