![Sammy Collingwood and Tra Alidor are the organizers behind this Saturday's first Santa Rosa County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament, the Southeastern Submission Classic. [AARON LITTLE | Press Gazette]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-50383a25-751a-1355-e053-0100007f283b-c6e8c77c.jpeg)
MILTON — The first Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament in Santa Rosa County is set 10 a.m. May 27 at Guy Thompson Community Center. Admission costs $5.
Competitors from as far as Tallahassee, Alabama, Mississippi, Atlanta and Lakeland will be in Milton for the submission-only event, according to organizer Tra Alidor.
“The gentle art,” as translated from Japanese, jiu-jitsu is a martial art in which one twists and bends opponents’ limbs or chokes the opponent until he or she submits, usually indicated by tapping the opponent or the floor.
The Japanese jiu-jitsu master, Mitsuyo Maeda, brought the art to Brazil in 1914. Three years later, Carlos Gracie became Maeda’s student. Gracie would go on to modify the art and in 1925 opened the Gracie family’s first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy, according to GracieMag.com. The Gracie family would go on to promote the art worldwide.
The closest tournaments to Santa Rosa County are the North American Grappling Association tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama, and the Copa America Grappling Championships in Destin.
“There haven’t been any in Pensacola in the last three years,” Alidor said. “It’s hard to find a good venue.”
This is the main reason Alidor and Collingwood decided to put on the tournament this year.
“There’s nothing around locally for teams to compete,” Alidor said. “You have to travel an hour either way. We want to bring something here to help build the local teams and give somewhere locally to compete.”
“We got all these schools everywhere: Crestview, Fort Walton, Panama City, all the guys driving to Atlanta and South Florida to compete,” Collingwood said. “Why not give them a stage in their backyard?”
Collingwood has been a mixed martial arts promoter since 2005 with Ultimate Cage Fighting and trained jiu-jitsu since 2001, the first six years under Danny Ruiz in Fort Walton. He’s known and trained with Alidor for the last six years. His motivation for this tournament, in part, is to give young competitors a place to test their skill without the financial burden to their parents.
“All these young kids, their parents can’t afford to take them to Atlanta or Louisiana," he said. "They can barely afford to keep them in jiu-jitsu. They won’t have to worry about driving, paying for gas, hotel, and food.”
To boost interest in the tournament for spectators and participants alike, Alidor did two things: made the format submission-only and arranged the 10 super fights.
In standard BJJ tournaments, competitors can earn points by throws, sweeping, passing the opponent’s guard, and reaching different positions of advantage.
“(In this tournament) there are no points and usually a sub-only tournament has more action because someone is not worried about losing by two points,” Alidor said. “Sub-only events have more action in the matches.”
The super fights feature BJJ black belts and start at 1:30 p.m.
“This is high-level jiu-jitsu. It’s as close as you can get to fighting without striking,” Alidor said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Santa Rosa's first jiu-jitsu tournament scheduled