For 6 months, we’ve been asking for people to inform us about the best of jiujitsu in Virginia, DC, North Carolina and South Carolina. Finally, our panel of judges has rendered their decisions — and for the first time, we’re proud to present 10 awards.

The purpose of this: to celebrate the people doing great things in the regional jiujitsu community, and to learn about some of the lesser-known folks out there that don’t always get the credit they deserve. This is why we had an open nomination process: so people could tell us who they thought the most deserving people are, and why, and to give them a chance, through emails and voicemails, to explain what makes the person they support so worthy of an award.

We wanted to release the podcast on the awards before this list for one reason: if you listen to the show, regardless of who won or who lost, you’ll hear voicemails representing every nominee for whom we got voicemails. Those voices deserve to be heard. Check out the podcast here:

We couldn’t play all the voicemails we received, or even read all the emails on the air — thanks to everyone for the powerful response — but we did get to most of them, so that nominees could hear from their supporters directly.

How did we decide who won after all the nominations were in? I’m glad you asked. The last thing I wanted was for this to be the “Jeff picks out the winners” awards. But I also didn’t want an Internet popularity contest or a system that could be gamed, and I did want to get diverse sets of people involves. So we picked 7 judges from three different states AND the District, training at 7 different gyms under 6 different associations. We let all of those judges see the emails and voicemails of support. Then we asked the judges to rank the candidates in order, with the top 3 getting points. You got three points for a first place vote, two for a second place vote, and one for a third place vote.

This is where the contest really opened some eyes, I think. I wound up voting for at least one person I’d never heard of before the contest, based purely on voicemails of support. We also, because so many people were convincing, wound up giving more awards than we planned on.

Here are the 10 2017 Dirty White Belt Awards, each with a traveling trophy that’s engraved with the name of the winner. If your favorite candidate didn’t win, don’t worry , that’s OK — they will still get a certificate as a finalist, and the chance to win next year, when the trophies will move along to new and deserving recipients. All of the categories you’re about to hear will be around next year. Will we add new categories? I don’t know — I really wish we’d had takedown of the year and submission of the year categories. So watch for those all year and keep them in mind.

Let’s start with the people who inspire us. Continue reading “The 2017 Dirty White Belt Awards For Jiujitsu in the Southeast”

Quick reminder: the nominations are almost final for the first annual Dirty White Belt Southeast American Jiujitsu Awards! We’re giving year-end awards for jiujitsu throughout the Southeast on a show in December: For a full and comprehensive list of who is eligible and the rules, we have longer posts here and here.

Who Are The Candidates?
We are closing nominations Dec. 1, and giving the awards later in December. So there’s still time to nominate! We are keeping a running list of the candidates here.  You can nominate additional candidates by emailing us at cagesidewhup@gmail.com. Even better, you can call and leave us a voicemail at (360) 389-2830. Tell us who you’re supporting and why! Not only might this help persuade the judges, you might end up on the show giving out props to a winner during our awards show in December.

How Do I Vote / Support My Deserving Candidate?
A panel of judges from a variety of jiujitsu teams will decide the winners, so there is no popular vote (at least not this year!). But you can still support your favorite candidate by posting your picks and a few reasons that person is deserving!

Thanks for participating!

 

 

 

What’s All This Then?
We’re giving year-end awards for jiujitsu throughout the Southeast! For a full and comprehensive list of who is eligible and the rules, we have longer posts here and here.

Who Are The Candidates?
We are closing nominations Dec. 1, and giving the awards later in December. So there’s still time to nominate! We are keeping a running list of the candidates here, and you can let us know if we missed anyone by …

If I Don’t See Someone Deserving on the List, How Do I Nominate Them? 
Lots of deserving candidates out there! You can nominate additional candidates by emailing us at cagesidewhup@gmail.com, posting in the nomination threads on Facebook, or sending Jeff or Lourdes a message.

How Do I Vote / Support My Deserving Candidate?
A panel of judges from a variety of jiujitsu teams will decide the winners, so there is no popular vote (at least not this year!). But you can still support your favorite candidate by posting your picks and a few reasons that person is deserving!

Even better, you can call and leave us a voicemail at (360) 389-2830. Tell us who you’re supporting and why! Not only might this help persuade the judges, you might end up on the show giving out props to a winner during our awards show in December.

Thanks for participating!

 

 

 

We’re giving year-end awards at the end of 2017, and we want your help with nominations. These are open nominations for each of the award categories. Our intent is to honor deserving grapplers throughout the region — and to remember some of the best moments of the year gone by.

Eligibility: The geographic range of eligibility is from the DC metro area down to the southern tip of South Carolina. That means any person or academy in DC, Virginia, North Carolina or South Carolina is eligible. (If we get a ton of great entries we may break the awards out by state, but we’ll see — it’s year one!). Here are the award categories, with a brief description for each.

AWARD CATEGORIES:

1. Jiujiteiro of the year 

2. Jiujiteira of the year

Among the best practitioners you know, who really shined this year? Competition is a big piece of this, but shouldn’t be all of it. Who made great strides, won honors, and rocked the house with consistency during 2017? Who is a shining example generally, but had a particularly great year?

3. Tournament coach of the year
4. Self defense instructor of the year 

There are a lot of great instructors and academies, so we want to give two distinct awards to recognize folks that focus on the competition side as well as the self defense aspects of jiujitsu. Can you vote for the same person for both? Sure thing, pal: we’ve always said the distinction between self defense and sport is largely artificial. (It’s also possible that we give these awards broken out by state.)

5. Most Inspirational Athlete of the Year
Who motivates you? Who did something truly great this year that can’t be measured in medals or belts or trophies? Who is a great representative for the art that you can point to and say “yeah, that’s who you can be if you train”? This answer to one or more of these questions might be your Most Inspirational Athlete of the year.

6. Match of the year (men)
7. Match of the year (women)
What match tore the house down in terms of exciting action and competitive thrills? What match featured expert technique? Bonus points if both competitors were local, but nominate your favorite match. And definitely send us a video or a link to a video if it exists.

How do you nominate? There are three ways:

1. Send an email to cagesidewhup@gmail.com.
2. Make a post on Facebook and tag Dirty White Belt radio so you’re sure we see it. Or …
3. Nominate someone IN PERSON at Toro Cup 8, Oct. 14 at Cageside Fight Co. in Durham. We’ll have a nomination box for you!

Nominations will stay open until Dec. 1, 2017. Nominate early, nominate often!