We've spent a lot of time focusing on the guys, but now it's time for the ladies. The women's brackets at ADCC have only 8 competitors each, so I decided to combine them in the article. Don't worry though as there was plenty of great action and lots of upsets.
If you haven't seen the other breakdowns check them out below.
-66kg
-77kg
-88kg
-99kg
+99kg
I apologize for messing these up before, but these stats should be accurate. There were only 3 subs in the smaller ladies matches. The rest were all won on points. The somewhat low submission rate might give you the impression that things were boring, but I think there was a good amount of excitement. There was lots of action and movement even if they didn't always translate into submissions.
The larger women also had some good matches. There were quite a few upsets such as Amy Campo defeating Gabi Garcia and Raphaela Guedes. The women here weren't afraid to mix it up on the feet and got aggressive with each other. Unfortunately there were only 2 submissions. A real tragedy was when Kendall Reusing was knocked out of the tournament due to a knee injury. Even though it looks like these might not be the most interesting matches, check them out, especially the ending of Amy Campo vs Gabi Garcia and Amy Campo vs Raphaela Guedes.
Submissions
The smaller women seemed to prefer chokes for some reason and managed to hit 3 RNC and a triangle. 2 attacks came from the top and 1 from the bottom. None of them succeeded and the only subs that finished matches came from neutral positions or positions such as the back. The RNC once again proves its usefulness and remains one of the best submissions across almost all rulesets.
The women in this division were a bit more diverse in their attacks, but often couldn't get the finish. The only 2 submissions that finished the match were the guillotine and the armbar. 2 submissions came from the bottom and 2 from the top, although none of them were able to finish the match. I'm surprised there was only an 11% submission rate, which seems a little low, but I don't know there reason. That said I'm happy they tried and failed instead of just playing conservatively and trying to win on points.
Sweeps
There isn't much to say here. There were only 2 sweeps in this division. A hip bump sweep and a matrix sweep/backtake, which is rare to see no-gi. Some women were trying to wrestle up on single legs, but it wasn't particularly effective. Overall sweeping didn't seem very effective and the top person was generally positioning themselves in ways that made sweeping difficult.
The heavier women were much more successful when it came to sweeping and actually hit a variety of sweeps. The most common was the hooks sweep from butterfly guard. I believe all of these were hit by Amy Campo. Wrestling up on a single leg, the SLX sweep and a sweep due to a submission also managed to score. There was a surprising 50% sweep rate in this division which is amazing.
Guard Passes
In this division half guard passing was king(or queen) with 2 successful passes. The only other pass was a smash pass. Surprisingly pressure passing seemed to be the key to success when it came to passing guard here. Many of the matches turned into half guard grinding affairs with both athletes stuck in a stalemate. Overall there was a 15.7% passing rate in this division.
The +60kg was the same as the lighter girls as the half guard pass was the most successful guard pass here as well. The knee slice was completed twice and the leg pin and north-south passes were each hit once. This division had a 42.1% success rate with their passes which IMO is very very high. The guards in this division might not be as developed as in some of the other weight classes and passing might be a key to victory for future competitors is they focus their training on it.
Takedowns
The mat return was the most common takedown here followed by the kneetap, kouchigari, kosotogari, koshiguruma and a broom stick. The broomstick was actually halfway between a wrestling broomstick and a kanibasami, so can argue what it was amongst yourselves. I was a bit suprised by the number of foot sweeps, but it is good to see more people using these and mixing things up. It was also surprising that no single or double leg takedowns scored. A 41.1% takedown rate is nothing to sneeze at however.
For the +60kg women there was a tie between the single leg, bodylock, mat return, uchimata, koshiguruma, and slide-by for the most common takedown. Each of them were only completed once, but I think it is good that there are a variety of takedowns used. The double leg didn't seem to have much success however, even though it was tried quite often. It seems that the double leg was most often attempted when people were tired, which might have contributed to it's low success rate.
Positions
The back was achieved most often as you'd expect. I believe this is due to the rules, which make turtling an attractive option. Often times people got the back off of takedowns. The mount, side control and even knee on belly showed up in these stats however and it seems people are going back to these fundamental positions again instead of only chasing the back.
For the +60kg the top pins seemed more effective than the back. There was only 1 finish, but as you can see side control and mount were quite popular and helped these ladies control their opponents. As with passing I believe for the heavier weights, top pins are more important and perhaps more time should be put into the development of those skills.
Overall
The women were great this year and I believe ADCC should re-think their policies. I'd prefer them to make 16 person divisions or keep the 8 person format, but add another weight class. The action in a lot of these matches was amazing, but many women seemed outsized.
That said what we did get was fun and we crowned some new champions. Ffion Davies has been working her way up the grappling world for a while and I was happy to see her get that big win. Amy Campo was a new comer, but I think she made a lot of fans with her dynamic style and never quit attitude. It was great seeing a passing of the torch in these matches and with these ladies I believe the division is in good hands.
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