Vol. 1 · No. 10/ Tuesday 10 November 2026/ Published in Melbourne, Australia/ Independent · No broadcast rights · No affiliate links/ 한국어

MATSIDE

The grappling paper of record — Asia & Oceania desk matside.com.au
The Record · Australia and New Zealand · 7–8 November

Three Contests in Four Were Children's

Eight tournaments last weekend, 1,964 contests, 1,498 of them in junior divisions. In this paper's register the junior share of Australian tournament jiu-jitsu has risen from about a third to more than half in two and a half years — and this week some of those children go to Abu Dhabi.

By The Cornerman · Matside · Melbourne

Melbourne — Of the 1,964 contests decided at eight grappling tournaments in Australia and New Zealand last weekend, 1,498 were in junior divisions: 76 per cent. Counted by athlete rather than by contest, the share is the same. Of the competitors who stepped on a mat, 996 were juniors and 309 were adults.

Part of that is the calendar. Two of the eight events had no adult divisions at all — the Kids & Youth JJ League's Feilding Open in New Zealand's Manawatū, and a studio-only kids' competition at Holtze, near Darwin. But children outnumbered adults at the open tournaments too: 242 junior contests to 96 adult at the AFBJJ's Newcastle Open, 247 to 77 at the BJJ Australian Open in Byron Bay, 241 to 16 at the SJJA Day on the Sunshine Coast, and 236 to 147 at Stealth Grappling's Submission Grappling Nationals in Auckland. Only AGL's Adelaide Championships had more adult contests than junior ones, 105 to 91.

996 juniors, 309 adults

The weekend was not an outlier. Matside's register holds 411 jiu-jitsu and grappling tournaments dated from January 2024, almost all of them Australian. In the first half of 2024, juniors accounted for 35.5 per cent of their contests. The figure was 42.1 per cent in the second half of that year, 47.0 and 53.3 per cent in the two halves of 2025, 49.3 per cent in the first half of 2026, and 54.8 per cent since July.

Tournaments that come round every year show the same movement. The Wollongong BJJ Open had 75 junior contests out of 210 in 2019, 36 per cent; in September this year it had 188 out of 290, 65 per cent. The Newcastle Open went from 68 per cent junior last November to 72 per cent on Sunday, and the BJJ Australian Open's summer edition from 74 to 76 per cent. What the register shows is a rising share, not simply more children: the Newcastle Open had fewer contests this year than last, 338 against 490.

On the mat, 843 of the weekend's junior contests ended by submission, 495 on points, 40 by referee decision and nine by disqualification. Fifty-one were walkovers. Sixty were draws, all of them in Auckland, where a contest without a submission is scored as one.

The register can count the children. It cannot say what they will become. The first measure arrives this week. The Abu Dhabi World Youth Jiu-Jitsu Championship runs from 11 to 13 November at Mubadala Arena, and its published brackets list 20 entries under the Australian flag and one under New Zealand's, among 1,851 entries from 84 countries. Matside will report how they finish in No. 11.

Australia & New Zealand · 7–8 November · eight tournaments 1,498 of 1,964 contests junior
JUNIOR SHARE76%
JUNIOR ATHLETES996
SINCE JULY54.8%

The weekend, by event

The Record · Smoothcomp match lists and results · saved 9 November 2026

Every contest on each event's match list. Junior divisions are those whose published name marks them as junior (age bands, Boys and Girls, Juvenile). Athletes are counted once per event; the totals count each athlete once across the weekend.

EventDateContestsJuniorAdultJunior athletesAdult athletes
Submission Grappling Nationals, Auckland7 Nov38323614711872
AGL Adelaide Championships 87 Nov196911053759
SJJA Day, Sunshine Coast7 Nov2572411617314
Here Comes the Wet! Studio Only Kids Comp, Holtze7 Nov13413401010
Newcastle Open (AFBJJ)8 Nov3382429623481
BJJ Australian Open – Summer, Byron Bay8 Nov3242477713864
Kids & Youth JJ League Feilding Open IV8 Nov21121101240
Top of the South Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Blenheim8 Nov12196257219
Total1,9641,498466996309

Junior share of contests, 2024–2026

The Record · Matside register · 411 tournaments

Tournaments in Matside's register, by half-year. The register is weighted toward larger open events and leaves out in-house kids' round robins and non-grappling events; these figures describe that set, not every tournament in Australia.

Half-yearTournamentsContestsJuniorJunior share
2024 H15923,0758,19135.5%
2024 H24218,8927,95442.1%
2025 H16930,11914,16347.0%
2025 H27531,71416,88853.3%
2026 H18533,34416,42449.3%
2026 H2 (to 8 Nov)8130,39116,64054.8%
The Corner · Editorial

Their record, too

The Cornerman Editor · Melbourne · 10 November 2026

Melbourne — Three contests in four last weekend were children's. On the evidence of this paper's own register, that is no longer a weekend's quirk but the shape of the sport in this part of the world: more than half of all tournament contests since July, up from about a third at the start of 2024.

A sport whose mats belong mostly to children owes them a record kept as carefully as any adult's. That means every result published, not just the podium; every division named so a parent can find it; and every contest's method kept, so that a child who wins on points and a child who wins by walkover are not filed as the same thing. Most organisers already publish all of this. The record is there to be read.

It also means care in how the record is used. Matside's charter allows a junior athlete four things in print: a name, a division, an academy and a result. Nothing else — no age beyond the division, no school, no family, no photograph, no adjective. That rule exists because a child's competition record will outlast the competition, and the child should be the one who decides, later, what else the world gets to know.

This week some of these children compete in Abu Dhabi, against entrants from 84 countries. Matside will report how they finish — under the same four-item rule, win or lose.

How this was checked

Weekend figures come from each event's match list and results pages on Smoothcomp — every page of the Matches tab and the Results tab, for all eight events — saved on 9 November 2026 and read into Matside's register. A contest is counted as junior when its division's published name marks it as one (an age band, Boys or Girls, Juvenile); adult, masters and open divisions count as adult. Athletes are counted by Smoothcomp profile. Walkovers are counted as contests because Smoothcomp lists them; no-shows do not appear on the match list and are not counted. Melbourne Championships Event 20 (8 November) is not counted.

Half-year figures cover the 411 tournaments in Matside's register dated from January 2024. The register is weighted toward larger open events and leaves out in-house kids' round robins and non-grappling events, including mixed taekwondo programmes. Under § 3.3, no junior athlete is named in this issue's reporting; where a junior entry is printed it carries name, division, academy and result only.

Abu Dhabi: the AJP event page (ajptour.com, event 1530) and all 157 brackets published there, read shortly after midnight on 10 November; entries are counted by the flag shown; the AJP 2026 calendar; and the Abu Dhabi Media Office, 4 November 2026. Grappling Industries: Smoothcomp event pages 27077 and 27089, read 2, 7 and 10 November.

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