Bushido, or “the way of the warrior”, is the Samurai code that emphasized courage, honor, and self-discipline. Tanino Kauan, more commonly known around the gym as “Samurai” exhibits all of these attributes daily. If you see him around the gym, humble and focused, you might not know that his jiu-jitsu makes so much noise! It’s loud enough to take home four gold medals from American Nationals last week. After 6 matches he conquered his division and absolute brackets in both gi and no-gi. Here’s a recap of the 17 year old juvenile blue belt’s vibrant performances.
American Nationals Gi
On the first day of his tournament Tanino competed in the gi. He had one fight in his division and three matches in the absolute. He racked up a 24-0 lead before submitting his first opponent with an armbar. This match won him gold in his division. He moved on to the absolute division, where his first opponent was disqualified by no-show. He trekked his way back to the top of the podium with a 5-2 and 8-0 leads over his next two opponents.
Tanino favors playing from the top with an extremely agile style of passing, full of misdirection, jumping over legs, and balanced out with appropriately timed pressure. His dynamic top game creates chaos for his opponents and leaves little room for them to establish their game. But, he didn’t only play on top last weekend. We got to see him as a composed guard player, looking for opportunities to take the back and come up with single legs.
American National No-Gi
Back-to-back days of competing is not only physically demanding, but mentally as well. You have to be able to stay in the competitive mindset and not be distracted by the events of the previous day.
On the second day Tanino was solo in his weight division taking a default gold. He moved onto open class where he met his open class finals opponent from the previous day in round one. The score was tied, 2-2 with 3 advantages for Tanino and less than a minute left, when his opponent attacked an ankle lock, but was disqualified for reaping. In the finals, Tanino left no room for discrepancy earning a 7-0 lead, and become the American Nationals No-Gi Champion with a kimura submission.
He might be Juvenile 2, but he competes like a black belt with consistency and composure. Check out the highlight of his performance on Instagram.