2B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - December 12, 2005 CLUBSPORTsWEEKLY Club turns street fighting to sport tlete iftn Wal Athlete of the Week 6 Name: Becky Bernard Hometown: Stow, Ohio Team: Women's Gymnastics Class: Freshman By Daniel Greenblatt For the Daily Ezekile. The victim's neck is pinned between your two forearms and pressure is applied to limit air flow. This is only one of the many moves in Brazil- ian jiujitsu, a martial arts form where most of the fighting is done on the ground. In a typical match, both fighters start out standing and then collide like rams, holding onto each other's shoulders until one takes down the other. Once both fighters are on the ground, the object is to inflict as much pain as possible until the other fighter taps out. The competitors get themselves into twists and tangles, rolling and tumbling in every which way. Points are awarded based on how well the fighters perform. If time runs out, the fighter with the most points wins. At Michigan, the Brazilian jiujitsu team is led by senior president Doug Broege and sophomore vice president Lynn Ciarelli and meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in the Intramural Sports Building. An additional women's class meets on Friday. The team just finished fighting in the Great Lakes Brazilian Jiujitsu Championships and joined forces with the Focus team, a local team, to take home third place overall. One highlight of the event was newcom- er Scott Liles's silver medal. "Iwas glad I finally won one. It was my first tourna- ment win," Liles said. Broege agreed that Liles has shown tremendous improvement this year. Ciarelli choked somebody unconscious with the Ezekile-move. Knockouts are a legal but rare occurrence in Brazilian jiujitsu. "(Ciarelli) is one of the best grapplers we have," Broege said. Competition has two main events: gi and no-gi. In gi, the fighters wear a baggy fighting outfit called a gi. It may seem to have little effect on the fighting situation, but the gi can be used in many moves. For example, a fighter will often use an opponent's gi for choking, or he will use his own gi to reinforce a grip. Besides being separated into gi and no-gi events, fight- ers are also matched based on weight class, unless they choose to compete in the absolute event, where any fighter is allowed to participate, regardless of weight class. The background of the team is very diverse. The field consists of wrestlers, judo and akido black belts, as well as people with no fighting experience at all. Some people join to create a solid foundation of self- defense, while others participate to fine-tune fighting skills. "There are some people that can kick anybody's ass in here." Ciarelli said. The previous fighting skills that people come in with usually work to their advantage. Broege feels this way about the sophomore competition team captain, Todd Boynton. "(Boynton) wins most of his matches because he is such a good wrestler," Broege said. On the contrary, some fighters get into trouble because of bad fighting habits. Because wrestlers do not like to be on their backs, they will often try to roll over, which will cost them the match. Brazilian jiujitsu effectively mimics real fighting. Most other martial art forms focus on kicking and punching, while Brazilian jiujitsu has more to do with grabbing and floor fighting. In a typical street fight, this is more like what will happen. Besides being real- istic, Brazilian jiujitsu also offers the benefit of full- force training. "You can only throw a punch so hard when boxing with a friend," Broege said. Training at full force allows fighters to improve, since they do not have to hold anything back. In fact, almost all of the professional fighters on television are expertly trained in Brazilian jiujitsu. "When I watch (television) I say, 'Oh, I know how to do that!" Lynn said. Many of the fighters will use moves that are com- monly performed in class, such as the arm bar, in which the elbow of the opponent is locked between the fighter's legs and is then hyperextended with the force of the fighter's arms Broege and Ciarelli both agree that Brazilian jiujitsu is the superior martial art form. When asked how the team compared to last year, Ciarelli had a less than formal response. "Awesome," she said. Broege is also satisfied with the progress the team has made this year. "We are in the process of rebuilding a competition team," Broege said. There are several key players this year. Sophomore Anna de Caneva is one of the many excellent fighters on the team. "She may look small, but she's a tough little cook- ie," Ciarelli said. De Caneva is especially skilled in takedowns, which is beneficial because a takedown gives an edge right from the beginning of the fight. Another valuable member of the team is Mondeng, who, at a measly 125 pounds, defeated a gargantuan 250-pound competi- tor. The Michigan Brazilian jiujitsu team has shown perseverance and dedication and will continue to strive to be the best. Why: Bernard, just a freshman, led the Blue team to victory in the intrasquad scrimmage this weekend. She won the beam (9.825) and placed third on the bars (9.825). 'M' SCHEDULE Date Event 12/13 W Basketball vs. Florida 12/17 12/17 12/17 M Basketball vs. UCLA W Basketball vs. Nebraska M Gymnastics at Maize and Blue Intrasquad Location Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Ann Arbor 12/22 M Basketball vs. Miami (Ohio) 12/23 W Basketball at St. Bonaventure St. Bonaventure, N.Y. 12/28 M Basketball vs. Coppin State A 12/29 Ice Hockey vs. Colorado College I at Great Lakes Invitational 12/29 W Basketball at Illinois Ch 12/30 Ice Hockey at GLII vs. Michigan State or Michigan Tech 12/31 M Basketball vs. Chicago State A 1/1 W Basketball at Michigan State Eas ,nn Arbor Detroit hampaign Detroit ,nn Arbor st Lansing pstead, N.Y. )omington ew York Time 7 p.m. 12 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 7 p.m. 2 p.m. 6 p.m. 8 p.m. 9 a.m. TBA 2 p.m. 2 p.m. 6 p.m. 6 p.m. 6 p.m. 9 1/2 1/3 1/3 Wrestling at Hofstra M Basketball at Indiana Wrestling vs. Cornell Hemp Blo N 0 COLLEGE FOOTBALL Rocket science not needed for BCS alternativee By Ian Herbert Daily Sports Editor For seemingly the first time since its inception prior to the 1998 season, the BCS has avoided controversy this bowl season. South- ern Cal and Texas, the top two teams since the start of the year, are the only two undefeated programs remaining in Division I college football. So when the two meet in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4, it'll be the matchup most of the country has been waiting to see. But if it were up to the University's Juyong Park and Mark New- man, Southern Cal wouldn't be playing in the Rose Bowl. Park and Newman, two University physicists, have developed a new system to rank college football teams, and according to their method, Penn State (10-1) deserves a spot in the national championship game. The new method is more basic and principled than current com- puter rankings, said Newman, an associate professor of physics who is not a football fan. "It would be possible to add extra bells and whistles," he said. "But right now, it's very simple." The system is based off the idea that, if team A beats team B and team B beats team C, then A beats C. A team gets points for direct wins and also receives a fraction of a point for indirect wins - when a team they beat defeats someone else. And it doesn't stop there. "You can do the math all the way out to infinity," Newman said. "That's the trick." Each team also gets negative points for losses - both direct and indirect. The current BCS system combines six computer systems and two human polls to come up with the final rankings. Each of the computers uses a different method to come up with the best team - and some of the methods are extremely complicated. Newman and Park pride them- selves on the fact that their system is very simple and transparent. "The only thing we care about is the strength of schedule," said Park, a doctoral student. As an example, he explained that, even though it was a big risk for Texas and Ohio State to play each other in the second game of the season, it actually helped both teams. Texas got a big boost in the rankings for beating a quality opponent with a lot of wins, and Ohio State didn't lose much because Texas went undefeated. Teams that suffer are ones that don't play any tough opponents, Park said. If nothing else, their system might force good teams to play a tougher schedule, he added. "There's a difference between how good teams are perceived to be and how good they actually show themselves to be;' Newman said. Neither Park nor Newman has had any contact with the BCS about possibly incorporating their rankings into the current system in the future. No one from the BCS committee would comment, but Mike Reilley, who handles media relations for the BCS, said the BCS does look at new systems. "Keep in mind that the BCS formula is pretty much set, but it does get tweaking from year to year," he said. Newman and Park started working on their system around this time last year, when there was controversy surrounding which two undefeated teams should play in the national championship game. Southern Cal defeated Oklahoma 55-19 in the title game, while Auburn, also undefeated, beat Virginia Tech 16-13 in the Sugar Bowl. Many complained that Auburn didn't have a chance to com- pete for a national title, but the system created by Newman and Park wouldn't have changed anything. It had Oklahoma ranked No. 1 and Southern Cal coming in at No. 2. Auburn was No. 3. Still, Park, a huge football fan, saw the controversy and won- dered if he could come up with a better system. He has done a lot of work with social networks and said he looks at college football as just another network. His system uses linear algebra to determine which team has the most influence over other teams in football and is therefore the best in the country. Park claims that, unlike many other computer ranking systems, his method is based entirely in mathematics. It also only takes the current season into account. "Just because they've been doing very well for five years doesn't mean they're the best team this season," Park said. That might help account for Southern Cal's drop in the rankings. The Trojans, defending national champions two years in a row, have been the consensus No. 1 team in the country since preseason. But playing in the weak Pac-10 has hurt them in the system developed I 0 0 0 To: Women's soccer team Gift: An extra goal per game Why: It would have resulted in four more wins and five more ties, giving them a final record of 12-4-5 and an NCAA Tournament bid. The team finished 8-9-4, keeping it out of the tournament. To: Men's soccer team Gift: A win against Indiana Why: They haven't beaten the Hoosiers - ever. 0-8. To: Women's tennis team Gift: An apology Why: We gave it a D+ on our report card two weeks ago. Not cool. To: Men's swimming team Gift: A trophy case Why: To hold all its gold medals. To: Ice hockey freshman Jack Johnson Gift: La-Z-Boy chair Why: For something comfortable to sit on during all that time he spends in the penalty box. 0 .t .I t l t . . ., . . ... , .