Is this the LAST Easton Open? Rumor has it… it just might be. But only because something bigger and better is going to take its place
Twice a year, the Easton Open brings the entire Easton Training Center community — and increasingly, schools from all across the Denver metro area — together for a two-day celebration of growth, excellence, and community in martial arts.
What started as a modest, in-house tournament in the early 2000s has now grown into one of the largest and most anticipated events of the year, with over 900 registrations at our most recent Open this past April 5th and 6th, making it our biggest event yet.
The Easton Open offers a unique experience for everyone, no matter what side of the mat you’re on. Day one featured a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament, where twelve mats ran all day hosting over 500 athletes this spring — from first-time white belts to seasoned competitors.
Day two shifted gears into a Muay Thai scrimmage, this time with over 100 athletes competing across three mats, one of which is dedicated to our incredible youth divisions.
Each Open is the result of months of preparation, with planning beginning six months out, starting just after the previous one wraps. It’s a true team effort: over 100 volunteers, including referees, table workers, and coaches, come together to create an event that runs smoothly and delivers an unforgettable experience for competitors and spectators alike.
[Easton Open’s Assistant Program Director, Alisha Bielak: The Art of Organization and Planning]
Whether it’s coaches helping students navigate their first match or volunteers working behind the scenes, the Open is a reflection of our community at its finest.
And it keeps growing.
This year, we saw more athletes than ever: Longmont sent over 40 competitors, Boulder brought over 60 adults alone, and Denver registered nearly 100 athletes, both kids and adults. And that’s just three out of eight of our academies!
What’s even more exciting is that since we opened up the event to outside schools in 2024, more people continue to show up ready to compete, bringing even more energy and talent into the mix.
As Easton continues to grow, so does the vision for the Open. Ultimately, we want to create a tournament that welcomes athletes from all over — a destination event that people will travel to, year after year.
While the doors are expanding, the heart of the Open remains the same: chasing excellence. It’s about giving every student, from the kids stepping onto the mats for the first time to the seasoned adults pushing themselves to new limits, the chance to become their best selves.
[Easton Open Spring 2024: Competition That Elevates Community]
This year, we saw nearly 300 kids Easton-wide step out to compete on just the first day alone.
How did coaches rally this many kids? We asked Jordan Shipman, Easton Training Center’s Director of Kids Martial Arts.
“We frame the competition as an opportunity to get better,” says Jordan. “It’s not about winning, or being superior to your teammate; it’s about being superior to your former self. So getting the kids to be a part of this is really teaching them to understand that it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about fighting the man in the mirror and getting better.”
All competitions, Jordan tells us, are a made-up scenario to give us an opportunity to challenge ourselves and grow. With this in mind, the objective becomes easy.
[Faces of Easton: In Competition, Easton Open Edition]
The Easton Open: how athletes prep
Once a student decides to compete, what sort of prep follows? Does their training remain the same, or do coaches add extra expectations surrounding training for the event?
Prepping for competition looks different at every level. It always depends on the student’s experience and goals, explains Professor Phil Lietz, General Manager of Easton Longmont.
For first-time competitors, especially white belts, the focus is purely on managing nerves and embracing the experience.
“There are absolutely no expectations whatsoever,” says Phil of first-time competitors. “You’re going to feel nervous, you’re going to be anxious, you’re going to be uncomfortable – that’s totally normal. Just accept that, roll with it and don’t fight it. Just do your best, do your best to have fun and enjoy the process. Don’t put too many expectations on the outcome.”
For more experienced students, preparation becomes more tailored. Hobbyists who are testing themselves are encouraged to learn the rules, understand the point system, and approach their training with that structure in mind, with individualized guidance offered during class.
[Why Competitors and Hobbyists Must Coexist]
For serious competitors aiming for bigger stages, the Easton Open becomes a critical skill-building opportunity.
“Competition is a skill in and of itself,” Phil says, “In order to be able to perform on the competition mats as you do in the gym, you have to readily build that skill.”
For these athletes, the Easton Open becomes a way of building that skill and getting repetitions in for larger tournaments, both local and regional and international.
Across all levels, much of the preparation happens not just during mat time, but also in the conversations afterward, when students reflect, process their emotions, and continue building their competitive mindset.
For seasoned athletes, it’s also about refining the mental game — pushing past the voice of doubt that inevitably creeps in. Some coaches, like Professor Carlos Espinosa, Denver’s GM, tie in personal stories to help encourage his students to compete.
“For me,” says Carlos of his personal experience, “You go into it, and you’re scared, you’re anxious, you’re nervous…everybody has that voice in their head that tells them all sorts of things that typically don’t help when you’re about to step out on the mat. But through competing, I’ve learned that voice means absolutely nothing.”
In Carlos’s experience, sometimes you go out there in a really good mindset and you get crushed, or sometimes you go out there in a really bad mindset and you crush everyone. For this reason, he emphasizes that it doesn’t matter so much about what may be running through your head the day-of if you’ve put in the time, work and effort to show up.
“Just go out and do it,” he says. “Do your thing and give yourself an opportunity to surprise yourself, to realize that that voice in your head means absolutely nothing.”
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For athletes stepping into their first serious Muay Thai competition, Raz Gormley, the Department Head of Muay Thai at Easton Boulder, keeps the message simple and grounded: have fun.
“Right before they step on the mat,” Raz says, “I tell them this is about having fun. This is about having fun, getting experience, and getting information – learning a lot about yourself, learning a lot about Muay Thai and what it’s like to compete in front of a bunch of people watching.”
For many of these students, it’s their first time ever competing — not just in Muay Thai, but in any sport where they’re truly alone on the stage, with no helmet, no team to blend into and nowhere to hide.
Raz reminds them they’ve put in years of training and have just gone through a grueling six-week fight camp that’s prepared them for this. Now is their time to just go out there and show everybody all the hard work that they’ve put in – just do what they know how to do .
At the end of the day, the Easton Open is about more than winning or losing; it’s about showing up. It’s about seeing your teammates, your coaches, your friends all working together toward a common goal.
Across the board, this continues to stay consistent: if coaches remind their students of one thing before they step onto the mat, it’s to have fun and trust the hard work you’ve put in.
The drive towards excellence
At Easton, the drive toward excellence is at the heart of everything they do, and competition plays a major role in that pursuit.
“One of our big missions in Colorado is to conquer Colorado,” says Mike Tousignant, Easton’s President and CEO. “That doesn’t mean we’re trying to be conquerors. The goal is to make sure we become the Best-In-Class in everything we do – the best Jiu Jitsu, best Muay Thai, best systems, employment, people, service… It goes on and on.”
Since this mission got put into place a couple of years ago, Easton leaned even harder into competition as a way to battle-test their martial arts and reinforce their core value of excellence.
Even if only 30 or 20 percent of people compete, Mike explains, with them going hard and in the pressure grinder of getting better and better on the mats preparing for a competition, they bring all that intense work back to the entire population.
That the energy, intensity and skills ripple through the entire academy and raise the level of training for everyone. This effect has been especially visible with the kids’ programs, where Easton saw double the number of youth competitors register for the Easton Open this year.
The event has also expanded its reach by inviting close allies like Jubera Jiu Jitsu, McMahon, Catalyst and Prime, fostering a stronger, more connected martial arts community across Colorado.
Every year, the event gets bigger, better and a lot more inspiring. As we look toward the future, we’re excited to continue growing the Easton Open, welcoming more schools, and building a tournament that sets the standard for student and competitor experience alike.
And if you’re wondering: no, this isn’t the last Easton Open. It’s just the beginning.
