BJJ Competitions : put yourself in position to succeed
BJJ Competitions : put yourself in position to succeed
I am have been going to BJJ Competitions since 1995. My first one, the NYC Grappling Challenge, got me hooked on competition. I went on to compete in many tournaments over the next 10 year and have been viewing and coaching my students and friends students at many others. There seems to be a common mistake that many make that I wanted to get into in today’s blog….you must put yourself in position to succeed.
What does that mean?
First and for foremost, if you are going to compete and want to be successful, you have to go to class and train for the competition! This should go without saying but you’d be surprised at how many people will train 2-3 in the month preceding their competition and expect to win. Furthermore, they get upset when they lose. It is hard for your training partners to get behind you if you aren’t showing respect for the competition, your team and yourself. In addition, you are spitting on the success of your Academy’s competition team if it is a successful one. We use a saying at my Academy “Don’t be upset of the results you didn’t get from work you didn’t put in.”
Practice makes perfect
We ask all of our competitors to decided they are competing 4-5 weeks before the competition. This ensures that they have enough time to put in the proper training. Whatever you are going to do in competition, you must first do it training. It must be drilled over and over in different scenarios. You will compete like you practice. Therefore, if you train lazy, you will compete lazy. If you want to perform technically and tactically well in competitions, you better get that technique and those tactics down in training first. The same holds true for every other aspect of your training camp, even the mental preparation. I have never seen a person enter a tournament last minute and win. Be prepared
Other tips:
As we get closer to the tournament, one of your biggest goals is to be as prepared as you can be to perform your best. Put everything in place to get prepared. These will include:
- Good night’s sleep
- Nutritious pre-competitive meal
- Knowing all the rules
- Review technique, tactics, and game plan
- Warming up properly and breaking a sweat
- Having nutritious foods in case tournament run late
