2nd competition results
This past Saturday, a local competition was held at Red Deer, Alberta called Submission Series [edit: It’s SUBMISSION ACE CUP, not SUBMISSION SERIES…derp, lol]. The tournament was put together quite well and I was impressed at how smooths things went with all the help given by volunteers.
This was my second competition and my first of the year. My new years resolution was to attend as much competitions as I can to really level up in experience before I far with my training and belt level.
I’m not going to lie, my training was sluggish coming off from a Christmas season full of eating and lazing about. Still over the break I trained and gotten a few rolls in. I was confident that since my first competition, my movement on the ground has gotten much better. I was getting more confident in my re-guarding, building a stable of techniques that have been working during sparring, and defending.
But saturday shows that the littlest things amount to the biggest differences. I neglected my strength and conditioning and it really affected my game after my first two matches went the distance.
I had 5 matches in total, 4 in a round robin No-Gi division and 1 in Gi single elimination division. I drew my first and was very tired. In my second I played strong but panicked when I became exhausted and gave into a rear naked choke. My third match ended quickly to a heel hook. But my fourth turned out to be the match I would be most proud off, I fought off exhaustion and caught a single leg, which I transitioned into a anaconda choke and fought to get my first submission!
However, even after hours of rest. My first Gi match was lost to me just simply giving up. I was taken down and instead of fighting to my feet again, I sluggishly moved around in guard and was mounted. In mount I gave in once to a weak choke because I panicked and gassed out. Frustrated, I stormed off and drove home.
When I got a chance to cool off I decided to write down how things played out according to my mind and found how negative my perspective was. There were a lot of positive things that attributed to my growth not only as a BJJ player, but as a person:
-I got my first submission! I learned that I have it in me to assert my game and finish strong.
-Even black belts feel nervous right before a match. I was highly observant in how my body acted and I pulled myself into the moment by constantly returning to the simplicity of my breaths.
-Despite gassing out, I did do a good job warming up. I did some exercises from Andre Galvao’s “drill to win”, did some stretches, and even did some light rolling. It does make a difference in keeping the body warm, and easing the nerves.
And now I’ll definitely need to work on the following goals:
-CARDIO! Both in the aerobic and anaerobic. I need to take less breaks during my roll time. Running the treadmill on highest incline is a great way to expand my bursts of energy.
-Be more confident and attacking submissions. Of course position and control are important but I need to recognize opportunities to snatch up chokes and armbars.
-Work with heavier and more aggressive guys.
Not sure when my next competition is, I’ll need to map out the next couple of months carefully.
