Just did my first tournament today. The adrenaline thing is real. Halfway through my first match I was just overwhelmed with fatigue and nerves and anxiety mid roll. One match felt like a whole night training in the gym and then some. Still did alright but really gonna try to be calmer next one.
Yep just had my first one as well and holy smokes the adrenaline dump was unlike anything ive felt before. My body was not working right and the match I won I gassed out in like 2 minutes and rode the decision out. Totally different from rolling in the gym and than in competition!
Probably the best video on this subject that I've seen. Weirdly enough nobody really addresses these issues on RU-vid and you talked about most of the points that I wanted to know about.
As someone who's looking to compete at least a few times at every belt level just to test my skills, this was a super helpful video. Thanks for posting!
I’ve been learning bjj for 1,5 months and I entered a comoetition. I followed your advice and it helped really much. All though I fainted in the first round and got beaten 15-4 in the second I enjoyed it very much and I’m gonna train hard af from now on❤❤❤
Just had a match on F2W where I got knee barred in less than 90 seconds (could have been even quicker I'm not sure). It was my first match at purple belt and I'm not the most active competitor, not making excuses just saying that to illustrate how low on the food chain I am. It fucking sucked to lose that way, and I had a 2 hour drive home to dwell on all the mistakes I made that lead to getting caught so easily. Me knee is going to take a few weeks to be back to near 100%, but I'm hoping to be able to use this self pity and turn it into motivation to improve for my next chance at competing.
That's what sucks the most: when you think about the time you've spent going over there and waiting for your turn just to lose the fucking thing lol It's similar to a night out, when you wake up hung over in the morning thinking "shit, not only I've lost my time last night, now I'm gonna lose this day just recovering and soberig up"
i got my first tournament coming up at grappling industries on march 23rd. this is incredibly helpful advice! i got one of the best coaches you can ask for.
Nice review. Competing is one of the best things about BJJ. Think about it. How many sports can older athletes can compete against others their age & skill level and have it mean something. Go out there and enjoy it.
I did my first BJJ tournament a few months ago and Holy Hell everything he said about unimaginable fatigue and hand/grip strength being shot was true. I came in in pretty good shape. I was running, lifting, going hard rounds but nothing compared to how tired I was after just one match - and it was a match I dominated and ended with a sub at 3 minutes.
Great stuff thanks Andrew. Loving the new content. Planning to sign up for my first tournament this summer so have a few months to prepare. Interesting you don't stretch at all, even some dynamic stretches? My ROM is severely restricted if I don't do a light stretch before rolls.
Great advice 👍I had the similar experience my first tournament losses. 15 years later I’ve won a few 🥇but definitely learned more from losing which is priceless 💪🏻
Wow thank you man, this video was very valuable to me. Im a purple belt about to do my 3rd tournament this weekend & my first fight is against a seasoned black belt. Im doing nationals in canada so my division is purple/brown/black. Regardless of the result, Im excited to test myself & see what I can learn from it. I'm pumped to start adding weight lifting & cardio to my training. I do a lot of yoga & body weight exercises but I've never thought about trying to adapt & raising my heart rate the way you explained it. Also the part about shrimping in bed killed me haha, I do that so often that it's no longer strange to me 🤣 I've woken up to me putting my big ass pillow into a triangle. Also I can picture & try moves in my mind, Its like Im creating a shape of the person & I can still feel the physics of it as if Im actually doing it. Sometimes I roll with my eyes closed & I can still see clearly. It's really cool hearing you talk about it. Great video!
@@JonathanLGN I got silver in my division and bronze in absolute. Definitely have a lot to learn/work on but it was fun! And thankfully I did not get injured.
Hey Andrew, good video. I'm a little surprised you didn't go into carb cutting for the weight cut and the difference between a same-day weigh in vs. a 1 day prior weigh in. There is a science behind a decent weight cut and most people dont' realize how easily you can cut 10 lb. if you diet properly 1 week before the match. Through trial and error, I've realized that it's not worth it for me to cut weight. The loss of energy outweighs the benefit of dropping a weight class, for me as a lanky cardio-intensive white belt competitor at 200 lb.
The mental reps r real , around 3 years ago at a wrestling camp in iowa BO NIKAL was telling all of us that we should be doing mental reps and they are hella good for your technqiue
I had this same experience at my first blue belt tournament (9th tournament overall) I was up 6-0 in mount , the ref moved us and said go I wasn’t heavy with my hips so he escaped and threw up an arm bar I couldn’t feel anything so I tried escaping for 20 seconds and boom my elbow popped 6 times it felt like 3 double pops , I couldn’t move my fingers the next day without my elbow screaming in pain , it took a month before I could train again
Weight cutting is super important. A lot of people will disagree with the practice, but your baseline cardio at one weight makes you a cardio machine even a few kg lighter, especially for lighter weight categories and you will feel gorilla strong. Removal of salt 48 hours before and not drinking anything the day before. I've lost a good 5kg overnight just by stopping water a day ahead, and re-hydrated with gatorade, sea salt and honey after weigh-ins. You need electrolytes, salt and sugar as much as water. Eat some sugary carbs between matches. I like brownies with maple syrup and banana mushed up. A few bites between every match. I've made the mistake of cutting and then not properly re-feeding after weigh-ins and nearly puked between every match. Don't be dumb like me.
Read the tournament rules. At the least the summary of them. Or ask someone that knows them to explain them quickly. Some might seem obvious but make sure before you stand there having no idea how you lost when things seemed to be going well.
Lol I did this - talked to my opponent and it made me less nervous. Right when the match started I did give a big “KIAI!!” To expel all the anxiety out. STILL lost though LOL
I thought because I was bullying fellow whitebelts I would do well in competition. I was so wrong and learned so much. I wouldn’t have known I was lacking so much in certain areas if I didn’t do that comp. Here I am 6 months later 2 weeks out of my next comp feeling much more confident with my cardio and guard.
One great fact I noticed when glancing at the high elite grapplers. Their records look like, kind of 100 w, 50 L, or 55 W, 38 L, etc, etc. So I assume those guys just built their journey or career as such. More, among their losses, I noticed the number of times they lose by submissions, which is a lot more than they confess verbally.
I believe any competitor experiment at least one time a quick "humiliating" loss. Personally at a white belt final match I get helicopter armbared in maybe 10 seconds 🤣. But excepts friends no one remember that
I disagree on cutting weight. For 99% of people competing at BJJ cutting weight does more harm than good because of the stress. Almost nobody is going to have an improved performance at a lower weight. On the level where almost everybody operates (not that high) it just does not make a difference if your opponent is the same weight or 10 pounds heavier.
Gordon Ryan will probably end up with a better competition record than Wiltse. But Ryan can't hope to be half the coach Wiltse will inevitably be. This is a Cus D'Amato in the making. And who's to say Andrew won't end up taking gold from the major tournaments?
This video is great but it’s made me really nervous!! I think the best thing here is “nobody gives a fuck”- which I take to mean go out, have fun and don’t make it more than it is… 🤢
