It drives insane. It seems like no matter what I do or how hard I try, I still keep losing tournaments. I added a physical fitness regime to my training, I switched Jiujitsu schools, I train in competition class 2-3 times a week not including how the other 1-3 days of standard BJJ training. Yet I've still only beaten one guy in my entire BJJ tournament career.( and I happen to train with him) Idk what else I'm doing wrong. Yesterday in my tournament, after making weight, I recharged by eating every 30 mins on small carb and electrolight foods. Gatorade, raisins, a slice of wheat bread, whey protein powder, and a banana. All in all I was done eating by 11:30 and fought at 1. fight begins and opponent immediately pulls guard. I'm struggling to posture up for a second and he spins his hips and locks in a triangle choke. I begin my escape, but to no evaile, and I tap. next fight is nogi. How fight goes exactly is I go for my single, and land it. he recovers guard and nearly triangles me again, but i escape. I think attempt to stand up in guard, but I stand out too far, and sweeps me for a foot lock and lands it. Final match is for third and its me vs some 18 year old wrestler who beat me on points due to two successful takedowns and one pass. With the exception of the final match I lost all my matches pretty quick. This really does sadden me. I can't seem to figure out at all why I can't manage to get a win off. Maybe its my mentality, I often feel nervous during my first fight, but afterwards am much more relaxed during the second and beyond. Still not enough for the W though Kind of in a rut right now as to how to improve this. I know this isn't much to go on, but any thoughts?
First of all recognise that by competing and finding your flaws you have the opportunity to get better. Next up analyse what those flaws were and focus on stopping those in regular training. You were in the triangle position twice, maybe look at your hand positioning and posture during rolling and also whilst grip fighting and during takedowns. Also get some time in drilling standing passing, footlock defence, and kneeling opening/passing focusing on posture/hand positioning.
Don't compete in tournament until you think that you have a great chance to win. Try to make your body to be in top condition. You need to have a "plan".
Just keep at it. You're learning all the time and you can use the times you came second to train out any bad habits and openings You time will come
Wrong IMO. Terrible advice. Seriously, how do you think that quitting until you mystically get better and then join in works? You get better by participating, not quitting until some mystical time where you are sure you have a chance to win. And saying have a plan is so vague as to be useless. Keep competing and don't let discouragement make you quit. That is the worst thing to do. Putting yourself under pressure and testing yourself is going to make you better. Just because you aren't seeing it yet doesn't mean it isn't happening or going to happen soon. I firmly believe that preparing for and putting yourself in the pressure of a tournament makes you a better martial artist. It can be frustrating when you train hard and don't do well- I have been there. But don't give up! Sorry, I don't do BJJ so I can't give specific advice, but.............. Can you get yourself taped at a tournament? To show to your coach/ instructor? To show here? Have you talked to your coach/ instructor about this?
Op the only thing I can contribute is did you eat and drink enough to refuel after making weight? How far did you cut? I remember fighters at my old place eating ALOT after making weight, trying to replenish the glycogen stores in the muscles.
Sounds like you're trying too hard man, it all comes with time spent. Perhaps you just need more time training?
Assuming you're a white belt, drop the weight cutting and PT regime. Its extra stress you don't need. If you're not a white belt then ignore those two sentences I can completely sympathize with you mate. I lost, I think 7, comps in a row at white belt. Its was two years of constant first round losses and to guys that I knew I could have beaten. Made worse by the fact that in the gym I was seen as one of the better echelon (considering all our members bar a couple were white belts) so I felt like a massive disappointment to everyone. For me at least, what completely changed my results was adoptin an "eff it" attitude to competing. I stopped trying to psyche myself up for matches, I stopped drilling relentlessly and making gameplans, and I stopped openly caring whether I won or lost. I still trained harder when comps came up and I still worked on things I knew were weaknesses, but I enjoyed those as tougher sessions with my team mates or just closing holes I was getting caught with in normal rolling rather than seeing them as prep to go to a comp. When it came to the actual competition and I got on the mat I stopped trying to get excited, or angry towards the other guy, or anything else. I just started becoming incredibly arrogant and thinking I was going to walk through the dude, smash him up, and move on to the next one. That change in attitude took me from first round losses to no-tag white belts to getting 2 silver medals. The only first round loss I've had in normal divisions since then was to a guy who beat me for gold in another one. Personally I think that mindset switch was the best thing I ever did in my training life. It might work better for me since I tend to act very apathetic and egotistical to most things anyway so it suited me, but I think it does make a big difference. By the last couple comps where I was losing I was getting torn up by losses and considering quitting bjj altogether and it was because I kept letting each loss pile up and pile up until the next time I competed all I could think about was how I had to win this one. So that's my advice for what its worth. I'll also share these since I'm quite sure they're what sparked the change in my mentality. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yczxvGVx4Yk"]Chael Sonnen talks about confidence. - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkSO9epuJoM"]TUF 17 "Reflection of Perfection" speech by Chael Sonnen! [1080 HD] - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMd9QiHGeJ4"]Chael Sonnen: Motivational Speaker? - YouTube[/ame]
I think the eff(icacious) it approach is a good one. Another idea is maybe joining more small, low key, inter club tournaments where the pressure isn't on...
This. And because of it you are losing your confidence. Take a short break, then try and come back to it with a different mindset.
Dont compete to win. Do as a learning experince. If you have no expectations to win you may find the pressure is off, and suprise yourself.
strongly disagree with this. keep competing. keep training. forget your ego and try to learn from the challenges set forth. sounds like you've already determined some things you need to work on: triangle defense, triangle escapes, standup.
oookay! outcome goals vs process goals. ill talk about in context of my competition exp. (tkd) outcome goals are our lofty goals (e.g. make national team, win by knock out, retain state title, beat person x who beat me) any time you focus on outcome goals, including "win" means you loose sight of the process. every international comp I have lost has been because of thinking about how important winning is. winning under the pressure of comp all comes from a present focus, where you are only focusing on the task at hand...cultivate a competitive mindset but not focused on the outcome. for example I have 5 current trigger words and actions I have ingrained and my coach knows to use when my focus slips in a comp. particularly mid match FOOTWORK constant movement with good stance is ffundamental to my performance GUARD strong arms and blocking stop points getting scored on when I slip up or cant get out of the way RANGE long leggy ranged kicks rather than charging in with my body in danger are key at the moment CLEAN score hard fast shots, if its too slow, not effective then this trigger helps me previously when working on other elements of my game I have used: intensity, shot placement and focus... when I go into a match I have these key process goals inmmind only, I walk on the mat and have these goals in mind. if I loose and achieve them then I won. most of the time if everything I'm working on is achieved and I am in good physical condition then I come out on top anyway. basically focus on your own goals, focus on your own personal performance and listen to your coach. Comps at beginner level (year 1-3) are just about consolidation of skills and knowledge and an introduction to the competition environment and pressure. I have some info on sport psychology ill post up if I can find as well. sorry about spelling, rushed phone post on a lunch break. hope thats helpful
The OP is talking about "losing tournament" here. There is a big difference between "losing in tournament" vs. "losing in training". Before you take your SAT (or GRE) exam, you should collect at least 100 old SAT (or GRE) old exams. After your initial 10 exams, according your score, you will know what your weakness is. You then start to fix your weakness. In your next 10 exams, you should have better score. Again according to your score, you try to fix your weakness. After you have gone through all 100 exams by repeating the process 10 times, you then take your "real SAT (or real GRE)", you should have the best score that you have prepared so hard on it. If the SAT (or GRE) score can determine whether or not you will be accepted by the university or the graduate school, you should never test the "real test" until you have taken "100 non-real tests". To me, that's preparation. All foreign students who comes to US to study will need to take TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam. You will need a score A to be accepted by most university in US. The TOEFL is offered for every 3 months. Before you take that exam, you will go to TOEFL school. They will force you to take over 100 old TOEFL exams in those 3 months. The day when you take the real TOEFL exam, you can answer those question so fast that you will never image that you truly can. Because the same pattern will guarantee to be repeated in every single TOEFL exam such as: - If I had had ... I would have had ... (assume something in the past), - telephone book (a noun followed by another none) vs. book of telephone, - boulevard (for some unknown reason, this vocabulary seems to appear in every single TOEFL test). - ... In MA, you should test your skill many many times against different opponents before you go to compete tournament. You just don't go to tournament without fully test your skill before then. If your winning ratio is below 50%, you may have to wait until your winning ratio can reach to 80%. That's not "quitting in training" but "quitting in tournament" until you have more faith in your skill. When I said "plan", I'm talking about "general plan" and not "plan for BJJ" here. The following is a good plan. 1. Attack with your best technique (may be 1 , may be more than 1) 3 times, if fail, 2. Use your best technique to set up your next best technique and attack 3 times, if still fail, 3. Play defense and wait for your opponent to make mistake. Your "plan" is to follow that 1, 2, 3 order. If you start to play defense in the beginning, you are too conservative and you are not following your "plan".
Totally disagree. The tourney experience itself is a lesson. It forces one to focus and practice more dilligently. In my first tourney I was a white belt with no significant competition experience. I performed well and took gold in both categories I competed in. Especially in fighting type tourneys (as opposed to kata and solo stuff), there's not a lot of planning you can do unless you'll be competing solely against people in your own club (VERY unlikely). Best you can do, AFAIK, is to practice in class and during open mat. Finding a partner(s) you don't reguarly compete with is excellent if it's possible.
This is a very good point and will affect the advice you hear. You mention making weight and food quite a lot, are you cutting a lot? If so dieting properly in the months (not weeks) before will help, as will fighting up a weight if your cutting more then one division and your at the low belt levels. You also seem to be in the comp class more often then tge regular class, depending on your technical level this could cause problems.
You can test yourself and have lesson without going to tournament. Today, you can go to any local MMA gym and test your skill against all different styles. You can learn a lot from those non-tournament testing. The problem is if you "keep losing in tournament", you may lost your desire to continue your MA training. I have seen so many people who gave up MA training just because they "kept losing in tournament". In college, if you failed in one class and got a "F", you may take it again, if you still fail and got another "F", you may take once more. If you fail the 3rd time and got another "F". You will be kicked out of the school. Even after you have failed twice (got 2 "F") and passed on your third try (got "A"), your 2 "F" and 1 "A" may still influence the chance for you to be accepted by the graduate school. In the Chinese wrestling system, the tournament experience and record is a must. You can't get your 2nd degree black belt if you can't have 1st or 2nd place in your tournament record. If you think you are a hammer and everybody look like nails to you, that's the time to build up your "tournament record". If you still think that you are a nail and everybody all look like hammers to you, you are not ready to start to build up your "tournament record" yet. Since you can never change the official "tournament record", you should treat it seriously.
