1 month away from my first BJJ competition.

[Steveston]

This will be my very first time entering a BJJ tournament (submission only) and I was wondering what advice you guys could give me in preparation and day of.

 

[Innerspeaker]

Good luck, have fun and make mistakes!

 

[LogicalError]

Don't take it too serious. Remember that you grapple for fun

 

[FierceRedBelt]

 

[Thrawn33]

Don't take it too serious. Remember that you grapple for fun

This.

Have fun with it. Learn some things. Have fun.

You will be amazed at how much better you do when you realize that you're the only one who gives a fuck about how you do. This isn't meant to belittle you at all, I've found in over a decade of wrestling and judo, your worst enemy in comp is yourself, especially when just starting to compete.

Have fun

Shoot the shit with your opponents after your matches, before if you know who they are, but slaughter one another during. You guys have the drive to compete, many in this world don't, respect that.

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers"

Have fun

Realize this is not the world championship, so really, no one in the community will care how you do in your first comp.

Have fun!

(Get my message yet?)

 

[Allan san]

get ready to blow your forearms out. my first tourney, i couldn't hold my water bottle after my first match.

 

[giatinu]

Dont lose.

 

[BadJiuJiu]

Helio never tapped, so neither should you! Seriously though, think about formulating a game plan for a few different scenarios. That, or try to improve your weak points and/or your conditioning. What do guys do when they're drilling for competition? I think a basic idea is developing a game plan from a few scenarios, what this does is it takes the active decision making out of the process when you find yourself transitioning. You still need to adapt, but if you've made a good game plan you should more or less be ready for it. You can also just work from bad positions, starting from mount, side control, or back and working your escapes. You don't need to go in I ROLL 100% NOW PRE-COMPETITION, that's for competition. In fact, don't do that with just anyone, do that with a senior member that you can trust, not one of your mat buddies who might get carried away and pop you. Though it is good to have a competition style intensity in your rolling, you can't do it every day, you want to show up on game day fresh. Try not to burn yourself out.

Conditioning may not be as big of an issue for you, conditioning can definitely be an issue if you're for example entering a gi division, no-gi division and an absolute division, which is not necessary for a first tournament whatsoever.

Do you just want to get into and pull guard, or do you want to stop a guard pull and then pull guard yourself, at what I would assume is a lower level you probably don't want to bother thinking about throwing with only 1 month to prepare. Do what in guard passing, do what from side control, etc.

And as other guys have said, remember you grapple for fun, it's not the mundials. Competition does have an extra benefit than this, competition is a reward for your hard work and training up to this point. When you compete it becomes a real-world application.

 

[TheMood]

If they give out t-shirts to competitors make sure you get your t-shirt. You don't want to forget your t-shirt. They will not give it to you after the event usually.

 

[Scitney]

At the end of the day, the only one that really cares about whether you won or lost is you. Go out there and have fun. Try to learn as much as possible.

 

[kupop18]

1) Crush your enemies.
2) See them driven before you.
3) Hear the lamentation of the women.

 

[Musheen]

Don't break away from eye contact the entire match. Especially in mount.

 

[sleeps anywhere]

Get someone to take good film on your matches. Watch them afterward. It may be hard to do so at first, but it really helps to note what you do well and what you can work on.

 

[FinBJJ]

Get someone to take good film on your matches. Watch them afterward. It may be hard to do so at first, but it really helps to note what you do well and what you can work on.

This. You really see all of your mistakes and see things you just can't see during the match.

Also make sure you are aware of the rules of the competition.

 

[sixfifteen]

From my grand sum total of three matches of experience I'd say you're getting some good advice here. Well, mostly.
After my first match I decided I would always make the first move and had a simple plan, if he postured up I'd go for A and if he crouched over I'd go for B. Everything after that wasn't going to be in my plan anyway so I figured either I'd be in control and he'd react or tap to me or vice versa. Either way, it helped me to have a plan when we started.
Oh, and really really warm up well. Break a good sweat and make sure you have someone to hold things for you afterwards. Your grips will be completely MIA.

Good luck!

 

[Dazlarips]

Try not to stress out too much about it. The mental side of competing can be difficult at first. Don't look too much into your opponent. Days before I first competed I looked up my opponent on facebook, saw pictures of him then started worrying about how tough he looked. Let myself get caught up in worrying about what MIGHT happen, when in reality you can never predict what an unknown opponent is going to do. In the end I finished him with a RNC!

All you can control is what YOUR going to bring to the mats on the day, and your mind can really be your worst enemy if you let it.

Leading up to the comp if I find myself thinking about what my opponent is going to do I stop and remind myself that they should be worrying about me, because when the match starts Im going to unleash a storm of fury on them. Ill make sure I bring my best game on the day, all I can really control is my performance. Show up and give 110%. If they come out on top, good for them. But they're going to have to go through an absolute dogfight to beat me.

Good luck and let us know how you go.

 

[GroundGameFan]

get ready to blow your forearms out. my first tourney, i couldn't hold my water bottle after my first match.

Damn, this! Just trying to break the dude's vice grip on my head from a half ass guillotine attempt and then trying to open his guard destroyed my forearms.

Other than that, just go out and have fun. Your friends and family will think it's nice you are doing something you are passionate about so they won't care if you lose. Also, video the match to see what you will really need to work on in the heat of the moment type of stuff. I'd say to only go all out on a sub attempt if you are 90% or more sure that you can get the finish, other than that you will burn your arms/legs out and get an adrenaline dump with the quickness. Good luck man, I have a comp coming up next month myself

 

[JiuJudo]

get ready to blow your forearms out. my first tourney, i couldn't hold my water bottle after my first match.

So true, i had this problem for a long time in Gi matches. I remember on time i almost started to get a little worried when my second match was coming up and i couldnt even tie my belt :icon_lol: good times

 

[Nnedd]

I've only competed no-gi, so I can only advise you on that.

It seems the large majority of tournament matches go the full time and are decided by points. So be prepared for that.

Top position seems to be key, so work for the takedown and work to stop it. Very often, one guy gets gets top and holds it to win.

It seems like sport bjj is largely a points game, so know your game and play it.



But like everyone said, the moment you step on the mat, you've won. Simply by putting your neck out and taking a chance, you've succeeded. Win or lose in the match, you're doing great.

P.S. Don't actually stick your neck out. Protect your neck!

 

[Adamant]

Don't break away from eye contact the entire match. Especially in mount.