I am a white belt, training for about a year and a half. I will be on a strict diet, and be doing lots of training. I've never trained from a standing position, so I guess that's the only thing that makes me nervous. Other than that, what else can I do, or what else should I know about? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Crap, seriously? In a year and a half you've never started standing? I know the BJJ stereotype is that we're not that good on our feet, but that's an extreme imo. I'd say the first order of business would be practicing guard pulling from standing. Then after the tournament, work on your takedowns. Try to have a rough idea of what you want/like to do. I would avoid getting to specific with a gameplan, just a general idea of what you like from each position. Work what you're good at, not what you want to be good at (i.e. that cool move you learned last week).
I completely understand where your coming from in the standup. I felt so scared of wrestlers in the stand up because we probably dedicate less than 25% of our sparring and like 10% of our drills doing standup techniques. But, remember that a lot of those same wrestlers and white belts with good stand up, might not be used to defending guillotines, anacondas, and d'arces when they initiate the takedown. So work on an aggressive TDDefense game to keep them off guard when they shoot. Learn how to safely pull guard if you are really tentative. I just hate the closed guard, so that was never my plan. I like half guard sweeps and inverted shananigans! Good luck and remember to be proud that you ARE competing and there are millions of people who don't have the fortitude or courage to just train our special art.
I don't personally like standup, but I'm not crazy about pulling closed guard if that makes sense lol. So, I like to just stay really low and try to avoid throws and takedowns.
I think you should do some standing, I would practise two things, 1, bait a take down. Ie dangling a leg and let them attack it (I find it often get top position from that scramble). 2, pull guard. After comp work some takedowns. Take her easy man, its you first comp, have low expectations but allow yourself the opportunity to win. Avoid lifting weights that week, esp leg works out. Ask your coach about the scoring system, it seemed fair enough when I was new to it but it does have a few areas to be aware of. Try to organise someone knowledgable to give advice during the match. Don't cut weight unless its like 3 pounds or so, and if doing that do it by diet not water cut. Pulling Guard against a guy you know nothing about can be sketchy, if he is a wrestler you porb did the right thing, if he has exceptional top control you fuked up. But hey try your hand at standing for a bit, if its going badly pull guard, but it should be plan B not plan A.
i'm no expert (still a white belt as well), so take this with a grain of salt. develop a game plan and drill it almost non stop until the tournament. i took silver at my first tournament by developing a plan and sticking with it. the tournament was a little rinky dink, so i ended up in the final against a 420lb 4 stripe blue belt. he killed me, but the even matches before that were won because of the plan. oh, and learn to pull guard. don't screw around with any throws or takedowns at the moment, but make sure you start training that stuff after the tournament!
Practice takedowns and standing up a good bit of your training. Work a lot on your conditioning and training in weak positions for you. I recommend doing a circle get like 3 training partners, roll 3 minutes with one, then 3 minutes later another guy jumps in. In the position you were last in. Do this for a total of 9 minutes rest then go again. It will get you use to being tired in bad positions. Watch your weight and during the last week before the competition do light rolling and good stretching. My first tournament I got so cramped up even though I stretch before my first roll.
Take it from someone who did his first tournament having never started from the feet in the gym. Don't try to fiddle with take downs and clinching... it'll get you sprawled on or in my case flying armbarred in 40 seconds. If you're doing gi though, you could drill the shit out of Caio Terra's simple guard pull to an armbar. or just buttflop.
Work the basics. Practice maintaining/retaining guard position from the bottom. Practice passing and defending subs from the top. Practice a few go-to sweeps, submissions and setups. And practice controlling/pressuring your opponent from different positions. - Believe in your ability. Be confident, be focused, come in good condition, have fun and learn from your mistakes. -You either win, or you learn. Good luck buddy, and have no fear.
