Dealing with Tournament Losses...

Heavy Bag

Orange Belt
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How does everyone deal with tournament losses? Eat something bad for you that tastes damn good? Go out with some friends? Train more? I lost today and find myself feeling down.

I've only been training for 8 months, but had my second tournament today. My first nogi tournament went very well, I dominated my division after only 2.5 months of training. I thought I was king shit. :redface:

That feeling's now gone. I entered a nogi tourney with some wierd rules today, and didn't even medal. I won my first two matches by submission, but lost my 3rd 2-0 to a guy I felt superior to. He was extremely strong, but didn't have much technique. He seemed like he trained a lot of MMA grappling, but not much stand alone BJJ. This tourney was a large field, and a step up in competition for me, but I really felt I underperformed.

It feels like my hard training the last month is all for naught. I feel like I let myself down, let my instructor down, and let my training partners that came to watch me down.

I want to get back in the gym as soon as possible, but I really feel like shit at the moment. How does everyone cope with this shit? Maybe it's just because I put too much pressure on myself....
 
you move on to the next tournament... everyone loses sometime*...




* except Rickson
 
Where was the competition at?

Also EVERYONE LOSES sometime, which is motivation to train, No one ever likes to lose, but if you did your best, that's all you can do. If you could have done thing different or better, now you have been shown what it is.
 
I ate a Cuban sub and drank a sugar free Redbull.
 
smoke a j
get girlfriend to give u teh head
get drunk
start training on tthe weekends
cut out bad food from ur regular diet
quit bjj

take ur pick man we all lose just come back and train hard. whether ur win or lose grappling and training are inherenly beneficial
 
Take a break off BJJ for a while to clear your head.
 
Some good advice. I ate a whole large pizza and some breadsticks, drank some mountain dew and took a nap, lol. Tasted damn good after cutting weight. I'm just going to relax tomorrow and get back to training next week. Gotta get my head right, tons of tournaments coming this summer.
 
well the more you compete the less you get affected by losing a match. my advice dont worry about it. Its just a tournament and if you have only been training 8 months ur probably a white belt so you got to pay you dues. plus this is how it goes after awhile you will sweep the white belt division then get promoted probably lose a couple tournaments then start destroying the blues then get promoted get killed for awhile then become the killer and so on
 
You submitted 2 opponents and then lost a close match by points. Quit bitching.

I competed today and lost my first my in less than a minute.
 
You submitted 2 opponents and then lost a close match by points. Quit bitching.

I competed today and lost my first my in less than a minute.


^^^^^^^
Agreed. You've only been training 8 months and you didn't medal? Big F'n deal. Either you're trolling or you have an ego problem.
 
^^^^^^^
Agreed. You've only been training 8 months and you didn't medal? Big F'n deal. Either you're trolling or you have an ego problem.

Lol, come on man. How would you think I'm trolling? I am just extremely competetive, so yes, there's ego involved. I've been around sports and competition in one way or another my whole life. I just recently got involved in BJJ. I've tasted defeat many many times in my life, but it's never felt like this. Maybe it's just the nature of combat sports. Losing made me feel like I've got an extremely bad hangover, it's hard to explain.

Anyway, thanks for the useful responses. Like I said, I probably just feel like this because I put so much pressure on myself. I hate losing, especially if I felt like I could win. All night I replayed the match in my head, and saw opportunity after opportunity where I could have finished or at least got the points to win. In the end, it was a good learning experience because it has made me see many of the weakest areas in my game. I'll be back at practice next week and be stronger than ever for my next tourney.
 
I know how you feel man. I've played high level team sports my whole life and I have lost in front of huge groups of people, but it is nothing compared to losing in a combat sport. The individual aspect and the "kill or be killed" nature of these sports make losing that much worse.
 
Lol, come on man. How would you think I'm trolling? I am just extremely competetive, so yes, there's ego involved. I've been around sports and competition in one way or another my whole life. I just recently got involved in BJJ. I've tasted defeat many many times in my life, but it's never felt like this. Maybe it's just the nature of combat sports. Losing made me feel like I've got an extremely bad hangover, it's hard to explain.

Anyway, thanks for the useful responses. Like I said, I probably just feel like this because I put so much pressure on myself. I hate losing, especially if I felt like I could win. All night I replayed the match in my head, and saw opportunity after opportunity where I could have finished or at least got the points to win. In the end, it was a good learning experience because it has made me see many of the weakest areas in my game. I'll be back at practice next week and be stronger than ever for my next tourney.
I know what you mean about "seeing" things you could've done, but hindsight is 20/20. Don't worry about it.

You won your first tournament after 3 months, and did very well in your 2nd after 8 months. For a beginner you are kicking ass dude. Don't let this loss bother you, you are doing well.
 
If there were no losers, there would be no winners...just accept it and build on it.
 
Dude, first off, everyone's gonna lose at some point or other.

I was at NAGA NE last weekend and thought I'd place in intermediate (I finished 4th at both NAGAs I went to before in intermediate, when I competed at 189.9 and I lost weight and competed at 179.9, so I figured I'd only improve). I felt kind of let down, especially because the match I lost was so fast, like maybe a minute, I got caught in a guillotine and that was that.

For me, I always like to go out with friends, get a bit of love from a girl, drink a bit. Basically, just go out and have fun.

Honestly, once the tournament's over, it's over, you should just go out and have fun (whatever that is for you personally) and not worry about it. There will be plenty more tournaments, so don't let yourself get too bummed out by it.
 
Gluttony usually is my first step from healing from any disappointment.

But after that, I get my ass back into the gym and train to get better.
 
Seriously...after a loss, it's a trip to Starbucks, a large pizza, and some wine with the wife.

Take a day or two off, then back to training.

Then again, I kind of remember my first loss. It hit pretty hard....but I still ate a bunch of pizza and went home with the gf. Guess it wasn't really as bad as I remember! :icon_chee
 
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