Terrible Tournament

7

71Fish

Orange Belt
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There are always threads about successful tournaments, but lets hear about shitty tournaments.

I had a pretty bad tournament this past weekend. Went 1-4 overall, gi and no gi. The only match I won was in no gi is one of the loser brackets. I was just "flat" all weekend, if that makes sense.

A positive takeaway, is two of the guys I lost very close matches to (1 ea gi and no gi) both ended up getting 2nd. Both were losses by 2 points. I got subbed in the other two loses.

It was good to see some of my friends do well. This was a pretty large tournament by local/regional standards. I'm doing a small local tournament in June.

A big part of my problem is balance between my gym speed and tournament speed and aggression. It's a work in progress.
 
Don't feel bad. I'm 0-5 in total matches across 2 tournaments.

1st tourney, I had 2 things going against me:
1. I was a fresh Gracie Combatives Blue Belt (brick and mortar school, not online), and was still heavily on the Kool Aid
2. 1st time competition nerves

I lost both matches by points. Positive: One of my opponents was a pro MMA guy with Bellator experience, and he didn't sub me, but he was clearly better.

2nd tourney was sub only, so I lost all 3 by sub.
1. Tourney speed, and a choke that I had never seen. I think I could perform better against that guy.
2. Still tourney speed, I think, and an incredibly strong opponent. I can see him getting me again, but I'd like to think I could do better.
3. Was just plain better than me, and he knew it.

But all in all, the experience was good. Those were both a few years ago, and I have plans to compete again this summer. I expect the speed of competition to catch me off guard again, but hopefully my increased skills from then will help me do a little better.
 
If you are not injured, it was worth going out there. No matter how you did you definitely learned from the experience and it made you a better grappler. Even if all you got out of it is that you have to be more aggressive, its definitely worth it.

Also mad props for posting about a comp that you didn't do well in, that takes guts.
 
what belt? where do you compete? there can be a large jump between local tournies and big regional ones, especially at for example at blue belt where there's guys who just got their belt vs guys who should probably already be purple belts (3 or 4 year difference in experience)

Does your school have a competition class weekly? If so, attend every week because that can help simulate the intensity and aggression of a real tourney.
 
Well OP, it's official. We must be the worst grapplers on f12. Over 100 views, and we're the only ones that lose matches :p
 
Count me in, too. I lost all my judo tournament matches so far.

I feel bad. Any good excuses to share?
 
Missed weight by a pound cuz I'm stupid, weighed 222, had to fight guys 250+, fuck my life lol, and it messes with me more that I think I could beat them if I prepped for it.
 
I've lost more matches than I've won. I'd love to be better but it's just not the case. All you can do is learn from your losses, keep training, and channel that pain of defeat into developing a stronger character. Ultimately you're only a loser if you give up and quit competing. It's really hard to set high goals and go for difficult achievements because failure is a real possibility, so I think just doing that and exposing yourself to that makes you a winner regardless of what medals you may take home
 
71Fish said:
A positive takeaway, is two of the guys I lost very close matches to (1 ea gi and no gi) both ended up getting 2nd.
Click to expand...

My first (and only, so far) tournament, the two guys I lost to (on points) both medaled.
.
.
.
Because there were only 4 guys in the division and everyone medaled except me.
 
My first tournament at brown belt I went 1-4. My conditioning was so terrible. I've never felt so down on myself during the course of a comp day, knowing that I was getting fucked up due to things completely within my control.
 
Worst for me was a sub-only tournament where the ruleset specified that if there's no sub, the lighter guy moves on in the bracket and the heavier guy is eliminated. I'm a pesadissimo; had a match against a guy who was about 320lbs, now I'm kind of fat at 245lbs but this guy was enormous. Guaranteed a win if I can stall my way through this bloody match. End up beneath him somehow, due to a stupid mistake, have a few attempts at escaping but then think about how much energy I'm expending and about how if I move on in the bracket the next guy I'd have to go up against was pretty athletic and had an easy last match; I don't want to get too tired. Hey, let's just ride this one out eh...? Fuckin bastard subbed me. Price I paid for stalling I guess.
 
JMG1134 said:
Well OP, it's official. We must be the worst grapplers on f12. Over 100 views, and we're the only ones that lose matches :p
Click to expand...

We obviously suck. Jiu Jitsu is too damn hard. I'm going to start knitting.
 
I trained no-gi for several years, then finally put on a Gi. I'd done really well at tournaments in no-gi, and a small local tournament came up two weeks before my blue belt test.

I thought, "This will be my only chance to compete at white belt, I'll head up there and probably smash." Honestly, I was not your typical white belt.

Went up and drew a kid 15 years younger than me, fast, strong, wrestler. We tied up and went back and forth fighting for takedowns.

I finally threw caution to the wind and said fuck it. I went for the absolute worst lateral drop you've ever seen in your life. Just, awful. He ended up on top of me in side control. I got out from under him but didn't get any points. Then it was over. And I was looking around like, what the fuck just happened.

So I went 0-1 at whitebelt. My overall grappling record is 18-3. But that loss is the match I remember the most. I gained a whole bunch from it, not the least of which was a bit of humility. Also, it helps in prep for tournaments to have that loss. Because I had a blast in that match, and I lost, but dude it was a trial and I enjoyed it.
 
I went 2-2 this weekend, lost to the same guy twice. Once on points, once via armbar. The first time I tasted defeat at comp LOL
 
wrongfully DQ'd in first match
definately worst tournament ever
 
You are looking at it the wrong way.
If you train to compete, your reward is to compete.
The cake is the competitions.
A win is just an extra just like the cherry on top of the cake.
 
Edison Carasio said:
I went 2-2 this weekend, lost to the same guy twice. Once on points, once via armbar. The first time I tasted defeat at comp LOL
Click to expand...

Haha, it's such a small community, if you compete regularly you are bound to run into the same guys and end up having a nemesis like that. I've lost multiple matches at multiple tournaments to the same guy. I'm always hoping to get a chance for revenge
 
HtomSirveaux said:
Haha, it's such a small community, if you compete regularly you are bound to run into the same guys and end up having a nemesis like that. I've lost multiple matches at multiple tournaments to the same guy. I'm always hoping to get a chance for revenge
Click to expand...

I'm hoping I see the two local guys who travelled to that tournament at the local tournament in June. A little redemption would be nice, all in fun of course.
 
My only tournament so far was no-gi and I lost both matches on points.
Was confident going into the first match when I noticed I had about six inches (at least) of height on the guy and thinking I could use that to keep him at bay when we tied up at the start. Then I noticed he had cauliflower ear and thought to myself "Oh [crap]! He's obviously got more grappling experience!" and my game plan was out the window as he took top control and I just fought to survive.
Second match I was able to get a headlock when the guy left his head exposed going in for a single, but unfortunately I spent too much time looking at my coach trying to process what he was telling me to do (pull guard) and the guy was able to get us both down and pretty much get into side control, where again I just tried to survive.
Still a great experience and I'm glad I did it. Unfortunately, due to military commitments, I had to miss the last tournament and I'm going to be missing the next couple as well. Nonetheless, I'm excited to compete again once I'm able.
 
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