2012Ag said:
Today marks 4 months, I think about 34 classes. There's a competition on August 2nd and I told my coach I'm interested in signing up. He's in support.
What can I expect? There's 4 stripe white belts in class that can absolutely destroy me, but theres also guys who've started before me who I've been able to submit and get in good positions on. So I imagine the talent spectrum may be large if its between guys like that and newer guys like me. Focusing on using the experience as a gauge of where I'm at and what I need to work on, would like to still be competitive though.
What did you wish you knew before your first comp?
Having something specific that you focus on for different parts of the match. For standing have a specific takedown that you focus on, a judo throw could be a bit much but something like an ankle pick is on the simpler side. If you pull guard then I'd work on having a specific sweep you want to focus on being able to hit. Work on an arm submission whether it's an arm bar, kimura, americano, etc because if you're rolling with while belts there's a good chance they forget to keep their arms in tight which is when you can go after it. Work on escaping guard as well in the event your opponent pulls first so you can try to pass. Work on a simple choke as well like a cross-collar, you'd be surprised how often those work as long as you properly get it locked in. If you can get to mount and keep pressure there's a good chance your opponent could burn themself out trying to escape because they panic and can't slow their breathing down. That's what happened to me at my first competition, I completely forgot how to slow down and breathe so I burned out in both of my matches. I had a cross-collar in my first one but not tight enough because I was sloppy and those details just fell out of my head. My second match was against a guy I roll with all the time in class and I burned myself, and wasn't able to regain my composure.
Had I done those things I listed above I would have been in better position in those matches. I didn't care that I lost as much as I felt embarrassed because everything I had worked on and understood about BJJ completely left my head once I was on the mat. Don't go in there without a gameplan, that's the best advice I can give you.
