As a 40-year-old hobbyist Jiu Jitsu blue belt I signed up for my first Jiu Jitsu competition recently. I had the pleasure to compete with my 11-year-old son who also got to experience his first competition. The experience was awesome and we both did well. You can read about our matches here:
40-Year-Old Blue Belt Competes in Jiu Jitsu Tournament for the First Time
11-Year-Old White Belt Does 1st with Jiu Jitsu Tournament with Blue Belt Dad
We both enjoyed the experience and learned an immense amount about ourselves, our Jiu Jitsu, and Jiu Jitsu competitions. In this article, I share my top ten takeaways from my first Jiu Jitsu competition.
#1 Your Jiu Jitsu skill level may jump exponentially
Going into the tournament my professor always said that competing will make your Jiu Jitsu better and quickly. I didn’t quite understand how this would happen but fully support this view after having my first competition and experiencing it. I had always understood the hierarchy of positions in Jiu Jitsu, but in training, I didn’t focus too much effort on holding positions and preventing my partners from advancing their positions. Training this way took the urgency out of me in my first fight that I lost. I think the saying take everything and give nothing is very applicable to competing in Jiu Jitsu. Now when I train in a live roll I focus much more on actively preventing my opponent from advancing positions. Just that little mind shift change has helped my Jiu Jitsu improve and stemmed from feeling it in competition.
Another thing that I’ve heard many of my partners say was that the intensity was much different from the rolls in the dojo. I can confirm this to be true after my matches in the competition. In the dojo we are all friends and trying to improve Jiu Jitsu, in the tournament all of my opponents were strangers and they were out to win by controlling me or disabling me via choke or joint lock using maximum effort and skill. With a match length of only 5 minutes at the tournament, you have to use a lot of effort in exchanges to score points and get into a position where you can submit your opponent. It is very seldom that I’ve felt this intensity at the dojo and experiencing it firsthand helped open my eyes to the intensity that comes from a serious opponent and my ability to exert my physical attributes and skill set to the opposition.
Competing also helped me analyze my overall skill in Jiu Jitsu and the glaring holes that I need to work on. Three areas stuck out to me the most standup, finishing, and cardio. I had a bad showing in the stand-up and takedown department. A lot of this was due to exhaustion, but for the most, I was very passive and waited for my opponent to make the first moves. I also lacked submissions as I was able to out-score and control many of my opponents but was unable to finish. I was depleted and exhausted after the first match that I lost. I was able to win most of my other matches, but I was exhausted in all of them and it factored into my ability to both takedown and finish. I believe the main culprit was an adrenaline dump during my first match as my overall cardio was pretty good heading into the tournament. Knowing this might be an issue for me, I will need to find better ways to prevent and recover if it happens again.
In addition to those three areas of opportunity, another area that I think will exponentially grow my Jiu Jitsu skill is the development of a game. In the tournament, I had moments of clarity in what I was doing as well as feelings of lostness about what to do next in the match. Feeling both of these internally, has helped me analyze what I do well and where I need to improve so that I can develop a road map for my personal Jiu Jitsu game and further develop it in training. I think purposeful training will go a long way in growing my Jiu Jitsu game and become much clearer after the competition.
#2 Keep your normal daily routines leading up to the tournament
You want to minimize the unexpected going into the day of the tournament. The easiest way to do this is to maintain your daily routines as close as possible so your body is ready to perform to the level you’ve prepared it for. Activities to keep the same include what you eat, hydrating, and sleeping. Drastic changes a week to a few days before a competition can be hazardous to your performance come fight time. I can get stomach issues from unhealthy food so I tried to keep with a clean dinner and the same breakfast I always eat nearly every morning.
I trained consistently and ate clean leading up to the event, but where the event was located impacted my routines negatively. The event was a few cities away and was about a 2.5-hour drive with the event doors opening at 0730. Fortunately for me, I have family in the city and they allowed me to stay the night before. This threw off my schedule and sleeping in a strange bed with different night noises from my own home led to a lack of sleep. On top of being in a different place, I was also anxious and had the tournament on my mind. I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep the night before the tournament and it was off and on sleeping throughout the night. I was a bit tired going into the tournament, and it would have been nice to be fresh. I think in the future I will try doing it differently by booking a hotel or driving to the event in the morning.
#3 Plan for a long day if you sign up for multiple divisions
Jiu Jitsu tournaments can be super long. My tournament was probably small considering some of the large tournaments around the country, but there were almost 800 competitors signed up. The venue had 8 mats and matches were 3 minutes for kids and 5 minutes for adults. Doors and weigh-ins were at 0730 and the event started at 0900. Unfortunately for the competitors, only 6 referees showed up meaning that not all mats could be run at the same time. This led to a very long day. The event kicked off right at 0900 and some of the last matches didn’t happen until 10 pm.
It takes time to go through all of the matches, brackets, and competitors. You need to be ready with food, entertainment, and activity to keep your body ready to compete.
#4 Expect to need recovery after competing
As mentioned earlier, the amount of intensity needed to compete was way beyond what I experienced in training and I was trashed after competing in three divisions. My body felt like it was in a real fight or run over by a bus after the competition was over. When I weighed in at 0730 in the morning, I weighed 227 lbs. After competing, eating 2 dinners, and hydrating I weighed in at 222 when I got back home. I don’t even know how this was possible. I did sweat a bit, but not 5+ pounds with eating and drinking a lot between matches and after matches. I was totally out of it and unable to train for three days after the event. My body was so sore the next two days that I didn’t feel like or do any physical activity and took all that I had just to go to work. On day three I was able to do some light cardio and easy Yoga. On day 4 I was back in the dojo training.
#5 Have good helpers with you
For this tournament, I had my family with me. My wife, son, and daughter all came with me and stayed the entire event. It was great having them there. My wife took excellent care of me in between matches assisting me with anything my son and I needed. It was also great having her there to take photos and videos of every one of our matches. My son and I got some great photo memories and videos that we can analyze later to improve our Jiu Jitsu. Having my family around helped make a long day go by quicker.
#6 Bring food and water
With the event taking all day long and the heavy exertion from competing I came well prepared with food and water. I brought many snacks and lunch that helped replenish energy throughout the competition. I packed sandwiches, chips, fruit snacks, bananas, apples, protein bars, protein cookies, and Gatorade Zeros which all helped me get through the day well. With how long the event went on, having a large amount of food helped immensely. Water was also essential to bring. There were so many people filling up water bottles in bathroom sinks or water fountains that it seemed unhygienic and a pain so I brought two lard store-bought water jugs for my son and me and we downed the majority of the water throughout the competition.
#7 Expect unsanitary conditions off of the mat
There were a lot of people at the event. There were close to 800 competitors and probably on average 2-3 spectators per competitor at the event. At this event, there was only 1 set of restrooms. The restrooms were large and nice, but the number of people at the event quickly overwhelmed the rest room and there wasn’t enough staff to constantly keep the bathrooms clean and stocked. At the beginning of the event, somebody threw up on the floor and in one of the sinks and it took about an hour for somebody to come by and clean the mess up. Be prepared for not the best of conditions in bathrooms at an event with hundreds of people. Having a towel and baby wipes on hand can go a long way if you just need a freshen-up after a match.
#8 Have a good coach in your corner
I had many teammates at the event, many of which were upper belts and capable of coaching matches. I was lucky enough to have one of my regular brown belt training partners at the event to coach me in most of my matches. This was awesome because I know his technique is solid and he knows my game well. In my matches, there were many points that I would have missed if it wasn’t for the coaching tips that my coach was yelling out. In particular, in one of my gold medal matches, I was in the turtle position with my opponent sitting on top of me with a hook in and working to get a second hook when my coach said he has no base! When I heard that I bucked my opponent forward and eventually took mount to secure the win. In one of my son’s matches, he locked up a triangle and was having a hard time submitting. Our professor yelled out pull the head, my son did so and got the submission gold victory.
Having a good coach in my corner directly correlated to me winning some of my matches. I felt like I had another set of eyes and they were capable of seeing my position and my opponents. I was able to turn off some decision-making and just execute which kept me a step ahead of my opponents. It was also a big help to know the score and time without having to look while focusing on the match.
#9 Take lots of pictures and videos
My first competition was a great experience and having my wife attend taking pictures and videos was awesome. We took many pictures and my son and will now always have those to look back on. The videos are great as they will allow us to analyze our fights and see what went well and where we need to improve.
#10 Bring extra clothing
I brought a lot of clothing to the tournament and I used most of it. Here is a list of what I brought:
- 2 Gis and 2 sets of No Gi kit
- I brought extra of each just in case there was something wrong rule-wise with one set or if something happened like a tear
- Sport shoes
- Flip Flops/slides
- I wore these most of the day for easy on-off access as needed
- Comfortable clothing (sweatpants and hoodie)
- I wore this most of the day to stay comfortable
- This also served as my clothing for after the event
- X2 tee shirts
- Extra tee shirts served well to change into between divisions
- Towel
- I sweat heavily after each match and having a towel on hand in between matches was great to help dry off