Jiu Jitsu tournaments
Jiu Jitsu tournaments are becoming much more popular, and are popping up everywhere from small local tournaments to large regional championships. I feel very strongly that Jiu Jitsu tournaments are a vital part of progressing in your Jiu-Jitsu journey. It is important that you do not only focus on winning or losing but rather to grow and develop as a martial artist.
Training at the same gym with the same people sometimes doesn’t accurately gauge how effective your game really is simply because your partners recognize the techniques you use from months of experience. When fighting in tournament however, your competition will not be used to your game and it will allow you to see how you match up. This is also good because it will show you your strengths and weaknesses, which will help you develop into a better fighter. By understanding where you are weak, it can instantly help you with progressing your game because you have something to focus on.
When you train to simply learn BJJ, sometimes the focus can be lost and you don’t necessarily put in the hard work and learn the intricacies that are in the sport of BJJ. I refer to this as the auto pilot phase, because you are just there to do the class then leave and sometimes don’t put in the extra effort. By entering into tournaments it almost gives you a jump-start of motivation to train harder, eat healthier and become more technical because you don’t want to do poorly when competing. It is an awesome accountability system that I would argue gives people a great reason to push harder when training.
One interesting thing about registering for Jiu Jitsu tournaments I have noticed is that it causes instant anxiety and makes me nervous for weeks before hand. I think this is great because it forces you to work through these emotions and deal with healthy anxiety. Not only can it teach you to toughen up but it gives you extra energy to pull from when training in BJJ and martial arts. If you look at it from a biological standpoint, with the lens of the fight of flight, you literally are signing up for the fight response. Physiologically it only makes sense that you elicit this type of response because you’re an organism. By conquering this type of stress through competing in Jiu Jitsu tournaments it only helps you build your abilities for much more uncontrolled situations in life, street fights and any other type of stress you can deal with.
Get out there and sign up for the next tournament!
~Robert Richardson (AKA Bobby Rich)
Elite Training Center
1628 South Pacific Coast Highway,
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 543-1600
www.elitetrainingcenter.net
