To Compete or Not to Compete, That is the Question

In the last few weeks, I’ve had a sudden jolt of motivation on the mats. Perhaps it has a lot to do with a lot of my teammates committing to compete in August at Masters Worlds and now I’m contemplating whether or not I should join them. It’s been awhile since I’ve competed, at least two years, going on three and while I don’t consider myself much of a competitor, I know that it is a necessary part of my jiu-jitsu journey whether I like it or not.

Now that I’ve slowly picked up my pace in training, I’ve been reflecting a lot on my past competition experiences and have had a few self-realizations. A lot of those self-realizations have been a result of mistakes that I have made mentally and physically. So if you are thinking about competing for the first time, or even if you’ve been competing on and off for a while, I think some of my self-realizations may spark something in you.

Do it for the right reasons. I competed for the first time about three months into training with two weeks notice. Everyone else was entering, so I figured why not too. I was maybe training twice a week, three times at the most and had no idea what I was getting into. There was no real “comp” style of training differentiated and everyone was pretty lax about it. So I just trained. Not knowing what to expect, not even really knowing how to start from standing, I got killed on points in my first match and got submitted in my second (also not realizing it was round robin style and I had to fight again). Now that I look back at the whole situation, I can’t even tell you why I wanted to enter except for the fact that everyone else was doing it. I was ill prepared and probably embarrassed my team more than I did myself.

Don’t wait to cut the weight. In that same first competition, I cut 10 pounds in one week. I didn’t know how to cut weight effectively, so I starved myself. Needless to say I made the weight, but I felt crappy the entire time. If I had decided to compete earlier, rather than impulsively at the last minute, I would have had time to clean up my diet and cut the weight slowly so I could feel good all the time. Also, talking to someone knowledgeable about nutrition would have been a great idea also, so that they can help figure out the foods that your body can metabolize the quickest or the ones that are causing you to bloat.

Competition does not necessarily validate your skill level, but it proves who is a better competitor. I struggled a lot with this when I competed at the blue belt level. I was confident with my technique, but had a difficult time executing it under pressure. I suppose the analogy that not everyone can be a good teacher can be applied to the statement that not everyone can be a good competitor. Or, not all great competitors are good teachers and vice versa.

You will never feel like you’re “ready” enough to compete. You just need to bite the bullet and do it if you want to do it. No matter how hard you train and get ready for competition, you’ll never really feel ready. Much like a promotion to the next belt, you never quite feel like you absolutely deserve it, but you grow into it. I think the same can be said for competition. But with that being said, at least be as prepared as you can be.

I don’t believe that competition is for everyone, but it is a necessary part of the journey to challenge yourself. Jiu-Jitsu is for everyone and we all come into this martial art for different reasons. Whether it is to learn or compete or both, that’s up to you to decide.