Hey guys, I’ve been training BJJ for about 8 months now, progressing nicely and I have my first grappling tournament in two weeks. I was very excited about my prospects until this week.
On Friday I was feeling a little under the weather but I went to train anyway, and during rolling got paired up with a guy that out-weighed by a good 40-60 pounds at least (I have been cutting weight for tourny weight class).
I was tapped 5 times in five minutes (no big deal, training is for tapping). During our last roll I got on his back and instead of putting my hooks in, I foolishly crossed my feet. He cranked the shit out of an ankle lock and I’m out of commission for a week.
I know I will be alright to compete in two weeks, but I feel like all my confidence to compete are gone. I keep replaying the entire session in my mind. I never put up much resistance, I was just rag dolled. This never happens even with big guys. I know I didn’t feel 100% but I shouldn’t have done that poorly against another white belt.
This ever happen to anyone training in combat sports?
Yup. Two weeks before my second tourney I sprained all the toes on my right foot. I went from thinking I was going to own the blue belt division to “Damn, hope I don’t lose my first match” (I did). I went anyway, and did alright for not being able to change levels and shoot properly (bronze and silver).
Just go.
Getting over your insecurities is part of what competing is about. Don’t think about winning. Think about being the very best submission grappler you can be.
And getting used to fighting much heavier guys is awesome from your confidence, remember you will be fighting guys your size/weight-class and not 60lbs heavier.
I doubt there are many who have not had this experiance.
As for being rag dolled: Could have been a bad night. If you think it was more than this, try to focus on using posture and leverage to resist/guard against subs more than muscle and speed. Work on being hard to submit/hard to put into jeopardy. Doing this conserves energy.
You should talk to whoever runs your school about the guy who hurt your ankle. There is no reason for people to crank submissions, especially ankle and knee ones, in practice. When you add in that he is a bigger guy it is even more important to show restraint. So my advice there is to avoid rolling with big dumb white belts. I’m a brown belt and avoid rolling with white belts of any weight. I mean, I’ll train with them but as far as rolling: I just don’t like dealing with spazzes.
Also, why are you weight cutting for a tourney? You have been training 8 months so I doubt it’s the Mundials or something. At this stage you should be focused on getting better and not on trying to get some perceived advantage in a pretty meaningless comp.
You’ll have 1 week before your tournament to put in a little training? If so…
Be sure to get a few light rolls in the week before, work your favourite submissions to restore some confidence in your game. Don’t make the mistake of putting in super-hard training sessions in the time your have. We all have bad days, one of our purple belts came in a month ago and was punished by new blues, to his own admittance he was’nt feeling on form. Keying into your arousal levels is important, too little and you’ll be caught sleeping, too much and you’ll be tight and apprehensive.
Just keep going and stay in the game, you’ll experience bad days all the time. Last week I got my ass handed to me at a seminar to a guy I normally easily dominate. Like the quote says: there is a hammer and a nail, sometimes you’ll be the nail…
Everybody has crappy days but keep going to improve yourself, do it for you own pleasure. If competition freaks you out, there is also no one pointing a gun to your head to compete. I sometimes get nervous before tournaments because I had bad days, don’t feel well, etc… But then just think about doing it for yourself and look for the first reason you WANT to compete.
First off, what a dick for cranking crossed ankles! When I’m rolling and guys take my back and cross ankles, I will just touch them to let them know that they are positioned wrong. I had a similar instance where a big blue belt (I’m 210 and a white belt and he had to be at least 265) was laying across me with me on my back with him in half-guard and he’s turned away looking for a kimora. Well, I knew to protect and he wasn’t getting so he rips my arm with all of his strength. I was fucked up for months. I will tap in training when you put a solid submission on me, but I don’t expect anybody to go full strength in training.
I hurt my back a week before the St. Louis NAGA. Once the adrenaline had me I didn’t feel a thing. Won my only fight. Good times. That was a good day.
Sometimes I get owned and sometimes I own. Just keep showing up.
First off, what a dick for cranking crossed ankles! When I’m rolling and guys take my back and cross ankles, I will just touch them to let them know that they are positioned wrong. I had a similar instance where a big blue belt (I’m 210 and a white belt and he had to be at least 265) was laying across me with me on my back with him in half-guard and he’s turned away looking for a kimora. Well, I knew to protect and he wasn’t getting so he rips my arm with all of his strength. I was fucked up for months. I will tap in training when you put a solid submission on me, but I don’t expect anybody to go full strength in training.
I hurt my back a week before the St. Louis NAGA. Once the adrenaline had me I didn’t feel a thing. Won my only fight. Good times. That was a good day.
Sometimes I get owned and sometimes I own. Just keep showing up.
Dang man. No biggie. I’ve been beaten by dudes I outweigh by 80lbs. These things happen. It’s fighting. Everybody gets the brakes beat off them every once in a while. Keeps you from becoming full of yourself.