How do you win in competition?
1) Believe you can win
2) Plan your win
3) Prepare to win
4) Never let your spirit break!
Going into a tournament just to see what will happen is a
neutral or even defeatist mindset. Going
in without a plan is going to lead to chaos.
The pressure and threat of real and potential attacks CAN push you into
a corner if you let it. Without a plan
you have little to fall back on when stress increases.
BELIEVE YOU CAN WIN
If something bad happens, it doesn’t matter. If your submission fails or you get reversed,
that’s ok. If you take a picture of your
failure, pause to sigh and get angry, your opponent will continue to move steps
ahead. You must go into a tournament
believing that you will have to win several matches. A lot of what happens in a match isn’t that significant. You will eventually become so confident when
standing, performing guard work from the bottom position, and escaping that you
will simply transition when something doesn’t go your way. That IS Jiu Jitsu. By now you know a lot of the typical moves,
and if your instructor attacks you with one move only, his success in finishing
you with that singular move isn’t likely.
PLAN YOUR WIN
Imagine you had a once in a lifetime chance to do something
amazing—amazingly physical. Maybe I
invited you to climb an incredible mountain in a foreign country? Compete in a UFC fight against a celebrity
who has been training the same amount of time as you for 4 million
dollars? Star in a movie reenacting the
first Olympic games?
You might have several matches. Someone might seem fast, or fresher than you
are. Someone might feel strong and
heavy. Someone might have short or very
long arms. Imagine a game like chess,
except both players are allowed to move their pieces as often as they
want. You sit there staring at your
opponent, and they move 4 steps ahead of you.
Now you have to deal with it? But
it’s so much harder now. Change the
angle and break the grips early. What
move happens next? If they do X, how do
I respond? In each position, what weapon
will I use to win? Plan to create the
opening, and always move to your backup plan in the case of failure. If you didn’t show up today, there is someone
else in the division that will be winning first place. You need to be prepared to unseat them for
the #1 spot. Attack pressure prevents
problems. Attacking now keeps you from
defending later.
.
PREPARE TO WIN
What would you do to prepare? There are skill based preparations, and
physical preparations that supplement application of skill based
technique. How can you increase your
ability to move well? How can you
increase your range of motion? Will I
need to be explosive? Will I need to be
able to hold locking positions? Or
maintain a fatiguing repetitive motion?
What exercises will simulate and prepare me for this challenging once in
a lifetime experience? If you prepare
now, right now, you are going to set yourself up to win. Without this purposeful preparation your winning
future is uncertain.
NEVER LET YOUR SPIRIT BREAK
When two people compete, sometimes frustration and lack of
focus get the better of one athlete and their spirit breaks. The focus in their eyes changes and the body
almost goes limp. Their strategy is
forgotten, and they make endless mistakes.
If someone’s spirit breaks everyone will know and the match will rush to
an end. Experienced people are trying to
make this happen. Your resilience to bad
situations and avoiding a mental shutdown is what is going to allow you to keep
going and turn the tables on a tough opponent.
It is possible to escape most positions, and your opponent is likely not
a master of maintaining a bad position. I
couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been put through hell in a match, only to
really take it to an opponent at the very end.
Sometimes there was still time to win.
Sometimes a few more seconds would have guaranteed the win. What if I had started executing sooner, or
prevented problems altogether?
