I wish I could have written today about how I choked my way up to the podium in an incredible display of Jiu Jitsu prowess during my first tournament, but unfortunately that is not how things played out last Sunday.
I lost my very first fight, which lasted the entire five minutes allocated for combat. I was outscored by my opponent, but didn’t get submitted. The competition was based on a single elimination scheme, so by losing my first match, I was out of the tournament.
As anticlimactic as it sounds, not everything was gloom and doom. Actually, far from it: there is this famous saying that states that in Jiu Jitsu there is no losing, since you either win or you learn – and boy, did I learn from this experience…
The beginning of our match. I am the one with the weird yellow&green belt (which is used to distinguish between two fighters wearing the same color of gi).
The negatives.
- Probably as a consequence of spending my first 5-6 months of BJJ training in survival mode sparring with guys that were much stronger, more experienced and way bigger than I am, I have the bad habit of playing a more defensive than offensive game and relying on escapes and fast scrambles instead of being more conscious of dominant vs unfavorable positions. This makes me less proactive when it comes to avoid getting in bad positions (under mount, side control or getting my back taken) in the first place since I know that I can usually get out of them. However, in competition your opponent gets points every time they get a good position over you, which means that even if you escape, these points were already scored against you, so unless you get a submission before the time is up, you will lose.
- I was too afraid of taking a risk and decided to play it safe instead, and learned the hard way that with no risks comes no reward!
What 80% of my match looked like: Me (on the bottom) with my opponent in my guard, trying to adjust my grips for a cross-collar choke that didn't work in the end.
- In a similar vein, I developed tunnel vision and held onto my choke attempt for more than a reasonable amount of time, which was draining not only for my opponent but also for myself. I should have explored other alternatives.
The positives.
- I didn’t get injured.
- I noticed that I didn’t get as nervous or anxious as I expected once I was already in the combat area ready to fight.
- I didn’t get a take down as I originally planned, but I got a successful guard pull instead, and my opponent was unable to break my guard until I opened it myself.
- I managed to prevent her guard passing after her initial attempt and reestablished my closed guard.
- Defended three attacks from my opponent successfully, didn’t get submitted.
To be completely honest, I was disappointed with my performance and think I could have done much better; I felt like I could have had a chance to win, but I made a lot of mistakes that could have been easily avoided.
Throughout all of my life, I have always been extremely self-critical and set really high standards for myself. My teammates who witnessed my fight said to me and to other people that I fought well, but honestly I cannot fully believe it and can’t help but think they were just trying to be encouraging.
Nevertheless, after finishing my fight and watching – while cringing – the footage from my fight, I clearly saw the mistakes I made, and thought of several alternatives that I could have resorted to. That in itself is already useful for my progress in the sport. Now it is time to get back to training and work on bettering my skills based on that feedback.
Awaiting for the gi inspection + weight ins, before my first fight.
I am glad that I decided to take my chance to fight in competition. Most people training BJJ don’t ever take this step – even in my gym, which is a fairly competitive one, the proportion of people who compete regularly is very small compared to the total of people training there.
One of my team mates, who coached me regarding take downs, told me on the day of our last training before competition: “It will be good, you will see, I think you will become addicted to competing.”
I think she was right.
Until the next time,
Irime
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First photo taken by Phil IP X.