Despite being an utter BJJ n00b, I will be in this comp.

Anybody else going to be around?

Its the 3rd leg of the New South Wales (Australia) BJJ tourney. My organisation, Roots BJJ (http://www.brazilianjiujitsu.com.au/), is currently second place, behind the Machados and in front of the Gracies.

At the last leg in September, I think Elvic Sinosec was a judge there. A ginuwyne celebritee!

It will be a Sydney Uni. If anyone is interested in coming along to watch I will post more details when I know them.

Did I hear that you guys sell bullshido patches? I'm looking to liven up my gi...

Will try to post some pictures. Wish me luck...

Tear it up! Coming out of my first tournament with a gold, I feel obligated to tell everyone else to just get out there and compete. It's fun stuff!

Thanks - Gold in your first comp eh... You've set quite a standard...

:)

I am really looking forward to it. All of the people I train with are either much heavier than me or much more skilled. So I just can't wait to get it on with people the same size as me who aren't leagues ahead of me in terms of skill...

The plan is to train really hard rolling for 2 weeks, then lay off a little for the week leading up and work more on fitness and technique. How does that sound?

Any other advice?

My main advice is that when you compete, DO WHAT YOU KNOW.

Now that might sound like an obvious statement, but there is this strange thing that comes over people when they compete, and I saw it happen with my teammates at this recent tournament: They try to do new things, things they aren't good at, things they still need to drill. They would try 3 different guards they aren't good at, they would attempt submissions they've never tried before, they try to be dynamic and exciting and they would just end up getting beat. You don't want to be trying to "expand your game" or "work on this move" DURING THE TOURNAMENT. Do that in training when it doesn't matter.

I won my fights because I trained hard at the things I know, and for a week before the tournament, I didn't learn anything new. I actually actively avoided learning anything new and exciting, just so my mind would be focused on the stuff I do know. I just drilled my basics and my mainstays, and sparred, and sparred, and sparred, and drilled, and sparred some more.

Then in the tournament, I just ran through my normal techniques and look what it got me. :eusa_danc

On a related note, here's something else that occurred to me: Right before competition, it seems a lot of guys try to suddenly cram a bunch of new stuff, as if they need to learn new advanced stuff to win. I almost had an urge to do this, but I stopped and just said to myself "I might not know that much, but I do know enough to beat any other white belt" and I just continued to train the things I already knew.

Sounds good.

I'm going to concentrate on passing the guard, sweeps, spider guard, takedowns, armbar and triangle from guard, americana from mount or side control, armbar from mount, and a couple of gi chokes. Also got to keep moving, remembering I score points for good positioning...

I am excited.

TTT for the Aussies.........

Damn Kangaroo-eating drongos.

good luck




-stupid fucking ten character limit-

Nice!

First tourney I'm assuming, how much experience do you have?

Only a few months in BJJ, and yes, my first tourney.

Should be fun! Most of my club is competing, so it is going to be good.

Good luck, DON'T FORGET THE VIDS! :D

I wish you good luck. I wonder when I'll be ready to enter my first BJJ competition. I figure I've got another year or so.

Supercrap, how did you do? Hopefully you came away with some piece of mind, if not a trophy.

Ha! Okay I didn't post because I had the flu the whole week after the comp.

I fought and lost, but it was a great experience...

I fought against a guy with around a years experience (I have around 4 months) and he outclassed me accordingly.

What I learned from it was that I had good control over my nerves. MY stand up was pretty good until I seemed to just trip over my feet and land on my butt... Up until then I was feeling good, going for throws and trips and resisting his attempts. I basically fell and had him in my guard for about a minute, resisting his attempts to pass, frantically turning and turning with him, until he finally overpowered me and got in side control. Didn't take him long to get me on my side, step over and apply the armbar.

I had an awesome time though and I already feel like I roll better in class for the experience. I have it on video and a bunch of pictures which I could post tomorrow if anyone is interested... However the video is 50 megs and I can't be bothered reducing it in premiere.

All in all it was an awesome day. And I got my free 'BJJ competitor' t-shirt, which made it all worthwhile!

Awesome! I'd like to start competing, but I've got to learn how to keep someone in my guard. I swear my guard gets passed more than a plate of turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

We have these drills where one guy gets someone in the spider guard and the other guy goes for knee on the chest. Well, often times people can pass me as if we were doing that drill. It's pretty frustrating.

I know... I felt I did pretty well (although he did pass in the end)

They key for me is to make your legs 'heavy' or relaxed, and try to feel where he's trying to go. Don't fight him directly because as soon as you stiffen up your legs become like planks of wood, easy for him to pick up and shove away. Keep them soft and relaxed but not floppy... Think 'heavy'.

Urr... that's my noob's advice for you.