Here are some thoughts on how to process competition and losses after competing.
Goals should be flexible. Before competition it is perfectly reasonable to look at winning as success and losing as failure. After all, you should be trying to win. Isn’t it a fundamental point of a contest? Before the competition you should expect to win. You should be training to win. Nobody owes you anything on the mat, so don’t expect it to be easy. Go out there and be ready to take and conquer territory. Understand that your opponent is trying to do the same, so be ready for a hard war. However, if you lose, after the competition, you should redefine what just happened. Do not define it as failure. If you process what you did right and wrong, study the video, learn from it and then improve (intentionality maximizes learning), how can it possibly be failure? It’s not. Defining it as such, is not healthy or helpful. In short, before and during the competition it is perfectly reasonable to look at winning as success and losing as failure, but afterwards, if you come short, you should redefine it.
Also, understand that it takes what it takes. You don’t get to decide what it takes, you find out what it takes to win. That is, the market decides. Anyone who is willing to pay the price, which has to be paid patiently can win. That being said, it is very hard to compete once or twice a year and shine. It’s simply just too hard to optimize or even get everything in order all at once. Maybe for your first competition you fix your training frequency, for 2nd you start counting points in your practice rolls, for 3rd you start doing sprints a couple of times a week, for 4th you start lifting a couple of times a week. Maybe then you figure out how to step up your diet, then supplements, then food the day off, then mentality the day of, then how to do weight cutting properly, and finally how to warm up the day off. You should be working on these constantly, but the point is learning how to do all of this properly takes time. Be patient with yourself. Give yourself some time to figure out how to function on high RPMs, under high stress, against not so friendly opponents.
Will competing boost your BJJ skills? Yes, 100%. Setting short-term and intermediate-term goals will demystify the process of growth. It makes it nearly certain. How often should you compete? Here are some buckets you can use to keep yourself honest in terms of what you want to do and what you actually end up doing this coming year. The point is, keep yourself honest and accountable in terms of your goals.
1) You don’t really want to compete, but want to challenge yourself a bit. Compete 1-2 times a year. No pressure here, just challenge yourself.
2) Occasional competitor: 4 times a year. This will keep you on track and likely improving every quarter.
3) Regular competitor: 6 times a year, or every other month. It is better to space them out with regular intervals. This is appropriate for you if you want to progress faster than an average BJJ practitioner, and want to win or medal at a local IBJJF tournament (IBJJF open).
4) Active/frequent competitor: 1 to 2 times a month. Treat each year as a competition season. This appropriate for you if you want to win or medal at one of the Grand Slam tournaments (Worlds, Pans, Brasileiros, or Europeans). There is one for both in Gi and No Gi each year.
Train hard, train smart, train intentional. OSS!
by Serge Severenchuk