Competing again...
Hey Guys,
Hope all is well with everyone and you're moving towards your goals.
This weekend I am stepping back on the mat at the Scottish BJJ Open. After the other weeks dismal performance I'm hoping to go up there and perform as well as I know I can.
I really don't care about winning or losing, it's my performance that matters to me. I want to go out there and not make any daft mistakes and perform to a standard that I know I can.
The last competition highlighted a few things that I need to change. The most vital is having a game plan. Previously I have just gone out there and reacted to what my opponent does in the hope of capitalising on his mistakes or him putting himself in a position that I am strong in. This is a terrible way to compete as all I am doing is reacting to his game plan.
I become guilty of letting them put me situations where I am weak and they are strong due to the fact I have no idea where I am going and they have a map to where they are going.
I think that a lot of BJJ practitioners have a similar experience when it comes to competing, especially those who compete on a regular basis. Most people train BJJ for fun and use competition as an extension of that. This is great and I predominantly do BJJ for fun and not just to win competitions.
However I want my BJJ to be the best it can be, and competing is the most efficient way to do it.
Every serious sports person will tell you that there is a massive difference between exercising and TRAINING. When you are training you are working towards a specific goal and practising pre planned techniques and moves, anything else is just going through the movements. Many books such as Bounce, the Talent Code and Outliners talk about getting in 10,000 hours of an activity to achieve mastery.
However it isn't just getting in 10,000 random hours, it's 10,000 hours of predetermined and planned practice.
As BJJ has about a million techniques I think that many (definitely myself included) get distracted and want to try new and exciting things all the time. While this is great in the gym, and one of the main reasons I love BJJ, it is not conducive to getting better.
The better BJJ players go into every training session with specific things that they want to work on, that fit into an over all strategy of the game they would like to play. It is easy to become a jack of all trades at BJJ but it is those who that excel at 1 or 2 moves that do the best in the gym and at competition.
From now on in my training I am going to just try to work specific actions of an over all plan to allow me to have an 'A' game (A to me, about E or F to everyone else).
Let's hope that I can get it to work this Saturday!
Hope to see some of you there!
Stay Healthy,
Mike
Hope all is well with everyone and you're moving towards your goals.
This weekend I am stepping back on the mat at the Scottish BJJ Open. After the other weeks dismal performance I'm hoping to go up there and perform as well as I know I can.
I really don't care about winning or losing, it's my performance that matters to me. I want to go out there and not make any daft mistakes and perform to a standard that I know I can.
The last competition highlighted a few things that I need to change. The most vital is having a game plan. Previously I have just gone out there and reacted to what my opponent does in the hope of capitalising on his mistakes or him putting himself in a position that I am strong in. This is a terrible way to compete as all I am doing is reacting to his game plan.
I become guilty of letting them put me situations where I am weak and they are strong due to the fact I have no idea where I am going and they have a map to where they are going.
I think that a lot of BJJ practitioners have a similar experience when it comes to competing, especially those who compete on a regular basis. Most people train BJJ for fun and use competition as an extension of that. This is great and I predominantly do BJJ for fun and not just to win competitions.
However I want my BJJ to be the best it can be, and competing is the most efficient way to do it.
Every serious sports person will tell you that there is a massive difference between exercising and TRAINING. When you are training you are working towards a specific goal and practising pre planned techniques and moves, anything else is just going through the movements. Many books such as Bounce, the Talent Code and Outliners talk about getting in 10,000 hours of an activity to achieve mastery.
However it isn't just getting in 10,000 random hours, it's 10,000 hours of predetermined and planned practice.
As BJJ has about a million techniques I think that many (definitely myself included) get distracted and want to try new and exciting things all the time. While this is great in the gym, and one of the main reasons I love BJJ, it is not conducive to getting better.
The better BJJ players go into every training session with specific things that they want to work on, that fit into an over all strategy of the game they would like to play. It is easy to become a jack of all trades at BJJ but it is those who that excel at 1 or 2 moves that do the best in the gym and at competition.
From now on in my training I am going to just try to work specific actions of an over all plan to allow me to have an 'A' game (A to me, about E or F to everyone else).
Let's hope that I can get it to work this Saturday!
Hope to see some of you there!
Stay Healthy,
Mike