Competing as a Beginner In Jiu Jitsu

The truth about competing

You are not missing out on anything by not competing.  If you wish to experience training with new people, just pay the drop in at a different school, where you will get more matches and save hundreds of dollars.  

For some reason there is a big emphasis on competition for lower belts.  While yes competition may, for a select few, have some benefit, for most it does not at white belt. 

As a teacher it makes me pleased to see someone enter and win, for I know how much that must mean to them for a brief period of time, but you are still a beginner, and it is not some extraordinary feat to best another beginner. 

Those who win tournaments are often not the best at Jiu Jitsu, they are just better competitors and less affected by the pressure, stress and the environment of the tournament compared to others. 

Should you compete? 

Those who should are those who feel as if they have no choice but to compete.  The same as how water has no choice but to be wet.

If you are asking if you should, then you aren’t one of those people and are considering competition for secondary gains.

Wishing to get something out of competing is not bad, it just means that your intentions are not pure, and when you are tested, or things become tough, or you start losing a match, or when you have won but have another 2-4 matches ahead of you to win gold, you will break, want out, or not perform at your best.

Should you wish to be a person who has no choice but to compete, it won’t be found in sports psychology, “BJJ mental models”, or trying to imbibe the advice or mindset of someone else. 

It may be found within you by identifying the obstacles preventing such a thing from arising naturally, then subtracting them and your exposure to them from your life.

All the positive talk and affirmations are glue which cannot hold you up forever if your intentions are not pure.

Many competitors, even at black belt worlds, reach a point in a competition where they realize that even if they lose, they will still get bronze, and stop giving their all. 

They subconsciously accept defeat before their next match has even started. They compete for the status, the medal, or title— not the purity of the fight itself.

Competing can be fun and thrilling, but the truth is that you are paying a lot of money to have someone else use all the strength in their entire body to crank your neck, possibly drop down on and explode your knee, or break your bones in exchange for a possible moment of glory which nobody will remember after a short period of time, and a five dollar medal that will eventually sit in a drawer.

The one who seeks the cosmetics that is believed to be achieved through competition may eventually find the juice not worth the squeeze.