Many practitioners, especially beginners, find competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu a stressful experience. Even with a high success rate game plan, a white belt will face several challenges in his first BJJ tournament and beyond. In these circumstances, you may wonder; Is competing in white belt BJJ events worthwhile?
Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments will help competitors improve their grappling skills and performance. As a result, this practice is beneficial to all levels of BJJ practitioners, including white belts.
This article discusses some excellent BJJ white belt tournament preparation tips and strategies. It will assist you in checking out the needed things when competing in jiu-jitsu. Stay tuned!
Should White Belts Compete In BJJ?
Competition may turn out to be the best grappling experience. As a jiu-jitsu white belt or another colored belt, you will learn amazing things as a competitor that will change your life.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions teach valuable lessons to help you become a better version of yourself. It will increase your self-confidence, self-esteem, and ability to use effective tactics to get things done.
Indeed, many people compete in tournaments to improve their skills, challenge themselves, learn something new, etc. Others are testing whether or not they are becoming better at BJJ.
Otherwise, your grappling training quality will skyrocket as you participate more and more in tournaments. This is why a competitor’s game is more effective and includes high success rate techniques tailored to his individual experience.
Source: Beauty and the Gi
How to Prepare for a White Belt BJJ Competition?
A white belt competitor should actively work to improve his game when preparing for a BJJ tournament. Many competition experts advise their competitors to have an effective routine to do well in competitions, such as:
- Technical BJJ Preparation: This training aims to prepare competitors regarding techniques, game plans, etc. During these sessions, they test the effectiveness of their attacks and defenses to develop a super-efficient game plan.
- Physical & Mental Preparation: This training aims to improve a competitor’s physical and mental abilities. During these physical training sessions, grapplers work actively on their mobility, flexibility, conditioning, strength, and mindset.
- Diet Adjustment: Competitors should adjust their diet to gain more energy while avoiding fatigue and injuries.
BJJ White Belt Competition Tips and advice
The followings are some critical BJJ Tournaments keys and tips that a white belt should know to have the best competing experience.
Practice More for BJJ Tournaments
To compete in a BJJ tournament, you must attain a high level of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practice. Besides, you should accumulate strong knowledge and execute many defense/attack techniques (guard, back attack, mount, side control, armbar, etc.).
However, some students do jiu-jitsu simply because they enjoy gaining knowledge and having fun training in this unique martial art.
On the other hand, maybe, they dislike the limelight or don’t want to compete. Otherwise, other people don’t like to compete because they don’t know how to deal with loss and the competition’s stress.
Adopt the Right Mindset
The tournament shows up a high level of understanding of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Otherwise, it shows the competitor’s organization, strategy, planning, timing, attitude, strength, conditioning, and the acceptance of failure to upgrade.
Of course, if you win, you are happy. And, if you lose, your world gets turned upside down. This fear of losing scares some people from the competition, but some live and die in BJJ competitions.
Related: 17+ Most Important BJJ Rules for White Belts
Understand That the Best Competitor Doesn’t Always Win
Take, for example, the world jiu-jitsu championship; fifty fighters sweat and train hard, but there is only one winner.
What about the twenty-nine who worked so hard? Is the tournament winner the best BJJ fighter?
Sometimes, the competitor with the best techniques gets knockout in the first ride. Thus, if you decide to compete, realize that competition is the art of dealing with pressure ‘where there is pressure, there is competition.’
Understand That Tournament Is an Opportunity to Level Up Your Game
The jiu-jitsu students who don’t compete will miss many opportunities to level up their game and learn many incredible things.
Perhaps, a competitor feels more pressure than one who doesn’t compete. Although, he fights against himself, his feelings, and his choices.
Ultimately, the opponent you will face on the mat is yourself because if you cannot deal with your internal issues, it will affect your performance.
Nevertheless, you won’t be able to overcome your opponent in the jiu-jitsu competition if you are too worried about yourself.
However, if you are comfortable with your jiu-jitsu training, you will be confident to compete effectively. Thus, becoming the next BJJ champion is not about your opponent; it’s about you.
Let’s see how Nicholas Meregali had been absorbing lots of pressure before he defeated Leandro Lo in the World jiu-jitsu Championship 2017
Source: IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation)
Actively Work on Your Conditioning and Strength When Competing
Success in Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions, including those for white belts, requires good strength and conditioning. This is because the BJJ ground fighting is physically demanding. If the competitor runs out of gas, he will get badly destroyed and lose the fight.
As a result, jiu-jitsu white belt competitors should actively work to increase their physical talents by establishing a robust strength and conditioning regimen.
Related Article: Visit this blog post to learn about the best BJJ strength and conditioning exercises.
Work Actively on Your Mobility and Flexibility for Tournaments
An excellent level of mobility and flexibility is essential to perform the different jiu-jitsu techniques and transitions accurately. Otherwise, these workouts will help you stay healthy, boost your speed, avoid injuries, and so on.
As a result, adopting a good stretching and mobility program is essential for tournament and life success.
Related: Best Stretches for Jiu-Jitsu (Better Mobility & Flexibility)
Establish Reasonable Competition Expectations
Brazilian jiu-jitsu matches are complex, and you don’t always win. As a result, you must establish fair objectives and expectations and prepare yourself psychologically and technically to accomplish them.
Have a Clear Winning Game Plan
A game plan describes how a BJJ competitor will employ the techniques he has learned to achieve his aim of “winning the war.” As a result, it is favorable and can dramatically impact your results in tournaments.
Blue belt jiu-jitsu competitors should thus design a plan to overcome more competent opponents. Otherwise, they must continually improve their game plan to be effective against all combatants.
Always Check the BJJ Tournaments Rules
The rules and regulations for jiu-jitsu competition vary from one organization to another (IBJJF rules, Naga rules, Grappling Industries rules, ADCC, SJJIF, and so on). Therefore, to avoid disqualification, you should check and understand the tournament rules and regulations. For example:
- Check that your gear complies with the competition rules: Ensuring that your gear (gis, rashguards, etc.) complies with the competition’s rules and regulations is crucial for any competitor to avoid unfair disqualification, whether you’re competing in IBJJF, Naga, etc.
- Check out the prohibited techniques: Depending on the level and belt, competition organizations restrict specific dangerous techniques that endanger competitors, such as slamming, jumping guard, crucifix, finger grabbing, etc.
- Understand how to win a match: Understand how to defeat your opponent if you want to win a tournament. In addition, you should be aware that the game is either submission-only, scoring-only, or both submissions and points.
Related Article: Check out this article about Brazilian jiu-jitsu rules & regulations.
Satisfy Your Weight Class Division
Make sure you know and keep track of your weight class division to avoid missing a weight. As a result, controlling your training intensity and diet is critical for any competitor to prevent severe weight cutting for the tournament in the last seconds.
Related Article: Click here to know your adequate BJJ weight class.
Conclusion
BJJ tournaments, including those for white belts, reveal how competitors train and what they know about this beautiful grappling discipline. Furthermore, these beneficial events demonstrate the practitioner’s mindset, problem-solving level, self-control, and so on.
Considering these benefits, any Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner should compete in tournaments.
Aside from that, competitors will consistently demonstrate to the world how professional jiu-jitsu is.
However, the growth of the BJJ sport in future generations will not depend on the competition. This is due to the extensive work done by various academies and organizations to make this martial art accessible to all.
Please let us know if you have any other competition tips that we have overlooked. Thank you very much!
Related Article: Click here to Get the Most of Your First BJJ Blue Belt Tournament.
