Competing in BJJ

Last night my flight home got cancelled twice and I’m flying back home late tonight.

Thanks United.

Not the most ideal conditions. But it’s all good.

The extra day gave me a chance to train with my good friend at Kurt Pelegrino’s gym this morning.

While I would rather be home. When life throws you a curve ball. Just go with the flow and keep moving. 

Tournaments are very much this way. 

People want the perfect storm of hard training, no injuries and a confident mentality that is about as common as a unicorn.

Like this year for me, I took the No Gi Pans on a last minute decision.

I had a few nagging injuries (nothing serious) and I got sick the week before. And I was moving up weight classes.

Slightly injured, slightly sick and moving up in weight. Not the most ideal conditions. 

But seasoned competitors know that you’ll rarely, if ever,  go into a tournament feeling 100%. 

The training leading up is often hard. And it makes you question the real potential in yourself. You have those days where you ask yourself, “am I really good enough to win?”

It’s never perfect.

But when things don’t go according to plan, or don’t look exactly like what you expected. You just say screw it, and do something anyway.

Had I let me inner voice keep me from competing because I wasn’t 100% I would have missed the chance to have an amazing experience competing.

I would have also missed the chance to snag a nice Single Leg takedown

(as you see in the picture above).

You can learn the same High Level Single Leg in my Wrestling for BJJ series. (You don’t even have to drop to a knee to get it)

I would have also missed the awesome training with Tom, Matt, Pat and Danny.

I wasn’t 100% but I am 100% happy I decided to take action and do the thing I wanted to do. 

And if you’re thinking about competing in BJJ or doing something you want to do, but you don’t feel 100% ready and your inner voice is throwing negative thoughts out.

Just say screw it and take a step forward. It may come out a little messy. But you’ll be glad you did it in the end.

Talk to you guys next time. Once I get home!

-Chewy-