This guest post is from DirtyRancher, my favorite poster on Jiu Jitsu Forums. He’s part “Old Man,” part brown belt, part competitor, all awesome. He has rock solid competition advice. With his permission, I’ve put together a series of some of his best competition advice. This one is from “Is Competition for Everyone?“
I love competing, sadly, I have not had the opportunity to do so in BJJ as of yet. My reasoning is simple – I cannot afford to get hurt. Sole income in the house with people that depend on me.
Then by all means do the following:
- Get catastrophic insurance and disability insurance
- Quit jiu jitsu, you have a better chance of getting hurt at your school, having no medical experts there, or having an ambulance there, than at a “good” tournament.
I’m not 20 any more and don’t want to get injured which would put me away from bjj and other stuff and I think there are more chances to get injured in comp then any class, so I’m staying away for now…
I find that argument to be completely wrong. You don’t want to compete, so be it, don’t have to explain, but that isn’t the best excuse. Truthfully, you don’t need an excuse. But, I really don’t buy into the “if you go to a comp, you will be pulled out in a stretcher deal”.
I cataloged all of my injuries, the bad ones.
The worst: blue belts that are still spazzes, more specifically, blue belts that have a chip on the shoulder that actually “tell me” why they won’t compete. One didn’t explain to me until we were brown belts, the dude actually “sat me down” to tell me that I don’t understand why he doesn’t because he is 220 lbs and would be at superheavy. This guy not only throws elbows, he actually kicks blue belts in the head when he gets flustered. wtf???? I compete in the open every time I compete. I’m a lightweight, and I have won and lost to guys at superheavy… I didn’t need a sit down for that reason. Regardless, those are where my worst injuries came from.
Competing? That’s where guys look out for each other, maybe not at white belt adult, where the moms, and the dads, and the uncles, and the cousins from South America, Asia, Europe show up with chickens they brought on the airplane are in the stands, but the absolute best guys at rolling and respect (sure a few that were off – but none for me so far) have been at comps.
A soon-to-be blue belt bumps heads with me at the academy and I get close to a concussion. I go to pan am or nationals as a purple belt. I’m warming up for my match. Bill Cooper and some other dude fly into the tables and the barrier knocks me in the head in the same spot as where I got hit from the white belt.
Luckily, unlike when I’m at real BJJ class, the two main IBJJF medics run over to check me out. Do you have medics with all their gear at your school?
Jiu Jiu’s note: Have you let your fear of injury stop you from competing? Have you been injured in a tournament? What was your experience like?
I tore my MCL & ACL in judo. A basic o-soto, my partner was angled wrong, pulled my knee sideways and – POP. I’d never had any kind of serious injury before.
I’d thought I was invincible. Since getting injured (and STILL being injured – I’m still not back to standing), I’ve realized how easy it is to get hurt. Its made me a LOT more careful than I was. I tap earlier. I don’t try techniques that put my knee at risk. I stop people when they’re doing something that might hurt me. I’m more aware – and much more twitchy. I know how much it hurts… and I know how much it screws everything up.
Before I got injured, I don’t think I’d’ve even considered the possibility of injury before competing. Now? The thought makes me nervous. More medics at a competition – sure. Medics are for AFTER the injury. More to the point: more adrenaline, more energy, more risk-taking and more RISK.
When I got injured, my partner and I were doing mock competition drills for a judo competition. We were throwing fast and hard and with a lot of resistance. We were both competitive and probably less focused on doing things RIGHT than GETTING things right (as can happen in competition). He hooked for o-soto. So did I. We tangled, he pulled, I popped. And now, months later, I still can’t do judo (or anything else standing), and I’m looking at the Major Life Disruption of surgery. It sucks.
I understand that fear all too well. It’ll take me awhile to get over my fear of injury (not to mention my current injury) enough to compete.
Even when that fear makes no sense to an outsider, its a real fear.
Sarah – Dirty responded below. Don’t know if you saw it!
I also agree that a random fear of injury is a bit different than going in on something that is already temperamental and has a higher likelihood of hurting. However, don’t rule out your ability to tap to anything, even in a comp. Seriously!
I definitely don’t mean to downplay your fears, but I do also think it’s a shame when people let fears stop them from doing things they really want.
Oh man… I want to compete at some point, but up until now the thought of injury never crossed my mind! I’m more concerned about having everyone watching me or going into a comp and losing so badly that I look like I learn jiu jitsu off a cereal packet… Damn… Now I’m thinking about injury… I’ve got 2 kids… I’d be screwed if I got a bad injury!
Lol, Jiu-Jiu, I think your idea is running in reverse, this article is scaring people. But seriously, win or lose, you only get respect if you compete, trust me. Let’s do the math on the second part… do you think you are more likely to get injured by sparring someone your own skill level, weight, and gender at another location than your school (who you don’t know of course, but no more than you know option B… Option B, weighing in at 225 lbs, he is a security guard who used to get beat up in Jr. high PE class, he’s been wanting to prove himself for the last 3 years after taking steroids, he has anger issues, and tends to sweat a lot… enter The NEWBIE at your own school. “Hey Gumboots, can you show this new sweaty guy how to do some kimuras and americanas? Then when we spar, I want you to go against him first.”
I’m only white, and I’m one of those people who are super cautious when rolling. Not that it’s doing me much good right now. My theory is that I am a white belt, I don’t really know what I’m doing, and I’m not arrogant enough to think I do. If I go for say an armbar I rather make sure I’m doing it right and pull it on slowly, rather than just grab an arm and yank it as hard as possible, which is what most white belts do at my club lately… And what happened to me last night so now I’m probably out for a bit :-(. I guess that’s just as likely in comp as it is in class.
Hahahahaha it’s okay. It was bound to happen.
Check out the other thing I posted by DirtyRancher. It discusses that “I’m not ready aspect.”
If the thought of injury has not entered your mind, don’t let it now. Similarly, if someone is afraid of spiders, you shouldn’t all of a sudden be afraid of spiders! Do you wear a mouthguard every class? If not – you have a serious risk of accidentally losing your tooth! Especially the more you roll without wearing it! But like he says – if you’re so deathly afraid of injuries, you should not be in jiu jitsu. But you can also get in a car accident, so probably you should stop driving. Or taking planes. Okay now I’m being silly, but you get the idea.
I agree with you there 109%
Or have kids. I promise they will inflict more injuries on you than any rolling partner 🙂
I don’t compete in BJJ. For me it is about wanting my jiu-jitsu experience to be more about learning and progressing than competition. However, I am 37 years old. I am a mom. I run a karate dojo and I competed in karate for many years when I was younger. I came into BJJ with a very different perspective and very different goals than a lot of younger people who train. No judgement, its just different for me. That being said, even if I were into competition in BJJ I never would have competed as a white belt. I feel like there is much more opportunity for injury with beginners who tend to be spazzy, nervous, and do not have much control over their bodies yet. I would imagine higher level competition is much safer. This is just speculation, of course, since I have not done it. But based on what I see in class.
I compete in BJJ. For me it is about wanting my jiu-jitsu experience to be more about learning and progressing. I don’t compete for the win or lose part.
I am 47 years old. I am an uncle.
Yes, white belts are a little more dangerous than the rest, but they are at your school too.
I agree with you. However, I don’t see as much reckless spazzing with women, but that might be false – based on my extremely small sample size. I think, though, that you absolutely have things you can learn in competitions that you don’t learn on the mats. Meaning – it’s one of the few times when people are actually trying to beat you rather than just have a good roll. It means you can actually put to the test what you’ve been learning. You can also stress test what you’ve been learning.
I posted another article by Dirty about competing, and in it he says You will learn your strengths and weaknesses, this will give you something to work on, and what you can give up on for a while in training. This is awesome.
BUT, I’m literally just addressing the word you used about learning and don’t want you to think that there’s not much to be learned from competition. I support anyone’s reason to compete or not to compete. Heck – I’ve only been to one competition in the past 3 years. It’s a weird pressure to do competitions – whether externally or internally. I would like to start going to competitions – if only to be a woman who actually shows up, since there are (almost) none in Korea.
Hi Sarah,
Bummer on the knee. I actually never understood people with shoulder or knee injuries until I had one myself. It took me about a year to recover from a knee surgery that was caused by BJJ, and it wasn’t very fun. Until this day, I cannot run much more than a mile. You know there is a saying around bikers/motorcyclists, “it’s not if you go down, it’s when you go down”. That said, I hope your injury doesn’t turn you away from sports, but on the other hand, you can’t be an athlete without getting some injuries. I guess most of us sit somewhere between the people who can’t leave their homes out of fear and those crazy dudes in those flight suits who shoot through holes on the sides of mountains just for kicks. That said, in regards to your first 3 paragraphs, perhaps there is a little good that came out of it, as you are more aware that potentially things can go wrong when training, but I hope it doesn’t hold you back, and that you eventually find a good balance between caution and pushing your limits.
I got a good lol at the medic thing. You win 1-0 on that one. Bear in mind that this post is a derivative off a message board, and not something that I wrote to be an article. That said, there was a train of thought that went into it. To continue, and to answer Julia’s first question – have you been injured in a tournament [competing], I was injured kind of for real just one time, not enough to warrant medical help, but had troubles later because of it. It happened probably in 1979 or 1980 or so. My estimate of grappling matches is in the 200+ or so range. That one was in collegiate style wrestling. What I was getting at was that, at a competition, there are actually rules, a ref – who wouldn’t allow kicks to the head in a grappling match, and will usually look out for people bumping into you – and of course, the medics if it’s a good tournament. In class, your instructor may be watching, but that could be it, or, as in my case sometimes, the instructor is training and just glancing around here and there to make sure bad things aren’t happening. Enter what I believe is your portal to injury… the guy who’s ego is so big/fragile, that he will never compete (because the idea of losing is so overwhelming), but will take every opportunity to mess you up in class, or won’t use regular techniques, or just spazzes out, etc.
In wrestling, this was never an issue. Everyone competed, and to determine who was starting, most teams have intra-team competition early in the week to see who represents the team at what level. The rest of the time, you are training to take on another team. People with egos can’t join a team like that, their abilities will be put to the test. For those on the team, messing up a teammate is basically cutting your own throat, as, it ups the chance that when competing against your cross-town rivals, that the team will lose. Enter BJJ (not sure with your judo), no one has to compete. You can train like a spazz, you can practice your weaknesses, you can try to f*** people up, etc. In class anything goes, and sometimes, no one will be watching – or at least that close.
My third class, I had a guy hurt me on purpose. Classic! he asked how long I had been training, told me he’d help me out, then did a knee drop on my ribs. I was out for months. He loved doing stuff like that. So, after that long-windedness, my point is, sometimes, despite the fact it’s competition, some things are a little more controlled at a tournament than in your own school. Like I said, after years of this stuff, the worst injuries I have had were in BJJ, in class. Bad ones. Usually caused by people like this, whether they meant to or not. The worst injuries I have witnessed were in BJJ class. Ironically, they happened to these types of guys at almost the same frequency as the people they had injured! For me personally, there was only one injury ever that had me think of quitting altogether. Blue belt with his ego chip on his spazz shoulder in class messed my back up so bad, I thought I was paralyzed. I did think about stopping BJJ altogether, then realized, I really needed to avoid training with these types. The last thing it did though, was make me worried about competing.
Let me ask you… so mathematically, what is the risk or weighting factor that you give as to the chances of getting injured in class vs. competition? Being that you injured yourself in class, let me ask, have you competed?
For me at my belt, I put it at 1 : 1.35 that it’s safer for me to compete at my belt than to show up to class. While I may be in the ancient senior division, I have competed in brown belt adult open, where I did face an adult world champ. Yes, I lost, pretty bad, but I didn’t fear injury. Now sure, at white belt, I’d reverse the numbers 1.35 : 1 competition vs class. But, what is it for you? 2:1? 3:1? 10:1?
I’d give a 10:1 if I had to grapple any of Osiander’s white belts, lol.
Rambled enough, so I’ll keep it brief… now let’s get to the other half of your post…
“When I got injured, my partner and I were doing mock competition drills for a judo competition. We were throwing fast and hard and with a lot of resistance. ”
Ok, why? And what does that have to do with being injured in a competition? That’s all your folks own training craziness. I realize I’ve already written too much to begin with, so won’t go on much more, unless you want to discuss, but… if you want to go nuts training, that’s you. Pretty much any team I’ve been on, training doesn’t change a whole lot. When it comes tournament time and we want to win, we just drill more, and get in some cardio.
“We were both competitive and probably less focused on doing things RIGHT than GETTING things right (as can happen in competition).”
I wouldn’t do that, the best thing you can do when competing is to have the finest technique. Going bananas doesn’t help usually. Since you do judo and throws.. my best throw was at a Greco-Roman comp. A guy did a hip throw on me, as I was in the air, I didn’t resist, I went with it, slid underhim, my feet touched the ground and I launched him in a twisting front suplay. Best throw of my life, little strength, perfect hip placement.
Anyhoo – my last ramblings… The first guy I had responded too, shouldn’t be doing jiu jitsu if he worries so much about being hurt and being the bread winner, he will get hurt, competition or not. The second guy, I feel, just fears the unknown.
So there you go, a reply longer than the article, lol. Hope your knee gets better. Come back at me I guess.
This works a tad better if you reply to the person’s response rather than the article. ^_^ I replied to her to let her know you’d posted this here!!!
I’m our team massage therapist, as well as an active competitor. In the roughly 20 competitions I’ve entered in the last year and a half, I have been injured a grand number of zero times.
Most of my boo boos come from class – and I’d say 90 percent of them were a result of stupidity, and were completely preventable.
Now I have competed while already injured (after my doc grumpily clears me!), and haven’t ended up any worse for the wear. Oddly enough, I find I focus better when I’m more aware of a weak area. Hrm…
Oh man! I want a team massage therapist!!
What belt are you at? Which belt(s) have you competed at?
Yea my guys are spoiled!
I just got my blue belt 2 weeks ago. Will have my debut tournament next month!
Excellent! I hope it goes well!
I wish I could be “part old man”. Most days its ALL old man…
Hahahahahaha I love it.
The assertion that one is more likely to get injured while training than while competing is not really meaningful unless it can be backed up by a scientific poll or study. There have been studies done on sports such as soccer that show the amount of time spent on the field is directly proportional to the incidence of injury. This might be logically carried over into a sport such as bjj where you are subject to forces you can’t control. If someone competes once a month and gets 60 minutes of total match time at each competition, that would amount to only 12 hours per year of time in official matches. That’s probably less time than most readers of this blog spend training in a month, maybe by a lot. The question is more accurately, “What is my risk of injury at any given moment?” It it different at a tournament than at practice? Certainly we know that it’s higher with certain people than others and when rolling hard or doing compliant drills.
If you really cannot afford to be injured, I agree that you should pursue a sport with less risk, because to train with almost no risk to yourself would involve only drills and light rolling with certain people– the injured, weak, and consistently gentle, if that. That makes it really difficult to progress and enjoy what makes jiu jitsu appealing to most of us.
Fear of injury is a big reason I don’t compete much, though I do think it’s something I ought to do a couple times per year, at least. I didn’t compete as a white belt. I felt I was tested enough in training that entering tournaments wasn’t worth the time and money. In my paltry 13 minutes of total tournament match time, I have not been injured. I sustained a serious injury during training at an unfamiliar gym, while in a scramble with someone I was evenly matched with in size, age, and ability. He was not a spaz or a rookie. Neither was I. Since then, my apprehension includes not only fear of catastrophic injury, but of “tweaking” the injury I already have. In a tournament, I wouldn’t want to tap out and may not be able to further protect myself if my injury were aggravated, leading to regret the next day. So if I’m not feeling almost 100%, I easily convince myself it isn’t the right time to compete.
Science shmience (just kidding!). I like your question, though “What is my risk of injury at any given moment?” We had an in house “tournament” which I bowed out of. I do get concerned about people going too fast and furious and I get afraid of getting hurt. So you’re right – it’s about risk assessment, and for some gift certificates, I didn’t feel the risk was worth the reward. In a larger tournament against a woman my size/skill level, it would be worth it.
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