Tournament Strategy

Here is an important one that many beginners and even higher belts don't really follow. When you go compete have in mind what you want to do. The most frustrating part of watching people compete is watching the standup, where the two competitors don't know how to wrestle. First off, if your wrestling sucks, don't try to wrestle, you have 2 main options. Option #1, if your top game is your strong point, be patient, your opponent WILL EVENTUALLY shoot so be ready to sprawl and fight for the top position, option #2, if your bottom game is solid, pull guard, but please learn HOW to pull guard before you go into a tournament, I have seen one too many people pull side mount rather than guard. Once you progress you will have other choices, if your wrestling sucks, and you want to end up on top, work on a "go to" sweep. Have one sweep in your arsenal that you KNOW you can hit every time and learn how to pull guard into the exact position you like to execute that sweep. This is so crucial in sport bjj. You have 5, 6, 7, 8, or 10 min to either submit your opponent or score more points than him. It is much to your advantage to always play into your strengths. The obvious thing is to learn how to wrestle, but that takes years to really make effective, but if you do, then you can have the confidence to be either up 2-0 in every match or start on top from opponents who just pull guard.

When you are training in class, you know what you are good at, what positions you are comfortable in, what attacks are effective for you, etc... Classtime is where you work on your weaknesses, try to add more techniques to your arsenal, etc... So many times I see a classmate or student of mine try something in a tournament they don't EVER do regularly, nor do they ever really practice. That is not the time nor place for that. The really frustrating part is they come and sit next to you and sulk about it. Sorry, no sympathy for you, you did something stupid and you got punished for it, don't cry to me about it. Losing sucks, if you give it your best shot, tried to stick to your gameplan, listened to your coaches and you lost, then you get my respect 100%. Even if you made a few simple mistakes, or situation was out of your control, you still deserve 100% respect. However, if you go out there and try a flying triangle (you don't even do regular triangles in class, you saw it on youtube and wanted to do it), get your guard passed then choked in 30 seconds, when our strategy was "pull butterfly guard, sweep, then work your top game" then you need to slap yourself in the face.

While it's always good to picture in your head what you're going to do in a tournament, and have a strategy going in, don't have the strategy be SO straight-forward that if it veers off path, you're screwed. For example, a student of mine thought he was just going to run in and guillotine everybody to a gold medal. He ended up losing to a tough guy in his first match because he missed the guillotine then didn't know exactly what he should be doing the rest of the match. You need to create a tree of techniques and situations you go through in your head for every position, know what you need to do at X to get to Y. If you plan on passing the guard, but get swept in the process, what technique are you going to do? How are you going to get back to where you want to be? You need to know these things before you step on the mat.

General competition mindset is one of the most overlooked aspects of tournament strategy. I've spoken to a bunch of people about what they like to do in tournaments, and the majority say "I just go in there and do what I can, if I win great, if not, well at least I tested myself." That honestly boggles my mind. While tournaments aren't gonna break your wallet, I feel like that type of mindset is like tossing out the tournament fee. You pay sometimes $100+ to compete. I don't compete for the sake of competing, I compete to win. I absolutely hate losing. I go in there knowing what I want to do and wanting to win. I feel like it's a absolute waste if anybody competing thinks otherwise.

The last bit is learning to study your opponent. If you're a lower belt, chances are your opponent isn't going to be a recognized name, so you go into the first match blind, however, you do get an opportunity to see who your next opponent is and what his game looks like. Watch all the matches in your division, know who you're going to compete against, figure out his strengths and weaknesses so you can try to exploit them. I've been fortunate enough to see some of my opponents on youtube to study them before having to compete with them, but that's not always the case. If I see somebody that's got a REALLY strong guard game, maybe I'll pull guard and go for a quick sweep, don't allow him to pull guard on me so I can find a way to still end up on top with a score of 2-0. With that scenario, it forces my opponent to become desperate, especially if time on the clock is ticking down, desperate grapplers often go for techniques and open up holes in their game that allows for passing or submission opportunities.

Hope this post was helpful, and hopefully you guys think about your bjj differently especially when it comes to competing.