Preparing Your Mind for Competition

By Liz

What challenges do I face as a female competitor? 

I’ll never forget my first competition. I competed for the first time as a white belt after I’d been training for about seven months. At the last minute, I decided to cut weight because there weren’t any other women signed up for my weight division. In order to participate, I had to cut six pounds. The night before I spent over two hours in a sauna and didn’t drink any water. I woke up the next morning completely dehydrated, but didn’t eat or drink anything before the tournament. I got there and weighed in--I was still two pounds over. I spent the next hour trying to sweat it out and eventually was forced to weigh-in in a crowded gym in nothing but my sports bra and underwear. People stared at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was. But I made it.

At that point, I was totally exhausted and dehydrated, but my first match was coming up soon. I drank some water and ate some bread, but it was already too late to revive my energy. My first match was a blur. The girl I was going against was a black belt in judo, and she immediately threw me across the mat and arm locked me. In the next match, I was mounted in a few seconds and submitted by front-collar choke. All I remember is being completely suffocated by the girl then I felt myself blacking out and tapped. I won my third match by submission with a triangle. That was a good moment.

During my first two matches, I was completely taken aback by the strength, aggression, speed, and skill of my opponents. And it wasn’t the first time that would happen at a competition. To this day, I still feel that way every time I compete. This is a testament to the amazingly strong and skillful women who surround me in jiujitsu, a type of strength that is admirable and inspirational for me.

Before my first competition, and before most of the other competitions since then, I’d been training like crazy, but still I was completely unprepared--or at least I felt unprepared. At most (but not all) of the competitions I’ve participated in, I’ve been completely overwhelmed and intimidated by the strength and speed of the women I’ve competed against. I’ve lost a great majority of the matches I’ve participated in--usually by submission or by a significant number of points. There are several reasons for this, I believe, which I outline below. For my BJJ sisters who have never competed before, here is what I’ve learned. For those who have competed, please comment below with your opinions and advice.

• Sheer nervousness: Being nervous before competition is a huge asset. The pumping adrenaline and nervous energy can be channeled as strength against your opponent. However, sometimes I get so nervous my mind goes blank and I forget even the most basic of techniques. So while being nervous is good, doubting yourself and doubting your jiujitsu is bad. Believe in yourself and believe in your jiujitsu. When it comes to competition, it is 100% heart. Leave it all out there on the mat.
• One of the things that can help with the blank-mind problem is to drill, drill, and then drill some more when preparing for competition. When your brain turns off during the match, it’s all muscle memory from there. You have no time to stop and think about what you’re doing. Your moves need to be as natural a reflex as breathing.
• Some people, I believe, incorrectly told me to think about competition matches just like rolling at the gym. This is FALSE. Competition requires a completely different mindset and is a completely different style of sparring. During rolling at the gym, you have the time and space to experiment with techniques and to flow. During competition, it’s more like trying to destroy someone. You have to think that way if you want to win. Having the mindset of really wanting to smash my opponent has been the main thing that has set my wins apart from my losses.
• I used to have a HORRIBLE mindset at comps to the extent that I actually felt bad when I beat someone! Hence why I probably lost so many matches. Or sometimes I even felt good when I lost, thinking to myself, “Well, I bet I made her day.” FUCK THAT SHIT. This is where being raised in our culture as a woman really puts me at a disadvantage during competition because we are often too nice.
• The whole “being nice” thing goes for rolling during training sessions as well. Sometimes I’m afraid that my training partners will think I’m bitchy or too aggressive for rolling hard with them. Again, FUCK THAT SHIT. If you want to succeed in competition, you gotta roll hard and you gotta roll aggressive. Not spazzy. Technical, strong, and aggressive. There is a balance there that takes a while for white belts to understand, but it’s really important you don’t fall too far down the passive track. I was and still am a passive roller. It is a really bad habit and absolutely detrimental when training for competition.
• Sometimes the guys at my gym go too easy on me. They will roll lighter with me than they normally do or even straight up give me submissions. Maybe because I’m not as strong as them and they feel bad. Or sometimes they’ll use their roll with me to focus on technique. On the one hand, I appreciate this because lighter flow rolling gives me the opportunity to practice new techniques and also pads my ego. However, this attitude men have when rolling with me--that they should go easier on me than normal--is absolutely detrimental to my training when preparing for competition. I maintain that this is one of the main reasons I am usually unprepared for competition. Since this realization, I’ve learned to go hard with everyone, and they usually will match my strength. Sometimes I’ll tell them to please go hard on me because I’m preparing for competition, and they usually will.
• My training partners are usually 10-60 lbs heavier than me. This is incredibly damaging to my training and puts me at a huge disadvantage for competitions (see Meg’s earlier post about his topic here). While I train 90% of the time with people that are heavier, in competition I’m going against women who are the same size as me. This not only means they are much faster than what I’m used to, but also they use different techniques and strategies in their rolls. Rather than just using their weight or strength to smash me, they are sneaky, tricky, speedy, and technical in all of their movements. This is not something I’m used to when rolling with big, heavy, strong guys. So when preparing for competition, it is absolutely essential to roll with other women of the same strength, size, and skill level as yourself. These women are usually very hard to find, so if you find one, hold on to her for dear life.
• I have to admit I have never been proud of the medals I have won. At most competitions, including at the large international competitions I’ve been to, less than 5% of the competitors are women. This means that you will probably have no more than six women in your division (but more likely you will have three to four women in it). As long as you win a couple matches, you will walk away with a bronze medal at the very least. I’ve never gotten first place at a competition, but I’ve won a lot of silver and bronze medals because even if I only win one match, I will generally walk away with a bronze medal. But I never feel like I deserve it. One some level, this is a healthy level of modesty. On another level, we should never feel ashamed of expressing or feeling pride for our medals. Just be prepared to feel a sense of disappointment after your tournament, whether or not you win or lose.

Liz started jiujitsu in 2011, got her blue belt in 2013, and has competed in nine competitions. Although she is from California, she is currently training and coaching jiujitsu abroad. She’s learned through training that it’s all about the fight, not the victory.

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