Ever felt this way?

[TechniqueFreak]

I've been doing BJJ for 4 yrs. I do it because I love it. I don't do it to make friends, or to stand around in the academy talking about MMA, or to elevate my social standing by following around some famous black belt just to be seen with him, etc. I love to spar, and I love BJJ. I'm a white belt (no stripes). My academy training has been on/off, once a week avg. I've never competed in a tournament.
When I roll in class, I roll to make my opp. tap using minimal strength or effort. Strictly I follow this. For the past five months, I've been tapping out everyone I roll with, except for 3 people: a slightly heavier but much stronger white belt, a 255-lb. powerlifter white belt, and my brown belt instructor. I'm 6-4, 187 lbs, and cannot bench press my weight. My cardio is below avg. compared to the guys I train with. I can tap all the other white belts, and all of the blue belts, since none of them have more than 20 lbs. on me.
Now, I'm interested in competing. I don't want to spend a lot of time or money or go to a lot of tournaments. I want to go to a few, and I want to win. Recently, our school held an in-house tourney (just among members of the school.) I entered and got submitted with a triangle choke from the guard my first match against a guy I'd easily beaten before. I stayed and watched everyone else's matches. One guy who always gets the living crap kicked out of him in class almost won his division, but lost a close match in the final. When he competed, it was as if he suddenly got three times better! In fact, everyone who competed that day seemed three times better.
Obviously, it's entirely my fault I lost, and I need to improve my tournament skills big time. However, I had a false sense of my abilities. How can I expect to win a tournament if people in class (except those 3) roll like crap, letting me tap them 4 times in 6 min, letting me sweep them, letting me pin them w/o them escaping, letting me block all their submissions, letting me pass guard straight to side control/knee-on-belly/mount w/o ever being in the guard or even touching their legs, letting me reverse them, and worst of all letting me get in the habit of doing stupid things like passing the guard w/one arm in, one arm out w/o them going for a triangle?

[EmptyneSs]

I've been doing BJJ for 4 yrs. I do it because I love it. I don't do it to make friends, or to stand around in the academy talking about MMA, or to elevate my social standing by following around some famous black belt just to be seen with him, etc. I love to spar, and I love BJJ. I'm a white belt (no stripes). My academy training has been on/off, once a week avg. I've never competed in a tournament.
When I roll in class, I roll to make my opp. tap using minimal strength or effort. Strictly I follow this. For the past five months, I've been tapping out everyone I roll with, except for 3 people: a slightly heavier but much stronger white belt, a 255-lb. powerlifter white belt, and my brown belt instructor. I'm 6-4, 187 lbs, and cannot bench press my weight. My cardio is below avg. compared to the guys I train with. I can tap all the other white belts, and all of the blue belts, since none of them have more than 20 lbs. on me.
Now, I'm interested in competing. I don't want to spend a lot of time or money or go to a lot of tournaments. I want to go to a few, and I want to win. Recently, our school held an in-house tourney (just among members of the school.) I entered and got submitted with a triangle choke from the guard my first match against a guy I'd easily beaten before. I stayed and watched everyone else's matches. One guy who always gets the living crap kicked out of him in class almost won his division, but lost a close match in the final. When he competed, it was as if he suddenly got three times better! In fact, everyone who competed that day seemed three times better.
Obviously, it's entirely my fault I lost, and I need to improve my tournament skills big time. However, I had a false sense of my abilities. How can I expect to win a tournament if people in class (except those 3) roll like crap, letting me tap them 4 times in 6 min, letting me sweep them, letting me pin them w/o them escaping, letting me block all their submissions, letting me pass guard straight to side control/knee-on-belly/mount w/o ever being in the guard or even touching their legs, letting me reverse them, and worst of all letting me get in the habit of doing stupid things like passing the guard w/one arm in, one arm out w/o them going for a triangle?

there are many variables. mabye the people who did well were able to handle the pressure better or whatever. mabye your opponent got lucky. mabye you did better in training because you knew it wasnt as big a deal as a competition so you were more relaxed and able to do better, and u choked up when u had to compete. either way, shit happens and there are many different reasons why this occured. the fact is, the only thing you can do is keep training.

[aseepish]

There is a different mentality when you spar in class, and when you compete in a tournament setting. In class you should be relaxed and adventurous. Try new moves. Try moves that you are comfortable with on your strong side on your weak side. Take risks. Have fun. Put yourself in bad positions and work on your escapes. Don't think of winning or losing, but only on improving.

In a tournament however, you go back to your bread-and-butter techniques. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy, only those techniques that are high-percentage for you.

This could be why you find some people easier to tap in regular sparring and then suddenly so difficult in a tourney setting.

Maybe what you need to do is some focused sparring. Play "pass-the-guard" - where you start in your opponent's guard, and they have to sweep or submit you, and you have to pass. Once that happens, switch positions and restart. Do that for a couple of rounds, and then change the position. Do "escape from cross-side" and "escape from the mount".

[TechniqueFreak]

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post, guys. It is appreciated. I am a very nervous person, and do find it hard to relax. As I've been thinking about my tourney match, I remember that the other guy was very hyper and intense, bumrushing me from the get go and generally spazzing out. I'm not yet used to this, and his increased energy level forced me to play his game. I play well from all the top dominant positions, also back mount. My guard is solid and tough to pass but I only use it if I have to--not a big guard enthusiast. As far as strategy goes, I play to submit, while ignoring pts. I know this may not be the best and I could potentially win more matches by adopting the more conservative position controlling style, but don't care. My weaknesses which need work are: submission defense while in the guard (the only place anyone taps me from), opening my opp's legs in the closed guard, holding a guy down properly when he turtles on all fours, escaping the bottom face-down back mount, takedowns, timing a sprawl, bottom half-guard position, and escape from north-south. My overall goal for BJJ is completeness and versatility from all positions, including standing and inferior ones. I don't have much of a strong/weak side; both sides of my body are =. This is due to practicing every move to both sides right away. The effect of this seems to be that moves are learned slower, but once the move is finally ready to use, both sides are good to go. Anyway, your advice is very down-to-earth and I will think about what you said.

[Tom Yum]

Howdy

Seems like you have the right focus and a good attitude!

I'm about the same weight as you but I'm only 5'10"....

I like to use my strength and stamina in my grappling, but I'm no stranger to technique. Seems like you are less active but more strategic.

PM me. If we're in the same area, let's roll!

[bodhisattva]

If all you say is true, I don't think you should still be a white belt with no stripes.

If you are tapping brown belts in BJJ, you should have some kind of promotion.

If you are much lighter than your 255 pound power lifter friend, and you are tapping him, you should probably have some kind of promotion.

Etc. etc.

[bodhisattva]

Also, if you don't feel you are receiving adequate instruction, I'd highly suggest you seek out a Straight Blast Gym in your area (www.straightblastgym.com).

You'll find the people you roll with there are very interested in your growth and performance, and will not allow you to make stupid mistakes within your technique.

I highly suggest it.

They are a world apart from other training systems (in my opinion) in that they come together to help each other gain a greater understanding of truth in combat sports.

They have fun. They grow. And they win.

[sapatiero]

It does sound like a mindset thing. Some BJJ´ers go through a stage where they get blasé about things and don´t commit to everything 100%. It´s not a bad thing, if I went 100% all of the time I´d be getting injured, or injuring others. But that needs to change when you compete - every technique needs to given everything, with a mindset that it totally commital. I´m not talking being aggressive by using strength instead of technique, more driving the fight the way you want it, and not letting the opponent initiate the moves.

Also, it could be related to nerves. Apart from relaxation techniques, the best way to combat nerves is to compete regularly so it´s not such a big deal.

Good luck...

[yenhoi]

Just goto the tournaments and get your ass kicked. You will be 10 times better in a very short period of time.

If you feel your training partners are not training at a high enough intensity during your rolling sessions, tell them. Tell the brown belt guy first and Im sure things will turn around quickly.