“Big fan of you guys. Just had my first tournament and I crashed due to Adrenaline dump. Lost all my strength and energy within the first minute. Can you guys do an article on that.”
– Hovik
This is a common situation with new competitors. It goes hand-in-hand with them feeling extremely nervous before tournament matches.
Earlier this year, I interviewed two high-level jiu-jitsu black belts about the advice they would give to beginners suffering from competition jitters.
Here is what they had to say.
World champion, Bernardo Faria advises new students to compete more.
My advice for people who get nervous is to try to compete more. When you start competing more and more and more, at some point you are going to get used to that.
I always believe that if you have adrenaline, before and are a little nervous that is good because it means that thing is really important for you.
You only would not have adrenaline and not get nervous if you don’t care for that. And if you don’t care for that is not good.
You should really care and you should really worry and you should be really nervous.
But remember of you are getting too nervous you should compete more to get used to that.
Gracie Barra’s world-class coach, Draculino, suggests taking your mind off of the competition until you compete.
It is very common for beginners. I would say no matter what, that they are going to be nervous in any combat sport, competition will bring the butterflies.
It happens to all of us. Even after all of these years I still have it before competitions.
It is normal.
It is something that some people are addicted to, to be honest.
It is something that is always going to happen but you have to control it.
After all of these years I have found out that it is inevitable that you will feel that.
It is very rare to see somebody going there without any kind of nervousness or being anxious. They always going to be.
I think that it is better to try to take your mind off of the task in times that you don’t need to be 100% focused.
You don’t need to be thinking about this thing 24 / 7 because then it drains you.
Try to get something that brings you pleasure and takes your attention out of the mission.
Then at the time of the competition, at the time that you make weight, the time of the warm up then you focus 100%.
I think that a lack of focus is as bad as too much focus.
I try to watch a movie, have some friends that laugh, play video games or just play with my dogs.
Something to take my mind off of the task.
I hope this helps, Hovik!
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