Competition Plateau & IBJJF TV - Episode 4: Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships

                     Making Adjustments
                            or
                Staying the Course

Been rolling hard lately. Minus the days I took off after the Pan Ams, I've been grinding in the gym: 1 day a week of Judo, 3 days a week of BJJ class, and 2 open mat sessions.
Yet........I competed in BJJ recently and placed 3rd.
Not pleased that with all my hard work I didn't do as well at the Pans or at a local tournament as I would have liked.
I've hit a wall of not knowing what to do. My not winning hasn't been due to a lack of time on the mat, drilling positions, or training hard, so I'm left with an enigma.

What I'm doing is not working, so what must be changed to obtain a different result?
You hear that oft repeated statement, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

Well, since my trip to Brazil I've been rolling much harder (not spazzing), rolling and keeping track of the points like it's a tournament, et cetera. Rather than waiting to see if the guy makes a mistake, trying to impose my gameplan, trying to force him into making mistakes.

In addition, at my last Judo tournament I won more matches on the ground than by throwing.
In the past, I had managed roughly 1 submission and a handful of wins by pin in 7 years of Judo competition.
So, I know that overall, my grappling is improving. In a single day I managed to win as much with matwork/newaza as I had in 7 years before that. My matwork has certainly improved and for Judo at least, my ability to implement it quickly and before the referee restarts the action on the feet.

But, the elusive first place in a BJJ Gi division still eludes me. I'm advancing my way through all but the maybe some of the largest blue belts in my club to where I can beat them positionally or finish them inside of 5-6 minutes in rolling hard in class.
So, I am seeing incremental improvements, but the fruit of that has yet to show in competition in a discernible outcome/result.

============================

Watch and enjoy.
Recap of the largest IBJJF event in history. 3,000 competitors.
No, that doesn't mean they need to have qualifying events.
It was 7 matches to win the gold in my bracket.
You should have to beat 7 people to call yourself a Pan Jiu-Jitsu Champion.

And for those who doubt where Jiu-Jitsu came from, watch and enjoy:

   - watch my man hit a brabo/Gi - D'Arce choke around the 4 minute something mark.