Tourney Rules

[Erik]

<RANT>
I'm really pissed off. Sorry guys, don't mean to take it out here, but nobody else "at work" would understand!

Last night we split the class into two teams and had a dual meet. Besides being a great practice with lots learned and shaking things up a little from the norm, I'm friggin' furious.

As usual, I get paired up with Konstantine, the big Russian (who can't be that big since he's in my weight class, right?) He's 1 Kyu (top level brown belt) from SJ Judo, the #1 team in the USA, so since we started from standing, I figured I'd just have to land the fall safely without finding myself in too bad a position, get out, and try like mad to retain side control as he and I wound up doing every single practice for the past 6 months.

But no! Somehow, right off the blocks, I got a single-leg takedown off a failed double (!) on him of all people and he quickly put me in guard.

We spent the remaining 4:58 seconds in his guard until he got two rear-mounts on me (totally unheard of with him) and a full mount. I escaped, wound up back in his guard, and defended armbar attacks until the time was up.

What he did really well was pull my arm across to one side, switch his hips, and start coming around to back. Nobody does this to me except The Machine, a purple belt.

Usually, I can set up a guard pass with an ezekiel choke or a fist choke. He used that to pull my arm aside. I've never seen such quick timing in him.

This was horrible. Not that he did so well (I'm proud of him, of course) but that I forgot key basics while trying to execute some guard passes that work normally but did not anymore.

So - lessons learned (thanks to Cameron and Gumby and Genero, especially) - keep that )!@#&$!@# posture up while in guard, fine tune the double-underhook pass (which I usually get frequently), and start doing standup passess and getting that knee inside as soon as I see a gap. I could have done so much more if I had done that.

And, as per Cliff's advice a long time back to someone who froze up against one of his classmates (who was apparently really big and tough), practice a lot where I'm weak. Time to start competing BJJ.

Oh yeah, despite the fact that it felt like a stalemate to both of us, the score was 12-2. Humiliating.
<\RANT>

[Dennis Monk]

Erik I sounds to me like you need to roll with this guy about 50 more times.
That should be a fun learning experience.

[Erik]

That's the thing, Dennis - we roll together every time we practice and the match went in a totally different way than it ever goes in practice.

I failed to adapt to his guard (probably because I'm hardly ever in it) and I'm frustrated with myself because I should have known better but did not do. It really exposed some bad habits I've developed. Time to un-learn and re-learn.

But yes, you're dead-on right. Going with the more difficult training and partners is the way to learn.

[Tony Dismukes]

Erik, much better to learn the lessons at an in-dojo meet than at an actual tournament. Were either of you going in with higher-than-usual motivation/intensity/adrenaline due to the competition format? That can make a difference with some people. Either they get too excited and start to forget their fundamentals and do poorly as a result, or they get extra motivated and do really well. Sounds like you were having the first result and your partner the second.


Oh yeah, despite the fact that it felt like a stalemate to both of us, the score was 12-2.

Yeah, since I'm usually looking for submission or at least a consistent positional domination, those back-and-forth matches tend to feel like stalemates to me as well, even if I'm up by a bunch of guard passes or temporarily held positions.

[Erik]

Yeah, I was hoping to be the latter kind of competitor, though.

When I competed in Judo, I had the worst throws around but managed to really come alive on the mat and turn things around. Go figure.

[jwinch2]

Were either of you going in with higher-than-usual motivation/intensity/adrenaline due to the competition format? That can make a difference with some people. Either they get too excited and start to forget their fundamentals and do poorly as a result, or they get extra motivated and do really well.


Actually, quite alot of research goes into this phenomenon. It is termed "optimal arousal' and is a bit hard to quantify. The basic tenants are like this. There is a reward for increasing arousal up until a point and then it starts to become detrimental to your performance. This point is termed anxiety. This level seems to be different for individuals and can vary situationally.

just so you know, I am far from an expert in this area but a professor in my department (Richard Magill), who is probably the most recognized motor learning researcher in the world has done quite a bit of this sort of thing so I am basically paraphrasing (stealing) from him here. Of course I have also taken a few courses in motor learning and sport psychlogy so I get it a little bit.

In the practical setting, I see this all the time with my athletes. Plays they make most of the time in practice they cannot make in the game. Lifts they can pull in the weightroom they suddenly cannot pull in the meet. Or vice versa, I have seen people pull weights in meets that I would have swore they could never have lifted or make superhuman plays in games when you never thought it could happen. Each person's arousal/anxiety curves are different. It can be very frustrating but is something that you can work through with time and intelligent training.

Here is the take home message: do more in practice to mimic the scenarios you are likely to face in competition or in the real world. Involve decision making in your drills more often and "what if" situations. Find the level of arousal where you feel the most comfortable and learn to recognize what it feels like and what it took to get you there. Learn what the point is for YOU when you start to have a decrease in performance and what that feels like. In other words as we used to say in the army, "train like you fight"...

Now, this can be tough to do in situations like you are in Erik where you are competing with friends and people you know well. It can be hard to get that midset where you "need to win" in that type of scenario. I think however that if you practice doing it, it will come easier to you and will pay off in the long run.

[khaynie]

I know exactly where your coming from brother. There is a purple belt at the school I am at right now and he is a friggin beast. His name is Maverick, but my wife and I (she rolls too) call him "MAN-verick" as his knuckles drag and he drips testosterone on while your training. But same gig, in training sessions, he's calm, cool collected, stops for teaching opportunities, very fluid, but when there are school meets, like you described, bolt your head on good, cuz he's going to rip it off and go off the hook with crazy stuff, you've never seen him pull before, and the best part, he's so strong, in the absence of perfect technique, he is able to force it to work. But your right, once the blood comes back to my head from the fight/flight, I realize Im still alive after the first 5 seconds, it really forces me to up my game and take it to him. Granted, I have yet to submit him, but I do score points, and take him the distance at times.....I hate him, but love him when I'm done.....Sometimes I would rather have his brut *** than one of the other purples who is so smooth and who's technique is so cherry and no matter what I do, its a submission.

Khaynie