I wanted to get my thoughts down about the experience of preparing and competing in IBJJF Master Worlds 2021. While I've competed in this tournament 2 other times (2017 and 2019), this is the first time that I helped others prepare. We went with a good size group this year. This year Zac Davis and Josh Johnson signed up to compete as well. I felt like it was on me to share my past experiences and to come up with a plan to help us all prepare.
Preparation
June 23rd Started Line Group: Used a messenger app that we could share
all of the details of the tournament and plan our training.
August 8th: Sunday training started
November 11-13: Competition
My personal goals:
- Get better and more confident with stand-up
- Improve gas tank and aggression
Team goals:
- Develop game plans
- Familiarize everyone with the rules
- Describe the experience to help prepare for the chaos of a tournament
- Get to know teammates' personality and games
- Develop coaching relationships
Creating a warm-up
This
is a factor of BJJ competition that I think is often overlooked. With
the adrenaline dump we can often go out on the mat and be strong, but it
often leads to tightness during the match, muscle burnout, and make it
difficult to catch your breath which can exhaust you for your next
match. I tried to emphasize to everyone to pick warm-up exercises that
you can do by yourself with limited space. Things like burpees,
push-ups, airplane push-ups, jumping squats, etc. You really want to
get a sweat going before you get on the mat for your first match.
Making Weight
Making weight was a huge part of the trip. It's important to know if you can make the weight class that you enter under and if you can feel strong at that weight. In Jiu-Jitsu you usually have to weigh in on the day if not right before you compete. It doesn't pay to dehydrate yourself to make a weight class. Months ahead I changed my diet to use intermittent fasting and that seems to work for me. I was on weight a couple weeks before competing.
Check out the rules for the tournament and figure out if you have to weigh with your gi on and how much time you need before you compete. It can be a tough decision to determine if going down a weight class is worth it. Competing is stressful enough but limiting calories can have an affect on the fighters mood as well as physical performance.We all made weight easily, partly because I think their scales are like 5 lbs off at least. But it did cause some stress for each of us.
Sunday training:
For the Sunday training sessions we would start at 8:30 AM and train for a little over an hour. I would try my best to figure out a theme for each session. During the earlier sessions we would discuss our A game strategies. The main topics being a Guard Pass, a Sweep, a Submission, and the Stand-Up strategy. We did some sessions where we would drill these techniques and then do some rolling.
One of the drilling formats is the Best Case Scenario drill. This is drilling your A game techniques from standing until submission. For instance my A game path was to get grips cross collar and sleeve and throw tai otoshi, then go to knee on belly and setup a baseball bat choke. That was my game plan if everything went according to plan.
As the training sessions progressed I put a request out to see if others would join us so we could have fresh opponents for shark tank type training. So Zac, Josh, and I would stay on the mat for 5 to 10 minute rounds while fresh people would cycle in. I recorded a great deal of these sessions and would put them out on the google drive so everyone could review the training and look for things they needed to work on.
Another topic that we focused on was getting out of bad positions with positional sparring. This would range from our 8 minute escape type drill to starting in other positions like front head lock and being down 2 points and having to work hard to make a come back. With time as a factor we really had to learn when to turn it up and use energy when down on points.
Probably the drill that I loved and hated the most was the first to score drill. We would start standing as if it were the beginning of a match and then go until the first person scored. Whether that was by take down, sweep, guard pass, or submission. This was the thing that I wanted to improve on the most. I believe I've heard that statistically the first person to score is statistically the winner of the match. I also feel like the more often we can drill the beginning of a match the more prepared we'd be for the adrenaline dump.
Questions
If you helped us prepare or you have any oppinions on our training camp, please message these to me in Facebook or email me at HapkidoJosh@yahoo.com
What went well?
What would you change for future tournament camps?
Comments for Josh C:
Comments for Josh J:
Comments for Zac:
My Personal Thoughts
What went well?
Establishing the line chat was helpful I think to keep everyone updated about the tournament and trainings.
I found a lot of benefit in recording the sessions although there was not always the best video angle for everyone.
The training partners that came and helped were awesome and I'm very thankful to have those volunteers.
I felt very prepared concerning my personal stand-up game
What would you change for the future tournament camps?
Nail down who can make it to the trainings each time to be able to better plan the session. Need enough people to have fresh bodies for the competitors.
Figure out some more good solo warm-up routines for the bullpen
Stress that we'll all have good and bad days and that the training is to instill toughness and winning all of the time is unrealistic
Determining when to rest and take a day off was tough for me. I trained in some capacity every day and avoided injuries, but could I have had better gains doing harder training and then resting a day?
Personal Goals going forward
- Judo Black
- Continue to stress the stand-up strategies
- More grip fighting
- Train more wrestling
- Guard passing, breaking guard, balance
Thank Yous!
Of course my wife Jennifer deserves a lot of
credit for the support, helping me train, and helping me eat right. I
tried my best not to be too moody this time around. Hopefully I didn't
get on her nerves too much. She's also improved with Jiu-Jitsu
recently, I'm excited to see her get promoted to blue belt.
Huge shout out to Conan for traveling with us as our coach. He was on board since the beginning and it was good having him around while we trained not only to teach us each technical Jiu-Jitsu but also to practice his coaching skills and get to know our personal games better. He was there for each of us in the bullpen and when we competed.
Another shout out to Krista, Craig, Aaron, and Emily for also traveling with us and their support. It's good to have a cheering section and people to go out walking, eating, and drinking with in Vegas. Especially when you're trying to cut weight and they all send you pictures of their heavy lunches ;) Leading up to competition can be a stressful time and having people to get you a water or sit with you before or after your match.
For
me personally I learned the most from rolling with Jerad and Mike.
They both played huge parts in keeping me sane during the covid shut
down times and I gained a lot of skill by rolling with each of them day
in and day out.
I was blown away by all of the people that were
willing to help us train! I did my best to figure out everyone that
showed up on our Sunday trainings, hopefully I didn't miss anyone.
Conan, Jerad, Mike A, Craig, Aaron E, Hugh, Chris R, Tyler R, Bob, Mike
W, Justin M, Cody, Dave M, Tanner, and Tony. As well as the many rolls
with people in classes and open mats. I honestly felt support from the
whole gym.
