Something that I’m struggling with over the last couple of months is learning to train for competition instead of just training recreationally.
Training recreationally I don’t mind getting swept or submitted. It’s all just learning and trying new things. Training for competition however is showing me that there is a lot of work that I need to do in my game. My focus has been obtaining and then maintaining a top position for so long that I’m very comfortable when I’m in control over the roll. However, get me on the bottom and things change a lot – I’m definitely not as strong there.
Given that I can’t be sure that I’m going to get takedowns in competition I have to have a game for when things fall apart.
This means that I’m going to have to invest in failure.
And that’s not going to be pleasant. The folks who I train with who are able to put me into bad positions are generally either way higher on the food chain, or have physical advantages that I am not going to be able to overcome. This means that I’m either going to get manhandled or crushed for the coming months of training.
Yay.