SO, I’m a few days out from the IBJJF Worlds down in Las Vegas and at this point it’s just some final prep and getting things packed and ready to go before I go down. And as I’m closing things up at work to head down I’ve been asked so many times if I’m nervous that it kind of started messing with my head that I’m not really nervous about this.
It’s not like I haven’t competed in things in the past. I used to compete in first aid competitions way back in the day, and while it’s a different set of skills compared to BJJ there’s also a lot of parallels. The act of getting up in front of a crowd of people to test yourself, regardless of the skills you are going to be using, is always going to be hard to do.
I think the saving grace for me is that my previous competition experience was in First Aid, something that you have to be able to do under fairly challenging circumstances. Compared to some of what you have to deal with when acting as a first responder having someone try to choke or arm-bar you isn’t as big a deal as you would think.
So am I afraid? Sure. But that fear isn’t going to stop me from going down and seeing what happens when the buzzer goes off.