I’m headed down to compete in the IBJJF worlds this coming September. It’s going to be the first time that I compete outside of some in house competitions that we run at the school that I train at.
So I’m jumping straight into the deep end with the sharks.
That’s not to say that I haven’t been trying to prep for this. I’ve been aggressively training since the start of the year so there are some things that I’m pulling off in training now that I wouldn’t have been even able to attempt six months ago. However it’s still going to be a huge challenge to progress forward on the mats.
The thing that a lot of folks are warning me about though is the nerves about competing in front of a crowd, and that’s not even something that’s on my radar.
This won’t be my first time on a public stage, between competing in First Aid Competitions and having to present in front of crowds at work that’s not something that really bothers me at all. What is kind of giving me pause is all the things that I have absolutely no control over.
I can’t control who I’m competing against, what their games are, how physical they are, or how good they may be. I can place plans in my head to try to handle as many situations as possible but there are still a lot of variables that are unknown or completely out of my control.
And as much as I can say that I’m going for the experience and that I’m not worried about winning that’s kind of bullshit. I want to win here, and that’s going to be the goal that I’m walking on the mats with. At least there I’m not going to have to worry about holding back out of fear of causing pain to someone that I know. There’s nothing but strangers on the mats there.