In-House Tournament

On Saturday we had another white belt in-house tournament at my school. We do in-house tournaments a couple times a year to give our students that have never competed or competed very little a chance to get there feet wet and get experience in a friendly environment. All of the competitors are from schools within the affiliation so the coaches get together and match everyone up the best we can by both skill level and size to make sure everyone gets good fights. As usual, we had a very nice turn out and will continue to do these as often as we can.
If you want to get good at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu it is good to compete as often as you can. For one you learn to stay calm. When you first start competing your nerves will wipe you out. You will feel very tired and not know why. Also you can learn more in one competition then in a month of training. If you make a mistake in a competition it is magnified. It is obvious when the instructor sees the mistake and you never want to do it again so you work hard to correct it. Sometimes you may see something that was working well on you and maybe you pick it up and bring it back. Other time you might realize something you are doing really well and it reinforces that. Anyway you look at it competing is a good thing.
These BJJ tournaments are not only good for getting experience but are also a good chance to meet teammates from the other schools in the affiliation. If you plan on competing in the future at the large international tournaments or even just locally the chances are that you will see a lot of teammates from other schools. The in house tournaments are very laid back compared to a real tournament since everyone knows that we are all teammates. It never hurts to meet new people, especially teammates.
It doesn’t seem like that long ago when I did my first white belt in-house tournament. It actually didn’t go that well for me and at the time I was a little upset. In hindsight I learned a lot from that tournament, not to mention that no one cares what happened at an in house tournament when you were a white belt. Actually once you reach the next belt no one cares what happened at the previous belt even if it was a real tournament. Everything is a learning experience and ultimately the goal is to be a black belt.