December 12, 2024 • 11 mins
In today’s episode, we talk about Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. Are they worth it, or are they overrated? David shares why tournaments can be helpful for setting goals and meeting people, but he also talks about the downsides, like costs, injuries, and how they might hurt gym culture. He gives his honest opinion on point tournaments versus sub-only competitions.
Key Points:
- Why Tournaments Can Be Good:
- Help you stay focused and motivated.
- Give you a chance to meet other Jiu-Jitsu players.
- Let you test your skills under pressure.
- Problems with Tournaments:
- They cost money and take up your weekend.
- Rules and referees can be unfair.
- Risk of injury, like leg locks or slams.
- Sometimes only one or two people are in your division.
- How They Change Training:
- Some gyms only care about competing, which might not be fun for everyone.
- Focusing too much on points can make Jiu-Jitsu feel less creative and more like a sport.
- David’s Take:
- He shares his experience competing after years of training.
- Why sub-only and combat Jiu-Jitsu feel more like real Jiu-Jitsu to him.
- "Point tournaments? Trash, in my opinion."
Question for You: Do you think tournaments are worth it? What’s your favorite type of competition? Let me know!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
welcome back to your daily dose of the pod social BJJ so we're gonna be jumping
(00:05):
into a topic on tournaments what was that on tournaments we're gonna be
talking about tournaments I could edit that out but why bother so for
tournaments you know is it is it really worth it or are they like overrated and
then the other thing I want to talk about is is it really like messing up
(00:26):
gyms you know you go to certain jujitsu gyms and they're gonna be jujitsu
oriented so alright let's kind of I guess make the case for why tournaments
are necessary and important you know the reason why you know I might argue myself
and say alright they're important because it gives people focus you know
(00:49):
we had a we just got finished talking about how belts are irrelevant right
it's not really important to have belt so since that's the case then a lot of
people are gonna need something to push their training and tournaments are a
good way to you know you set a date in a couple months or a month in advance or a
couple weeks in advance you have this date and you have something to grind
(01:10):
towards something to work towards you know your weaknesses you're assessing
yourself and it helps you progress in jujitsu opposed to just going to the
gym and there's training you know just to train so it helps you know you set
goals and helps you stay motivated also it does allow you for you to have a
community right you're able to meet other competitors and you know follow
(01:31):
them and that way if you're ever like you know traveling you might be able to
you know train at other people's gym share techniques and just have a friend
that you wouldn't necessarily have had you not been competing so it's definitely
definitely a good case but there are some downsides to to these tournaments I
mean one is they're not free right they cost money there's registration fees
(01:55):
honestly let's talk about what are you gonna win you're not gonna win like a
little a little gold little cheap metals not real gold it's not real bronze it's
not real silver as to my belief and you know you're not really gonna do anything
with it it's like oh cool and then nobody cares unless you're competing on
the highest of levels right it's just like you're just going to the park and
(02:20):
having a pickup game of basketball like you know unless you're like Gordon Ryan
you know the elite of the elite and you know competing for ADCC or nowadays CJI
you know competing for the highest level the prestige that's like the
professional leagues right if you're not doing that then come on we're just
playing pickup games but some people take it a lot very very serious and
(02:42):
there's a risk to that right you enter tournaments like you're entering in at
your own risk somebody might heel hook the mess out of you somebody might slam
you even though they're not supposed to slam you they might reap and you know
you you defend the wrong way and extend and boom now your legs broken there's a
lot of things that can happen in tournaments they might tackle you off of
the mats you could hit your head you know like there's a lot of things that
(03:04):
can happen in these tournaments there's physical stress there's mental stress
right there's burnout especially if you're gonna try to compete like every
month or a lot often and then let's talk about the part that I hate the most one
of the parts that I hate the most about these tournaments is that it shifts to
(03:26):
like the gym culture there's some gyms that only focus on competing right so if
you're at if you're at the bottom you're losing right because you know you just
got scored on oh if you're not good at wrestling oh you're losing right and it's
like why can't I just have fun maybe I'm good at being on bottom you know just
(03:46):
because I have my guard pass doesn't mean that I'm gonna lose the match all
right and I feel like it doesn't allow for you to be as creative because you're
so focused on points and because of that as well I feel like it obviously I don't
know if this is a word or not it sportifies the sport if you will and makes
(04:07):
it a little bit less self-defense oriented I believe personally and this
is why I like I guess the tournament of like combat jujitsu which makes it very
very like self-defense oriented and I think that's really good but it makes it
self-defense oriented in the sense of like you're competing with somebody
else who's doing jujitsu so I don't know how street applicable that would be but
(04:30):
obviously it would be a lot better than not all the other tournaments for a fact
right and so there's definitely that that piece to it but the gyms that they
train competitively focus is I don't like those gyms I don't find it to be
fun I maybe because of how I started at the you know training center the Gracie
(04:54):
training center where sometimes we didn't even have timers it was just like
go until the instructor said next and I just I like that freedom to explore and
like who cares advantage or disadvantage you know because like if I'm if I'm if
we're playing and I got you in my guard clothes guard for example and I'm not
(05:18):
able to do something with the clothes guard I'm gonna just open it up I'm
gonna try something else or if I if we're in a stalemate position you know I
got you in a triangle setup or you got me in a triangle setup but we're on point
so you're just gonna hold it for the you know if you're if you caught me early in
this four minutes left and around and you're not able to submit me you're just
gonna hold it that's boring for four minutes as come on that's boring but
(05:42):
that kind of stuff happens and it's because you're so focused on points
instead of focused on you know learning the sport or grappling with the sport
just having fun in general and being willing to be creative but because
we're so point and focus and trying to win every single thing it becomes kind of
(06:03):
a little bit boring for people who are like me and like to have a lot of fun
and like to use it for a social outlet and a good exercise and stay in shape
and really if you if you compete it honestly you feel like a showhorse when
I did my first and only competition a couple months ago after training for
(06:27):
like eight years or whatever nine years actually almost ten years yeah then my
first competition I felt like a show horse they made us line up it was a nice
place it was a nice arena you know it was really nice but they make you line
up they make you like check in they don't care really anything about you it
just it it was rushed nobody nobody gives enough nobody cares nobody nobody
(06:57):
and you're paying for that you're paying for kind of a crappy experience to be
honest your whole day is kind of ruined I don't want to say ruined but your whole
day is spent around like preparing for the tournament whether you're traveling
far some of these matches if they're bigger they're gonna be far right because
they're gonna be try to be in like major cities of the state so you're gonna be
(07:18):
traveling right you're gonna be going pretty far and that takes up time you
know it could be a Saturday it could be a Sunday down that's your weekend if
you're working nine to five throughout the week and now you know your weekend
is your time to chill maybe you hit up the gym for an hour two hours three
hours four hours whatever and you go home and chill with your family play
video games whatever if you have a tournament you're not doing any of that
stuff right you're just at the tournament hopefully they tell you the
(07:41):
time and hopefully they stick to the time because they might not they might
move up the time if you're not there up well too bad just qualified whatever the
other person won and you do all of this and you go to the tournament don't let
it be like a local tournament you go to you do all of this you go early you go
to the tournament and then there's only like one other person in your division
(08:03):
you know you do all that for only one other person in your division right you
like you like well come on are you really challenging yourself in that
situation you might as well just go to another gyms open mat and just roll
around there right but oh but it doesn't have the procedure not gonna get a medal
for it oh my gosh like no come on I don't want to say people don't try in a
(08:26):
gym but people try in a gym I want to say that they try super hard but they
come on they're trying they're not trying to lose right but people are
working on stuff so like I get it like in the competition like people are
like 100% going for it versus that's not always the case in a gym absolutely I
agree with that 100% but come on now let's be real you're gonna do all of that
(08:49):
and then not to mention some of these reps are doing some BS DQs like you see
some DQ because he like his his heel was just a little bit past so that's
technically a real DQ like come on dude he's been he's been probably a hundred
bucks to be here travel all just for a little like a centimeter you know the
(09:10):
refs have biases like no points were scored up but the refs like this person
right like somebody's gonna get penalized is it gonna be the guard
player I just actually happened to me in my match right like I was playing guard
the person couldn't pass my guard I'm trying to do attacks but he kept running
from me so then in that situation what what happens right like well I lost
(09:33):
because the ref viewed the other person was doing like a lot more action and
same thing happened in CJI with Cade and Levi Larry Jones I believe I said his
name right he was playing guard amazing guard player way better than me
Cade is way better passer than the guy that was going against too but it was
the same situation he couldn't pass and the guard player got penalized so it's
(09:56):
like what are we doing in these tournaments and then when you do things
like that when you go into like the gym now you have people trying to basically
just do wrestling and postage is doing jujitsu everybody's focused on just
trying to pass on the outside now I'm not saying that there's anything wrong
with that there's a lot of good stuff to that but if that's all we're doing then
it's kind of like we're limiting a lot of the style now you could do whatever
(10:20):
that heck you want to do honestly and I fully support that but I just think that
is pretty much limiting the game opposed to just free roam I love sub only
competitions because you could do whatever you want you're not gonna get
penalized and then at the end of that sure EBI overtime rules may not be the
best because maybe some people are gonna stall so they can get to those
(10:42):
positions that they're really good at and maybe they should mix up the
positions every now and then but I do think it's better than better than
nothing at least you got ride time pause or you got or you got like you know a
submission and I think that's that's the ultimate test of actual jujitsu or CJI
you know you got the slaps they got the defense mechanism so those types of
(11:05):
tournaments are great point tournaments trash in my opinion let me know what you
guys think see you on the next episode peace
welcome back to your daily dose of the pod social BJJ so we're gonna be jumping
(00:05):
into a topic on tournaments what was that on tournaments we're gonna be
talking about tournaments I could edit that out but why bother so for
tournaments you know is it is it really worth it or are they like overrated and
then the other thing I want to talk about is is it really like messing up
(00:26):
gyms you know you go to certain jujitsu gyms and they're gonna be jujitsu
oriented so alright let's kind of I guess make the case for why tournaments
are necessary and important you know the reason why you know I might argue myself
and say alright they're important because it gives people focus you know
(00:49):
we had a we just got finished talking about how belts are irrelevant right
it's not really important to have belt so since that's the case then a lot of
people are gonna need something to push their training and tournaments are a
good way to you know you set a date in a couple months or a month in advance or a
couple weeks in advance you have this date and you have something to grind
(01:10):
towards something to work towards you know your weaknesses you're assessing
yourself and it helps you progress in jujitsu opposed to just going to the
gym and there's training you know just to train so it helps you know you set
goals and helps you stay motivated also it does allow you for you to have a
community right you're able to meet other competitors and you know follow
(01:31):
them and that way if you're ever like you know traveling you might be able to
you know train at other people's gym share techniques and just have a friend
that you wouldn't necessarily have had you not been competing so it's definitely
definitely a good case but there are some downsides to to these tournaments I
mean one is they're not free right they cost money there's registration fees
(01:55):
honestly let's talk about what are you gonna win you're not gonna win like a
little a little gold little cheap metals not real gold it's not real bronze it's
not real silver as to my belief and you know you're not really gonna do anything
with it it's like oh cool and then nobody cares unless you're competing on
the highest of levels right it's just like you're just going to the park and
(02:20):
having a pickup game of basketball like you know unless you're like Gordon Ryan
you know the elite of the elite and you know competing for ADCC or nowadays CJI
you know competing for the highest level the prestige that's like the
professional leagues right if you're not doing that then come on we're just
playing pickup games but some people take it a lot very very serious and
(02:42):
there's a risk to that right you enter tournaments like you're entering in at
your own risk somebody might heel hook the mess out of you somebody might slam
you even though they're not supposed to slam you they might reap and you know
you you defend the wrong way and extend and boom now your legs broken there's a
lot of things that can happen in tournaments they might tackle you off of
the mats you could hit your head you know like there's a lot of things that
(03:04):
can happen in these tournaments there's physical stress there's mental stress
right there's burnout especially if you're gonna try to compete like every
month or a lot often and then let's talk about the part that I hate the most one
of the parts that I hate the most about these tournaments is that it shifts to
(03:26):
like the gym culture there's some gyms that only focus on competing right so if
you're at if you're at the bottom you're losing right because you know you just
got scored on oh if you're not good at wrestling oh you're losing right and it's
like why can't I just have fun maybe I'm good at being on bottom you know just
(03:46):
because I have my guard pass doesn't mean that I'm gonna lose the match all
right and I feel like it doesn't allow for you to be as creative because you're
so focused on points and because of that as well I feel like it obviously I don't
know if this is a word or not it sportifies the sport if you will and makes
(04:07):
it a little bit less self-defense oriented I believe personally and this
is why I like I guess the tournament of like combat jujitsu which makes it very
very like self-defense oriented and I think that's really good but it makes it
self-defense oriented in the sense of like you're competing with somebody
else who's doing jujitsu so I don't know how street applicable that would be but
(04:30):
obviously it would be a lot better than not all the other tournaments for a fact
right and so there's definitely that that piece to it but the gyms that they
train competitively focus is I don't like those gyms I don't find it to be
fun I maybe because of how I started at the you know training center the Gracie
(04:54):
training center where sometimes we didn't even have timers it was just like
go until the instructor said next and I just I like that freedom to explore and
like who cares advantage or disadvantage you know because like if I'm if I'm if
we're playing and I got you in my guard clothes guard for example and I'm not
(05:18):
able to do something with the clothes guard I'm gonna just open it up I'm
gonna try something else or if I if we're in a stalemate position you know I
got you in a triangle setup or you got me in a triangle setup but we're on point
so you're just gonna hold it for the you know if you're if you caught me early in
this four minutes left and around and you're not able to submit me you're just
gonna hold it that's boring for four minutes as come on that's boring but
(05:42):
that kind of stuff happens and it's because you're so focused on points
instead of focused on you know learning the sport or grappling with the sport
just having fun in general and being willing to be creative but because
we're so point and focus and trying to win every single thing it becomes kind of
(06:03):
a little bit boring for people who are like me and like to have a lot of fun
and like to use it for a social outlet and a good exercise and stay in shape
and really if you if you compete it honestly you feel like a showhorse when
I did my first and only competition a couple months ago after training for
(06:27):
like eight years or whatever nine years actually almost ten years yeah then my
first competition I felt like a show horse they made us line up it was a nice
place it was a nice arena you know it was really nice but they make you line
up they make you like check in they don't care really anything about you it
just it it was rushed nobody nobody gives enough nobody cares nobody nobody
(06:57):
and you're paying for that you're paying for kind of a crappy experience to be
honest your whole day is kind of ruined I don't want to say ruined but your whole
day is spent around like preparing for the tournament whether you're traveling
far some of these matches if they're bigger they're gonna be far right because
they're gonna be try to be in like major cities of the state so you're gonna be
(07:18):
traveling right you're gonna be going pretty far and that takes up time you
know it could be a Saturday it could be a Sunday down that's your weekend if
you're working nine to five throughout the week and now you know your weekend
is your time to chill maybe you hit up the gym for an hour two hours three
hours four hours whatever and you go home and chill with your family play
video games whatever if you have a tournament you're not doing any of that
stuff right you're just at the tournament hopefully they tell you the
(07:41):
time and hopefully they stick to the time because they might not they might
move up the time if you're not there up well too bad just qualified whatever the
other person won and you do all of this and you go to the tournament don't let
it be like a local tournament you go to you do all of this you go early you go
to the tournament and then there's only like one other person in your division
(08:03):
you know you do all that for only one other person in your division right you
like you like well come on are you really challenging yourself in that
situation you might as well just go to another gyms open mat and just roll
around there right but oh but it doesn't have the procedure not gonna get a medal
for it oh my gosh like no come on I don't want to say people don't try in a
(08:26):
gym but people try in a gym I want to say that they try super hard but they
come on they're trying they're not trying to lose right but people are
working on stuff so like I get it like in the competition like people are
like 100% going for it versus that's not always the case in a gym absolutely I
agree with that 100% but come on now let's be real you're gonna do all of that
(08:49):
and then not to mention some of these reps are doing some BS DQs like you see
some DQ because he like his his heel was just a little bit past so that's
technically a real DQ like come on dude he's been he's been probably a hundred
bucks to be here travel all just for a little like a centimeter you know the
(09:10):
refs have biases like no points were scored up but the refs like this person
right like somebody's gonna get penalized is it gonna be the guard
player I just actually happened to me in my match right like I was playing guard
the person couldn't pass my guard I'm trying to do attacks but he kept running
from me so then in that situation what what happens right like well I lost
(09:33):
because the ref viewed the other person was doing like a lot more action and
same thing happened in CJI with Cade and Levi Larry Jones I believe I said his
name right he was playing guard amazing guard player way better than me
Cade is way better passer than the guy that was going against too but it was
the same situation he couldn't pass and the guard player got penalized so it's
(09:56):
like what are we doing in these tournaments and then when you do things
like that when you go into like the gym now you have people trying to basically
just do wrestling and postage is doing jujitsu everybody's focused on just
trying to pass on the outside now I'm not saying that there's anything wrong
with that there's a lot of good stuff to that but if that's all we're doing then
it's kind of like we're limiting a lot of the style now you could do whatever
(10:20):
that heck you want to do honestly and I fully support that but I just think that
is pretty much limiting the game opposed to just free roam I love sub only
competitions because you could do whatever you want you're not gonna get
penalized and then at the end of that sure EBI overtime rules may not be the
best because maybe some people are gonna stall so they can get to those
(10:42):
positions that they're really good at and maybe they should mix up the
positions every now and then but I do think it's better than better than
nothing at least you got ride time pause or you got or you got like you know a
submission and I think that's that's the ultimate test of actual jujitsu or CJI
you know you got the slaps they got the defense mechanism so those types of
(11:05):
tournaments are great point tournaments trash in my opinion let me know what you
guys think see you on the next episode peace
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