How To Prepare for a BJJ Tournament
Tips from weeks leading up to post tournament
I have been competing in BJJ every year since 2008. I competed at every belt level from white belt to black belt. I have had hundreds of competition matches. I have a pretty good idea of how to prepare for a BJJ tournament. It’s something I get a lot of questions about from students “how should I train to get ready for a BJJ tournament?”
Here are my best practices for all my aspiring BJJ competitors out there. This will be organized in 5 different sections.
Weeks leading up to tournament
Week of the tournament
Night before tournament
Day of tournament
Post tournament
Weeks leading up to tournament
Train hard. What does that mean? Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Pick the toughest rolling partners in class. Don’t slack off in class. Stay focused and get your drilling reps in. How you train is how you will fight. Learn a takedown and learn how to pull guard.
Get some extra BJJ training sessions in. If you usually train twice a week, make it a point to train 3-4 times a week for a month leading up to the tournament. You could ask your coach to have an in-house tournament match in front of the class against an opponent of equal skill level. I am a big fan of those.
In 2020 I was apart of a class instructed by Keenan Cornelius at Legion Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, California. He circled up the entire class and picked two students to compete against each other in a match. He went a step further and split up the rest of the class to have one side cheer for fighter X and the other side cheer for fighter Y. It really added to the competitive atmosphere of the match.
Picture. Me in the background of a Keenan Cornelius class. Jan 2020.
You want to make your BJJ training as similar to the tournament as possible. That means if the tournament you are doing has 6 minute rounds, most of your training should be spent doing 6 minute rounds. If you regularly practice 3 minute rounds in class, you are gonna gas out when you have to fight for 6 minutes. You will learn to pace yourself differently. When you roll, play by the rules of the upcoming tournament.
Read the rules of the tournament. Read them a few times whenever you decide to sign up. Then make sure to refresh yourself a few times (once a week) in the lead up to the tournament. I have lost count the amount of times I watched parents and/or coaches get mad at referees without even knowing the rules.
Don’t stress yourself out by analyzing all the competitors who are signed up for your bracket. People gut hurt and drop out, new people get added into the bracket. These factors are outside your control. Focus on yourself and your own training. Researching potential opponents can cause analysis paralysis where you freeze in the match because you are worried about what the other person is gonna do.
If you have extra time try to get some strength and conditioning in outside of class (weights, running, biking, skipping, swimming). Don’t forget to stretch.
The week before the tournament
Start to taper down your training. You should have already done your hard training now. The week of the tournament you can still get on the mat and go to class but you should be focused on staying loose for the tournament. Stretch, flow roll, just move around with some solo drills. Drink lots of water and eat what you would normally eat. These are the things you should be doing the week of the tournament.
You don’t want to anything to risk injury. Don’t have a bunch of crazy hard, intense sparring rounds days before your tournament. You will be burned out and your body will not be recovered properly. Professional athletes know how important rest is. Champion UFC fighters are not sparring hard the week of the fight, I promise you.
Day before tournament
Try to chill out. Do something unrelated to BJJ like watch a movie, go for a walk, hang out with friends/family. It can be anything that keeps your mind occupied. What I would avoid is watching BJJ matches all day long, or watching your potential opponents matches the night before a tournament. I believe those situations create more stress. You should be trying to relax and stay loose the night before your competition.
Sometimes I will send my student a funny or inspirational video clip the day before the tournament. This is one of my favorites to send to get somebody fired up to compete.
Day of tournament
It’s almost go time. The morning of your tournament I would try to keep everything as normal as possible. Eat what you would normally eat for breakfast.
BJJ tournaments can last a long time. Make sure you are well prepared. Bring lots of water and snacks that you can eat post match. Things like bananas, granola bars, again don’t go too far outside your comfort zone and say eat sushi the day or a tournament if you have never ate sushi before. Bring a change of clothes. Regular clothes and training gear. Bring a sweater to either warmup in or wear between matches so you don’t get too cold. A lot of BJJ tournaments are in cold venues like hockey rinks. Bring headphones. Bring a book or journal. Don’t forget your mouth guard.
Get a good warmup. You want to be sweating before your first match. That will help burn up some of the nervous energy you are feeling. Everyone’s warmup will look a little bit different. Find what works for you.
If you have multiple matches focus on your breathing. Immediately after your match is done take some deep breaths and try and get your heart rate down. Sit down. Relax and catch your breath.
If after your first match your training gear is really sweaty and gross, swap it out for a new kit. Try and shower ASAP after you are done competing. Shower at the venue if possible. Tournaments and unwashed mats are a great place to catch skin infections like ring worm.
Post tournament
It’s important to reflect on your performance. Think deeply about why you won or lost. Was your loss due to technique? You probably got put in a position where you were unsure what was happening and then boom it’s over. Sometimes we lose due to technique, sometimes people lose because they don’t understand the rules, other times it might be because you were too tired and need to increase your fitness level.
Depending on what the issue is there is always strategies to fix it. If you got armbarred, you can work on your armbar defense. Try and look at the results like it’s data and try not to get overly emotional about it. Don’t care too much, it’s only BJJ. You still got to go to work on Monday regardless of the result.
Ask your coach for feedback. A good coach and team will be proud of you for competing, regardless of the results.
I like to give it a week before I sit down and try and watch and analyze my own tournament matches.
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