Ramping up the training One month till Competition!

Yesterday officially marked one month until Grappling Industries in Toronto which will be my second competition since starting Jiu-Jitsu a year and a half ago. I am going to be competing in the Adult Male White Belt/ Beginner division at 145 lbs. in both Gi and No Gi.

One of the main reasons I chose this to be my second competition is that with Grappling Industries' tournaments, they split the division up and then bout are done it Round-Robin style. So win or lose you can be guaranteed at least 3-4 matches, depending on the division depth, (and mine is usually large) for both Gi and No Gi so a possible total of 8 bouts. Compare this to the Ontario Jiu-Jitsu Association's tournaments which are typically single eliminations so you are only guaranteed 2 bouts and your day can be over pretty fast. Which is important still being newer to the sport and this being only my second competition.

Also this week my training center has moved to a new location, which is over 3 times the size of the previous facility. Unfortunately that means I was unable to train at all last week as they were closed for moving/ renovations that everyone helped out with.

My coach has put all of us who are competing on a training program to get us ready. Thankfully I have maintained a fairly regular training regiment of my own to keep my athleticism up. For the training program three times a week we are doing cardio sessions in the morning and the other 3 morning we are lifting weights for low rep and more sets. Twice a week we are having our normal Jiu-Jitsu class where we work on technique and then roll for a bit at the end and then the other 3 nights we are having more of an open mat still Jiu-Jitsu class for all those competing to come in and work on whatever they want. My coach's goal is to have everyone's cardio and strength in check so come competition time we won't burn out or get tired in a match and have that be the reason for losing.

Now that we have started to pick things up at the gym, I am starting to get very excited for this competition and cannot wait! It has been 6 months since my last competition and believe that I have made leaps in my Jiu-Jitsu game since than.