I wasn’t even gonna compete today at my 63rd tournament, Grappling Industries San Jose.

What lessons have you learned?

But, this was a chance to have a good time, work on my Jiu Jitsu, and give my best effort.

I’ve been collecting injuries, and I have to recover for a superfight next weekend…

But I love competing. I woke up at 3am for a split second, changed my mind, and set my alarm for 6:30am to get my ass to the tournament.

I’d lost to Mario already, so I wondered if I’d have a match with him, or with Ben who I’d just faced a last week. There was only one way to find out…

Even after over 240 matches, there’s uncertainty when arriving to a new venue, but I found some comfort in the familiarity of the setup and began warming up…

Running into friends is a nice juxtaposition against the intensity of competing, which is invigorating in its own way, especially when you’re able to accomplish some goals: like mine today of not pulling guard.

This tournament was free to sign up for, so opponent after opponent just didn’t show up since there was nothing to lose… In no-gi, half the bracket wasn’t there, so the weird comfort in knowing which opponents I’d face was scrambled when they reorganized the bracket. And on top of that, I’d lost a decision earlier, and now I was getting slammed by a big strong opponent, which would be my second loss of the day.

But then I remembered, my only goal was to focus on the process over the outcome.

I found fulfillment in the experience gained and lessons learned, and was glad I got to hang out with some friends… I didn’t compete against Mario this time, but maybe in the future.

While I didn’t achieve gold medals, I did achieve some personal victories and made good memories.

Oh, and I ran into Will, my opponent for my superfight next weekend…

I ended up winning 5 out of 7 matches across gi and no-gi, with a silver in gi and bronze in no-gi.

#bjj #jiujitsu #bjjmotivation #bjjcompetition #bjjlifestyle #bjjlife #grapplingindustries