thank you for posting, I did just my 2nd comp as white belt, it gets better and better in terms of adrenaline and fatigue. Just showing up to compete is a win in itself, respect

You brought up fatigue a lot during this, and one thing I would say is that you cannot forget about the adrenaline dump. First comp, it happens. Love your honest take aways!

Those feelings of fatigue in your first tournament doing back to back to back matches are indescribable to someone who has never done so. I’ll never forget lying on the floor after my first tournament trying my best to open a bottle of water but to no avail.

I appreciate your honest depiction of competition. I had a similar experience both of the times I competed. I did ok on one match, but I was exhausted for most of my other matches. Competition helped me realize where I was in regards to cardio and inspired me to work on extra conditioning outside of grappling. This video will also be good for you as you keep doing Jiu Jitsu because you’ll be able to look back on how much you’ve improved.

I’m 44, going on a year at white belt. I’m definitely getting the bug to compete and I definitely want to do it before I get my blue. I enjoyed this video, gets me excited.

Thank you for being so candid in this video. I’m training for my first comp on Nov18 and I’ll use some of your tips!!

You did a great job! Thanks a lot for commentary.

Oh ya! Ive tried the loop a few times but haven’t finished it yet! Definitely a sneaky one some black belts will get me with. Lookin forward to exploring more myself with some additional training and privates soon! Thanks man

Fantastic video brother. Only people who have competed understand what you went through. The nerves can be sometimes more than half the battle. It’s still something I struggle with. Of course not having a sufficient rest time didn’t help, but great job out there!

Thank you for posting these even though you weren't just smashing the competition. I can definitely relate to your experience having just started myself.

This was fun to watch and for me was a real flashback. I was a 42 y.o. white belt in my first tournament, and I am also a lanky grappler. A couple great observations you made. The grip intensity in tournaments is totally different than class, and will accelerate fatigue. Don’t feel embarrassed about your cardio in your first few tournaments. I trained hard for my first tourneys and the fatigue gets you no matter what. Having the guts to compete is a big accomplishment. I’m sure you’ve received a pile of advice, but if you like playing full guard in a gi tournament, think about attacking forms of cross choke when your opponent’s hands are occupied away from their neck. They’ll have to come back to defend and that will stymie their attempts to open your guard.

Thanks for posting these! Start classes tomorrow really excited.

Good job man, great respect to you, especially for not tapping in your 2nd match against a younger, stronger, and less tired opponent!

Dude you killed it, the beginning is the hardest part to be optimistic about, great matches.

I did my first white belt competition a while ago, it’s really hard and new it’s not like a rolling with partners it’s so much harder and so much pressure. Thank you for making a video.🎉🎉

Great video, thanks for posting. Greetings from Chile 🇨🇱 my very first tournament is coming in April so these kind of videos have helped me a lot!!

I’ve only been training about 2 months and have never done a competition but I have felt this level of exhaustion twice in class. Doesn’t feel good but you fought through it. Mental toughness is a huge factor in bjj. Nice job man. 🙏🏼

That first roll you show is what it's like for me against a couple of guys in my gym. I'll pull guard but they never try and pass, they just grab my wrists and don't do much else except stack. You do a great job being patient and just maintaining your gaurd. You can tell he's frustrated but he never really tried to pass your gaurd. Nice work!

Thank you so much for sharing. Building up to my first competition.

dude I feel like you did amazing. you really fought hard and never gave up which is soooo admirable. comp is NOT like rolling in class lmao. the exhaustion is crazy. i won gold at my first comp and barely won/ survived both matches. great job :)

Man much appreciated, I joined black lion gym in Michigan and it was amazing and haven’t been there in a year but train with my brother and watch lots of matches in my off time and always wanted to compete so this opened my eyes.

Nice work! Newly promoted blue belt here, won gold my last tournament at white (3rd tournament at white belt). You did a very nice job in your first match holding the closed guard. The only suggestion I would give is to decide on whether you are pulling guard or shooting for a take down and be first. The rest is reps with drills, more matches, more tournaments, highly recommend attending open mats at new gyms. Gives you an opportunity to work your game on someone who doesn’t know you. Best of luck!

I really enjoyed watching this. I am only three weeks into BJJ and I got so excited and was shouting 'go on' when you applied the triangle. Hats off to you for entering any tournament as they must be nerve wracking enough. Amazing effort!

Dude, great job. I made the exact same mistake you did. I won my first division and then lost both my matches in the second. Looking good out there

Your honesty is awesome!

Such an amazing story. I havent competed yet and I started rolling a couple months. Your video motivated to look at competion and cardio , but being aware of the adrenaline aspect you mentioned. Great job getting the gold still.

Thanks for sharing! Good stuff. I think the biggest benefit is that you can look back and learn from the experience. You win some and lose some. Just have fun, and keep improving.

This was a lot of fun to watch man. Ive got my first comp in november. Ive got the same problem as you, im tall and skinny so i get wrecked by stockier oponnents

Great content. You definitely leveled up from the tournaments.

Im a little over a year in and started jiu jitsu when I was 37 and im now 38. I was in the exact same situation as you in my first tournament so this video was really familiar to me. I had a tough no gi match first, then within 5 minutes was being called for my gi match. I was exhausted, and had to scramble to get my gi on and never really caught my breath when I started my gi match. You're so right too, you feel like you roll hard in the gym and think a tournament will be no different than those tough rounds in the gym, but its a whole different level of intensity! Its also hard when you're that tired and you can hear your coaches telling you what to do, but your body wont respond. I'm sure the nerves and adrenaline play a big roll in the fatigue during competition. Good job though, win or lose, you learn, and you get back in the gym and keep working. osss brother!

Que incrível o conteúdo, muito obrigado por compartilhar. Iniciei no bjj tem 1 mês e estou na fase de me sentir perdido e cheio de dores, mas nao vejo a hora de evoluir. 38 anos e acima do peso, mas vou buscar evoluir.

Hey Rob! Just finished my first BJJ tournament at San Diego JJWL. I got 2nd place! Love your videos and how your progression is. Thanks for sharing

Off from this video I love the channel brother on how your always explaining the whole match💪

Thank you for posting this!

Congratulations for just signing up to a competition. You don't lose you only learn. Great video

Good work

Congratulations on competing and congratulations on the gold!!

Maaan nice video dude. That fatigue feeling is horrible. Iv felt it a few times in rolling and basically gave up on the mat

Thank you. Congratulations

Great job!

Great content bro. Really does help to see

Thanks for posting. I also started in January.

Good stuff bro!

Respect the effort ✊🏽

Appreciate your post. Not sure if i could push the way you did. Thinking about starting Jui Jitsu. It's good to see ppl starting their journey at an older age. I'm exhausted just watching.

Good stuff rob, keep it going!

Hey mate great commentary. You seem humble I like it! great work good fight IQ.

I started 10/2022 at age 42. 14 months later I'm much more relaxed than when i started, but endurance just doesnt come easy. So many things i could relate to watching your video. The nerves and unfathomable fatigue...Thank you for sharing your journey. Maybe our paths will cross one day. We'd be in the same bracket

Great job, everyone who's competed understands the fatigue that you're talking about, after my first competition match my body was destroyed and it stayed like that for like 3 days, those 5 minutes in comp felt harder than 30 minutes of straight sparring.

Super great. I love the commentary as I'm only 4 months in.....

Good job and congrats !!! I was exactly like you. Won my first match and lost my second match to an opponent which was his first match . Completely gassed out after my first match and I never expected that as usually I am able to roll a few rounds with lesser rest time during open mat. I think it was because I wasn’t breathing much too during my first match. 😂

That triangle entry at 12:55 was pretty sweet. Nice job.

awesome video!

Did 6 comps this year. The Adrenaline never goes away haha. But working on cardio confidence helped on me on my last two tournaments. Good job tho!

What made you decide to compete in 2 age divisions? Also the fact that you were exhausted but still gutted out 2 matches with younger competitors and almost got a finish in one of them you should be proud. A good way to know if your jiujitsu works is to see if its effective when you are injured and/or exhausted. I think you did great for your first comp. Make all the mistakes at white belt so you dont make them at higher ranks. Keep it up!

Thanks for posting love the video! Been thinking about doing tournaments, I’m already 40, can I do both age divisions 30-39 and 40-49?

White belts are one of the most fun belts to learn bjj Brazilian jujitsu in

My first tournament I developed adult asthma from getting so winded. Fast forward two years and my couch wouldn’t give me a blue belt until I walked through NAGA masters nationals heavyweight, 30-40 decision with all subs via Americana lol. What a difference two years can make! Much respect my brother, you’re doing awesome!

Good post. I’m 54 and been at it 6 weeks. I’m athletic and giving some blue belts a real fight BUT I am not as brave as you. I can’t face that disappointment so I am not going to compete I believe. Besides I’m a real fight I’m focusing on my striking. Wishing you much success!

Man I went through the same thing in my first comp 😂 you get upset at how tired you are.

great job, real mental gymnastics

The great thing is you’ll fix pretty much everything you identify, things that happen in competition tend to stick with you. I bet you finish triangles at a much higher rate from now on. Well done champ, the adrenaline dump is real it’ll get better with experience, but try and focus on breathing over everything in class for a while to keep your heart rate down.

You did well mate. I started in January as well, aged 42. I was impressed that you even had a game plan and can commentate the roll pretty well. I only get to go 3 to 4 times a month and still barely know what's going on. How often do you train?

Well done a very interesting and honest video enjoyed it I’m 53 and would like to do a comp but nervous tbh

Good man thanx 🥋👍🇬🇧

Tournaments are tough. It's different to sparring. YOu have to get used to that & become compfortable with competing. Your experience is very relateable.

Good rolling Rob. I'm just starting myself, my name's also Rob and I'm tall and slim too haha. Best of luck becoming a beast over time !

Nice job

In the first match, do you not usually sweep to your right? Feels like his base is frequently compromised and vulnerable to a scissor sweep. See how much he tilts left at 4:45.

Good job bro, competition is tuff.

First comp I lost 26-0 and second match I lost north south cross collar choke. I felt your exhaustion

LOL I remember the first time I ever competed and after that first match my whole body felt drained too. Muscles burning and lungs ON FIRE and you are questioning "What the heck did I sign myself up for?!?! How many more matches??? UGH!" But its ok, it'll pass. Neat thing is you come from professional poker so it is all about that poker face in between your matches. Congrats, you now have gone thru your trial by fire. Win/lose doesn't matter, you put yourself out there and gave it your best shot. You are walking away with something better than a medal or a NAGA Sword (still don't know why they give little kids full swords, anyways) You are getting experience. I know that sounds corny and not a lot but experience can become quite the useful tool. I bet you are probably going to take that experience and be thinking about every little move you/your opponents made. And those thoughts can lead you to coming up with nice answers to plenty of the situations you came across. Another step in your Mexican Ground Karate journey. 👍

Nice jujitsu skills bud - Snoop

You did 2 age groups your first comp! You should be proud of your performance and your mental fortitude

You did really well all the comps i go in the guys just want to hold position for 5minutes 😂

I can’t wait for my first competition!

You mentioned having the dummy.....do you feel like that's helpful? I've been debating for a while to buy but didn't want to wast a bunch of money

I'm curious about that call in match 1, no shade on you but if I were the ref I might have called double stall, since you never opened up your guard to make an attack.

You can roll as hard as you want in class, but nothing compares to a competition roll. Took me a while to learn how to pace myself and not let the adrenaline take over.

Bro, you walked in and played... That's more than most will ever do...

Is that an athletic wedding ring you have on? If not, be careful -- degloving injuries can happen. Awesome video.

First competition is Feb 10th! Thanks for posting this

I can’t wait for my first comp

Grazie per questo video. E' facile trovare video di cinture viola o cinture nere che si, sono belli da vedere, ma non sono utili quanto il tuo video. Io tra poco farò la mia prima competizione con cintura bianca e sono molto agitato. Tu come hai gestito lo stress e la paura prima della gara?

You had plenty of Oppt. To grab an inside leg and rotate for a straight arm bar attempt to sweep Brudda?! Sometimes letting go of the guard will help you. I’d recommend drill some solo rotations. Great video and narrations. Keep it up, you looked good! Ooosh!

Nice BJJ match - Snoop

Same thing happen to me.. 1st match held down whole time i gassed myself ,, 2nd match just gave up

Sim Go!!!

I am 42 yo and started 2 months ago and for me it is fucking tough, I used to gas out within seconds with each roll but nevertheless, it is tough rolling with younger people

Good job. That adrenaline dump is a mofo ain't it? Good times.

Like everyone said, the first comp is ROUGH and full of great learning lessons. Two things that can make a huge difference with the fatigue: Thorough warmup before the matches begin. Light rolls, air squats, jumping jacks or whatever. Just get warm and try to get rid of that adrenalin. Secondly, be purposeful with your breathing during the match. Breathe through your nose and don’t let yourself end up holding your breath because you aren’t mindful of the breathing.

Oss!!!! greetings from lima Perú

8:22 - no bueno. put your foot on his hip. lift his right leg in the air and circle it over so your knee is behind his knee. left foot still on the hip. gives you lifting power. use the aoj x guard not the classic x guard in this spot. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qtijddVinJjdpXk.htmlsi=6VYWT4E8910AiiT_&t=151

Is the reason you are allowed to fight in 2 age division is because you are 40+ and went down to 30+ and that is harder? vs. someone who is 30, wanting to fight in the 40?

The difference is class is generally playful and comp is 100 percent effort lol

Do you live in AZ?

Do people in their 50s ever compete in BJJ tournaments?

To me your opponent is trying to force a submission from the closed guard. If it was me I would focus on passing the guard first, hands on opponents hips posture up, attempting to slide through with the knee and get into position before attempting submission. I seriously doubt he could get a submission without passing the guard. For you you need to knee to elbow creating a space getting your knee underneath and this would get you into a position. You need to upset his balance by pulling down on 1 side, to be in a position to get the sweep. It doesn't look like you wouldn't be able to triangle by going straight onto his hips. Eventually you will use less energy and be less tired. Keep fighting

How much do you weight?

Salve irmão, começa a trabalhar guarda fechada acredito que pode ser seu jogo.