Months of Experience

[Mike Dewitt Jr]

Just from what I say on your video you posted I say novice because you have no wrestling, you just started and you are not directly learning under any trainer or even in a class. Nobody is going to think you are intentionally sandbagging, you aren't training at any gym with any experienced partners. Keep training, get in an academy, and train! Novice is perfect for guys like you!

[Griffin Lambert]

Hey buddy, I live in atl, we should roll sometime, I love to teach!

[Landon DuMar]

I think most of you guys are missing the point. He didn't seem to ask for what division we thought he should compete in, he seemed to be asking how do you determine which skill division to compete in, and if the amount of training time was a steadfast rule or a guideline. I think it's a very difficult question to answer, and all I can offer is my experiences. When I did my first NAGA, I had only one local tournament under my belt, and was right around a year in experience. I was very worried about how I would do, what to expect, if I was going to be one-and-done. I ended up winning first, and completely blowing my competition out of the water, but while I watched all my opponents go, they looked very competent and scary. It is very hard to gauge your progress and skill level, but I've had tournaments where I win all my matches and some that I've lost my first, and they all were great experiences for me, though winning is generally more enjoyable. I had a teammate who faced a similar dilemma with no tournament experience, and another teammate told him to do novice. When he asked me for my advice, I told him not to do novice, and that I believed in his ability to do beginner. He ended up taking first place, and he really blew me away with his ability to step up to the challenge, showing me he was even better than I had assumed. I think in the end it's your decision where you should compete, but from what I can tell there seems to be several people in here that feel you'd fit in either, so I would try to instead of focusing on what skill division you'll do, try and focus on being as prepared mentally and physically for the task as possible, that way you can make the most of the experience.

[Harry Evans]

Enter beginner. If you stomp on everyone, stop entering beginner. It's fine if you accidentally sandbag once or twice to figure out where your level is. If you do it repeatedly to pile up wins, then you suck.

I just fought my first nogi tournament, and lost in the semis to a guy with 16 professional MMA bouts, and like 12 years of wrestling. I actually should have won, and was ahead on points, but misread the time on the clock and made a dumb mistake. I was a little annoyed at first, but then he came over, was really nice, and explained that he had never done a submission tournament, and wanted to see if his BJJ was good enough to fight advance. Fair enough, I would have done the same thing. Point is, don't worry too much about that as you first start to compete. Figure out where your level is by fighting, and enter into divisions accordingly.

BTW, this is why I think nogi tournaments need more divisions. Beginner, Advanced, and occasionally Intermediate? Gi has White (often beginner White and Advanced White), Blue, Purple, Brown, and Black. I understand that fighters with no BJJ rank need to compete at higher levels (wrestlers, judoka, sambo fights, etc.), but just allow people to register at any level, using the belts as guidelines. You could call them Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and Elite or something if you want instead. Like I said above, people will easily figure out what level they belong in based on their results. I always thought it was ridiculous to see blue belts enter into advanced nogi and fight black belts.

[WilliamGunter]

Hey louis, have you checked out Unit 2 fitness on ponce de leon? I know money is an issue but free trials are great to use and in atl you could get like months of training for free and get a feel for those cats. I liked Unit 2 and there is another 3x sports or something like that, ride the trial class wave bro ain't no shame, they offer them for you to use them. Sorry I know a lil off topic But I used to live on west marrietta st right across from Ga tech. as far as that comp thing goes just do novice if they feel like your sbagging they'll move ya. just go and rip it cuh!

[Harry Evans]

Sorry, I meant enter novice. Most of my local tournaments are just beginner and advanced. Didn't realize yours had more

[stlnl]

That's why I came here. I don't have access to many of the resources you guys do. I'm not in this for pride or ego, and I'm definitely not here to cheat someone out of what they have earned. If I don't belong in the Novice division I have no problem entering Beginner. I'm not here for validation or empowerment. I know you guys probably get a ton of that. What I'm really getting at are two things:

An honest assessment of my skills and knowledge in comparison to the skill levels that enter Novice division.

and/or

A method to discern what would be the best div to enter.

I want the learning experience. I want the fun. What I don't want is for people to be (metaphorically) eying me suspiciously because I have no method of judging where I should enter, or what skill level I am. And I definitely don't want to screw over some kid who is vastly less experienced than myself.

Why do you keep asking if you think you are novice is my question then? If you feel that is where you belong......just enter Novice? I dont understand asking a question, but not wanting the answer? The calendar is how you determine "months training" and once you enter some tourneys, they track you, so that if you dont train and enter another one with the same folks 2 years later, you must go a division up. They dont ask who you have been training with, or have you been training, they just go by time that passes from one event to the next time they see you.

I dont think there is any issue with entering novice, the grappling vid you posted, you wont have to worry about folks raising eyebrows. I dont mind what you enter, it just seems to me you are fishing for the answer you want (novice) rather than the answer the calendar seems to be saying to you (beginner). But for purposes of greater flexibility, Novice is better anyway, as I think Naga does the tracking thing, so you could track out of beginner next time around if too much time passes (dont hold me to that).