your first tournament, thoughts, reactions, feeling?

[Shannon]

basic question, What was your first tournament experiance like?
looking forward to my first tournament in november. Think I may do only no gi but may give gi a shot. Havent had much training with the gi, so i feel the lack of/ short time training with the gi may lower my chances of doing well.

any advice, thoughts?

[Keith Werbisky]

Mine was awsome, even tho i had'ent been training long and i got beat, after it i feel my training and mindset were progressing far better.

[davewillis44]

yeh man id say get in there sooner rather than later. gi and no gi. if you havnt trained for that long get in there and get some experience its not about winning in your first comp more about the experience to feel what a comp is like.
good luck in november mate. i got a good comp in 3 weeks, im pumped!

[JAnderson]

Your first comp is going to be exciting and nerve racking at the same time. train as much and as hard as you can leading up to it. as dave said its all about the experience bro. try to relax as much as you can and enjoy it!

[Jeff Doherty]

I was still competing juniors at the time (-17) and I had trained for about two and a half months... ended up with a bronze. MMA Expo 2008, there was like 300-400 spectators when they actually ran that one good that year

[Shannon]

im comfortable with gi and no gi, but only due to the lack of training with the gi, im a little skeptical on how long i'll last.
Majority of the time, i'll work from my back because of how small i am. since im only at 5'7 a majority of the people i've sparred with out weigh me and are taller than I am, so when i get mount it doesnt take them much to flip me back over. Due to this i've mainly focused on working for subs from my back.

is this entirely bad to do? i've had some people say go with what works for you. where as some people are saying i need to work on getting on top and getting there first. The other problem for me though is since most people are a bit bigger than me, its hard for me to go for kimura, americana, or straight arm bars. So for me it feels like my best options are armbars, and head+arm chokes, gi chokes.

[Ryan_B]

I lost but I learned more from losing than I ever had from winning. My game improved a lot, I knew what I needed to work on and what to do different next time.

[Ashley Kennedy-Foster]

i've played one competitive sport or another my whole life, and nerves were never a problem. The one thing that caught me completely by surprise was just how crazy nervous i was the first time i heard my name called and i had to step into onto the mats, waiting on the sidelines i seriously felt a little sick. I can honestly say no other sport ever tested my confidence the way grappling does.

Once the match started i forgot about all of that and just played the game. I will tell you the adrenaline dump was nuts, i'm sure it affected my ability to control my body the way i could in class, and i'm pretty sure my hands were shaking for the rest of the day coming off that high - best feeling in the world.

I mainly just do no-gi now, but the first few tournaments i entered i did both gi and no-gi, the extra experience even if it's in a division you don't plan to pursue is invaluable, especially when you're just starting out - more valuable than a sure W. I say go for both!

[Scott Elkin]

Hated it. Supposed to fight at 11, fought around 4, but didn't have proper prediction, so my eating schedule got all messed up.

I kept watching fights and getting excited and getting adrenaline going all day.

With all the adrenaline dumps all day, by the time I had to compete I was pretty wasted.

[Ashley Kennedy-Foster]

Hated it. Supposed to fight at 11, fought around 4, but didn't have proper prediction, so my eating schedule got all messed up.

I kept watching fights and getting excited and getting adrenaline going all day.

With all the adrenaline dumps all day, by the time I had to compete I was pretty wasted.

haha, this is every tournament ;-)