I agree and disagree. Your inexperience in jiu jitsu makes it feel unfair, but I swear from competing against experienced wrestlers that you guys are way tougher to handle than you probably think you are. For the first few comps it may seem ufaair, but you're going to improve drastically in a short amount of time.
I think there are a few reasons why your experience is worth a lot. mentally you're probably much tougher than your average guy, and you probably have more experience competing. Wrestlers are hard as fuck to sweep, and you guys have ridiculous base, pressure, and don't concede sweeps easily. I don't think takedowns are all that translates. i think the mental toughness translates, and I think your ability to attack front headlocks, leg rides, whizzers, underhooks, gable grips, are all big advantages. Certainly novice is too small. At least beginner. I don't really believe in sand bagging, so that's a whole other discussion, but we have a guy that wrestled 4 years in high school that just came to our gym and he could definitely compete at the blue belt level, simply because of his top game.
Remember, no-gi isn't technically BJJ. You're doing submission wrestling, and things that you might have experience with in wrestling are going to help you a lot. I think that fact is key. If you were in the gi you'd be in the white belt division, but since you're no-gi, they want to consider all disciplines. Sambo, BJJ, wrestling, all factor into the experience level. You're basically doing MGA (mixed grappling arts) when you do no-gi.
I think there's a lot of crossover in technique that you just may have no seen yet. As a wrestler you're already geared to have a nasty darce/guillotine and front headlock attack game. You'll probably have a nasty truck game. You'll probably have a nasty leg drag and back attack game. Once you see some techniques I bet they'll start to gel and make way more sense to you faster than most people.
Most people with 3 months of training could not even win a match in the intermediate division at all. The fact that you were able to takedown and control from the top for long enough to win says a lot.
You're going to be super happy about it when you grow and learn way more than anyone else that's starting at the same time as you. Just hang in there man.
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