Josh Hinger: “You’ll Always Have Competition Nerves”

How do you get rid of competition nerves? How do you neutralize them, so that you can roll in competition with the same light-heartedness as you do in training?
Well, sorry to break it to you… But you’ll never be able to get rid of them completely. Even Josh Hinger gets nervous prior to competition – but he has a unique approach to battling this roadblock:

You will always have nerves. They will never completely go away, so you need to figure out how to manage them. I also think that nerves and excitement are two peas in the same pod.
And because there is so much hype self-imposed artificial pressure surrounding these top tier tournaments, it’s easy to get the two confused. My advice is to make a conscious effort to take your nerves and mold them into excitement. Be excited to compete at the Worlds.

95% of the competitors in any given division are expected to lose. Only one person gets to win. So the vast majority of you are in a win-win situation.
If you lose, it was expected and you’re in the same boat as everyone else. If you win, great. Rinse and repeat.

In simple terms: your goal ought to be to give your best while on the competition mats and to do it for the love of Jiu-Jitsu:

So just go out there and have fun. Fight hard AF and do so with a smile on your heart. If you don’t win, your life won’t change. If you do win, still you’re life probably won’t change.
What’s most important is that you have a positive experience, and the only way that’s going to happen is if you put yourself into a positive mindset. Win or lose, this experience is going to make you a better grappler and, in most cases, a better person.

We all started training jiu-jitsu because we love it. We love the deep, complex, strategic element of the matches. And we love the thrill of trying to break and strangle someone who is trying to do the same to us.
We love a good scrap. We love testing ourselves one-on-one against a random person from another part of the world. And isn’t that the most awesome part of competing at the Worlds? To test yourself against another person from another part of the world who has the same passion for the game as you.

 

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