was looking through old BJJ files and found this video of probably the worst performance and one of my most important ones. It was a situation where fear conquered me. Mainly the fear of losing. And I wanted to share the story behind it to help you if you’re feeling the same way.
Many of us know that we are defined by the way we lose and the way we respond to these failures.
In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu the phrases hammer and nail, feedback not failure, win or learn get thrown around. But these are incredibly hard to take to heart right after the sting of the lose is still present.
But as I look back. One of my most important performances in my BJJ competition history came from a loss.
The story comes from 2012. This was during a BJJ tournament in Ohio called the American Grappling Challenge.
Dustin runs a solid competition.
During this tournament there was a 16 man Black Belt invitational. Which meant that when I was competing. All eyes were on me. To make things even more stressful. We had nearly 30 students from the gym. This made it one of the biggest BJJ Black Belt matches I had ever had up to this point.
The overwhelming thought going into this BJJ match was, “I don’t want to lose.”
That feeling served me very poorly because I was so gripped with the fear of losing that I never went after the win.
After reflecting on the match. I realized how I messed up and made the adjustments. I learned so much from that match and it has affected me for the better.
I just wanted to share this BJJ experience with you guys because I feel like it important to share the ups and downs together to make a more 3 dimensional view.
I hope this video is helpful!
-Chewy