Here is a quick chart I did to see how the intensity of my training, standards, and competitive drive has increased through out the years.  Check it out:

It is my opinion that the better we get at BJJ the more we should compete …and not the other way around. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case for most practitioners and here are some reasons or excuses why this has happened.

Reasons for not competing.

• Lack of money (can be fixed)
• Injuries ( sometimes the biggest lie and excuse out there )
• Job has the person tight down (can be fixed)
• Family requires too much time (can be fixed)
• Loss of Motivation / Depression (can be fixed)
• Loss of Skill (rarely admitted) (can be fixed)
• Too Hard to Come Back to the Level once achieved and the road back is too spiritually crushing ( an ego problem) (can be fixed)
• Belt Color does not match skill level of competition/ Bad Promotions ( a huge reason at purple , brown and black) (can be fixed…but difficult)

And many more…but I want to focus on the last one. There is a huge jump from blue belt to purple belt in international ( IBJJF) level competition and if you don’t have the skill you will take a lot of losses just to become competitive at purple belt. Usually if the instructor promoted the person without realizing this and will be likely to promote  too early (for lack of better word) at the later belts as well; the problem becomes even bigger and almost impossible to fix by then.

My recommendation to new competitors out there is to set a goal of competing every year more and achieving more championships every year. Also try to double or triple your championships from Belt Level To Belt Level. At the very least we should have one more championship per belt level!

For Example less use the “tripling” concept:

White: 1, Blue: 3, Purple:9: Brown: 27: Black: 81

Example of the “doubling” concept:

White: 1, Blue: 2, Purple: 4 Brown: 8: Black: 16

Example of the “plus 1” concept:

White: 1, Blue: 2, Purple: 3 Brown: 4: Black: 5

MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better than:

White:  16, Blue: 8, Purple:4  Brown: 2: Black: 1

I will like to hear the stats of some competitors out there…Please leave your comments below 😉