Photo: Belgrade Open BJJ Championship

If you are (or were) a BJJ competitor then you know exactly what the title of this post is all about. For many competitive athletes just the idea of being able to compete is one of the biggest motivating factors behind playing sports along with the exhilaration of the competitive arena. Even though competitive athletes hate to lose, it is not winning that necessarily drives them but the enjoyment they get out of the challenge competition brings. For many people, competition is fun and a great challenge and can to motivate you to train harder.

In BJJ, as in any other sport, there are the ones which love to compete and use every opportunity to do so and those which never compete under any circumstance. There are many more people that are closer to the second extreme, but one thing which is certain is that different advices are suitable for different types of BJJ practitioners.

Related:

Joe Rogan On Why He Doesn’t Want To Compete in Jiu-Jitsu

Competing will make you grow but sometimes it can be counterproductive, try to find what works for you and always seek for balance. Use smaller regional tournaments as a testing ground for your game and see what you need to change. However don’t compete in the bigger BJJ international events like Worlds, Pan, Europeans, if you are not 100% motivated and not ready to train like a madman for a few months and sacrifice many things in order to win. It’s not worth showing up there like a tourist and collecting a T-Shirt. All you will learn in losing is what I already just told you in this article: If you want to compete, then you have to be motivated and ready to sacrifice!