If you’re someone who is relatively new to competition (and even if you’ve competed plenty already), then there’s a good chance that you’ve heard the following advice: “Just go out there and have fun.” And, while this is great advice – it forces you to remember that you train Jiu-Jitsu to be healthy, self-confident, and fulfilled – it can be misleading at the same time.
For, even if you do want to have fun while competing, you still want to win. You know it, your teammates know it, and Romulo Barral knows it to be true as well.
Barral shared his view on the topic in a recent Instagram post:
I’ve never gone to a competition to have fun. I always came to win. If I want to have fun, I go to a party, drink beer with some friends, watch a movie, hang out.
No! I go to the competition to win, to be the champion. Simple! Competitors compete to be the champions, to be the number 1.
He understands that there’s the “hobbyist” competition approach, but it’s all the same:
There’s the hobby competition, but it’s the same thing. If I ask anyone that competes for a hobby: “Do you want to win or lose?” When you go to the competition, do you want to win or to lose?
Regardless of if you are a lawyer or a doctor… So the tip is: be resilient and disciplined. Discipline until your goal is achieved. You achieved your goal? More discipline to do it again.
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