January 17, 2009
The Wrestler (and Tips for Competition)
Some people are natural born competitors. Like Mickey Rourke's character in "The Wrestler" they love the limelight, the roar of the crowd and putting it all on the line...
... and the rest of us tend to have more of a love-hate relationship with competition.
I was recently asked if I had any good tips for people wanting to enter their first competition.
I do. In fact I have TWO tips:
First, remember to breathe. Breathing is more important than almost everything else, because if you get really excited you'll probably start holding your breath. If you hold your breath you'll either gas out or pass out. Neither is pretty.
Longtime readers will recall a previous post in which an anonymous grappler could roll forever with advanced people but quickly gassed out when rolling with newbies. We eventually diagnosed this as a breathing problem, which led to both the solution and a surprise tournament victory.
Second, go and read the article about competition tips by Jason Scully that I've just added to the Grapplearts reading list. He's put together a great list of tips that should help you on the big day. Even more importantly, he has a great attitude about tournament competition.
So if you decide to do it, happy competing. Hope you learn lots!
Stephan Kesting
P.S. At the risk of getting way off topic, "The Wrestler" has probably moved into my top five movies list, so definitely think about it the next time you're going to see a movie after training.
P.P.S. As always, please feel free to forward this to any aspiring competitors that you know. The link specifically to this tip is:
www.grapplearts.com/2009/01/some-people-are-natural-born.htm
Labels: competition, the mental aspect
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