# Nervous New Blue Belt



## Saie (Aug 31, 2014)

Hello, guys!

I'm 19 and just recently got my blue belt in BJJ, and my next tournament is in about two weeks.


I have complete faith in my instructor's ability to recognize skill level, and he told me that he believes I'm ready to compete at this level. 
I'm still nervous to compete as a new blue, but as a white I dominated pretty well, yet I was still nervous to compete! But now that I'm a blue
I'm sort of freaking out that this tournament is going to be a wreck, and I already signed up. 


I care about winning or losing to SOME level I'm sure, but I mostly compete
in order to test my ability as a martial artist and to have fun and have a great experience. 


Only after the tournament is over am I glad that I signed up, but before that I'm usually a nervous wreck. I know my safety isn't really in 
much danger, but how can I lose this nervousness and just calm down? Does it ever go away?


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## Brian R. VanCise (Aug 31, 2014)

Congratulations I am sure you will do fine. Just relax, compete and enjoy!  If you were doing well as a white belt I am sure you will transition well to the new level of competition!

On a different note how long have you been practicing Brazilian Jiujitsu and who is your instructor?


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## Steve (Aug 31, 2014)

Congrats.  That's a big deal!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## donald1 (Aug 31, 2014)

You'll be fine,  that's the reason why your a blue belt because you CAN compete with them.  Don't doubt yourself now save the doubt for the person you go up against


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## Buka (Aug 31, 2014)

Go have fun, breathe in the whole experience and pump your fist. Breaking your cherry is always awesome.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Aug 31, 2014)

Saie said:


> I care about winning or losing ..



There are 2 ways to look at this issue.

1. You should not compete until you think that you will have a good chance to win.

PRO - You will make sue that you have prepared yourself to the best as you can.
CON - You may not compete as many tournaments as you would like to have.

2. You should not care about winning or losing. Just compete as many tournaments as you can when you are still young.

PRO - You will have a lot of tournament experience.
CON - If you lose too much, you may feel discourage and quit.

Old saying said, "It's better to lose outside of the ring than to lose inside the ring." The reason is simple. 

When you lose 

- outside of the ring, you are still in "development" stage.
 - inside the ring, you just failed in your "testing" stage.


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## drop bear (Sep 1, 2014)

Yes winning matters.

No it does not define you. 

I come from a very competitive MMA club. The guys who fight are serious business. Everybody has lost a fight. There is no loss of respect for them. There will be no loss of respect if you loose. That you are taking the risk to compete is the important thing.

And no you may never get over your nervousness. But you do learn that it is normal.


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## Saie (Sep 1, 2014)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> Congratulations I am sure you will do fine. Just relax, compete and enjoy!  If you were doing well as a white belt I am sure you will transition well to the new level of competition!
> 
> On a different note how long have you been practicing Brazilian Jiujitsu and who is your instructor?



Thank you! And as for Brazilian Jiujitsu I've trained a little over a year, but I've practiced martial arts all my life. My instructor's name is Professor Kalo Lopez from Pitbull, our line is from Relson Gracie and his student Master Adilson "Bitta" Lima, founder of Clube De Jiu Jitsu Pitbull. I got promoted when another student of Relson Gracie, Professor Jean Vandesteen was here for a seminar.

And thanks to everyone else! I seem to do MUCH better in class rolling than on a tournament mat, but I suppose that's just a mental thing.


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## Hanzou (Sep 1, 2014)

Trust your instructor. He wouldn't have promoted you if he didn't think you've earned it. I'd be more worried about your classmates than the tournament though. A new blue belt is fresh meat for the existing Blues as well as the hungry white belts.


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## drop bear (Sep 1, 2014)

Saie said:


> Thank you! And as for Brazilian Jiujitsu I've trained a little over a year, but I've practiced martial arts all my life. My instructor's name is Professor Kalo Lopez from Pitbull, our line is from Relson Gracie and his student Master Adilson "Bitta" Lima, founder of Clube De Jiu Jitsu Pitbull. I got promoted when another student of Relson Gracie, Professor Jean Vandesteen was here for a seminar.
> 
> And thanks to everyone else! I seem to do MUCH better in class rolling than on a tournament mat, but I suppose that's just a mental thing.




It is stress. Get fitter. Have better basics. And you will do better in competition.


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## Spookey (Feb 8, 2015)

I know this response is very delayed, and I hope you have grown into your blue belt psychologically.

One of the most impressive accolades to me is "You Win or You Learn"!

I have just over 200 hours on my Blue Belt, and I can tell you that there is such great discrepancy in every belt rank that it is really hard to worry about competition success, especially inside a couple stripes on what ever belt color. A four stripe, blue belt who is a ronin, but trains regularly and has had that blue belt for 6 years may roll as well as many gym level brown belts. Even without extraordinary time in rank, there is a huge level of skill variance between the newly promoted blue belt and the four stripe who is about to make purple belt.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) that McDojo mentality has hit the BJJ scene and I personally believe Blue Belt is the most fluffed rank out there! Hope you get a sucker, not a sandbagger! Either way, roll hard, roll smart, and train for life!


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## ks - learning to fly (Feb 9, 2015)

In my opinion - nerves are helpful - a little nervous is good because
it means you care about the end result..really nervous isn't so good
because it either means you're not ready or you haven't trained
enough.. While I doubt the latter is true, this is something only you
can decide.  Congrats on the new belt!!!


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## Andrew Green (Feb 11, 2015)

Don't take your belt too seriously.  If you where winning at white belt then it's probably time to compete at a higher level.  Maybe you will get your butt kicked, so what?  If you where able to kick everyones butt at blue you should be competing at a higher level then that.  In competition you don't get better by staying in your comfort zone.  But unless you are a world champion if you aren't losing sometimes you need to compete at a higher level.


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