ADCC Prep Week 3: The Mental Game of Grappling
ADCC Prep Week 3: The Mental Game of Grappling
B-Team's Chris Wojcik talks about an often overlooked piece of preparing for an A-list tournament as he prepares for his ADCC World Championships debut.
When I first started competing in jiu-jitsu, I had a hard time with the mental side.
I would get anxious before matches and tournaments, and my performance when I competed was a fraction of what it would be in the gym. For a long time, I didn’t even really like competing because it was always a reminder that I wasn’t actually as good as I could be.
Get Caught Up On Chris' ADCC Prep Blog
- I'm Competing at ADCC. Here's My Training Routine and Thoughts On The Event
- ADCC Prep Week 2: The Grim Reality of Trying to Be Your Best
In the last 2 years or so, I like to think that I’ve hit my stride in terms of mental preparation for competition.
It’s gone from being this thing that I dread to being another fun element of competing.
Sometimes I feel like I have competition superpowers – I’ve beaten people far more accomplished than me simply by handling my adrenaline well in the moment and being relatively smarter than my opponents.
At the bare minimum, my training and competition performances are pretty similar.
So here’s what I do and what I’m doing mentally to prepare for ADCC.
I’m trying to be the best I can be.
A lot of anxiety and dread that people feel about competition comes from not working as hard as they can.
Think about when you were in school and had a math test.
If you studied for the test, you were probably less likely to have anxiety about it. If you don’t study and have the test looming over you (I did this too many times to count), you probably get stressed and anxious.
Jiu-jitsu competitions are just like math tests, although they are voluntary and a lot more fun.
We all have limitations – lifestyle, injuries, etc – but the more you prepare, the more likely you are to feel comfortable about the challenge that you’re about to take on.
I guess it sounds corny (and training hard doesn’t absolve all anxiety), but under-preparation leads to more severe anxiety about performance.
So, the first you want to do – the first thing I need to do – is give my all in preparation for a competition like ADCC. We talked about this a lot last week.
But “preparing” doesn’t just mean training my butt off every day. It means listening to coaches. Being receptive to feedback. Pushing my body hard but not breaking it.
It’s all a balancing act.
Mental training is important too.
When I was younger, I placed a lot of emphasis on “mental training.”
I thought it was cool and edgy and I was also kind of lazy and loved the idea of getting better without actually doing any work.
I also learned that there have been studies on mental training that suggest that even just a few days of mental training can lead to noticeable performance improvements.
Yes, it’s true:
You can get better at jiu-jitsu without actually doing jiu-jitsu.
It’s always better to train than not to train, but when you push your body to the limit, know that your mind can probably go a little bit further. I’m not saying that training is irrelevant, I’m just saying there’s more to training than meets the eye. You need to become a mentally sound human.
A lot of people romanticize pain and suffering and all that stuff, especially in combat sports, but the hard truth is that for the most part, the happiest and most mentally sound grapplers are the best grapplers. Your demons do not help you win unless you have control over them.
I don’t see a lot of people talking about this in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Good mental health and a mental training routine are essential for becoming a next-level competitor. It was for me at least. If I didn’t work on my mind I’d still be the same competitor I was at purple and brown belt. I wouldn’t be getting ready for my first ADCC.
I’m not saying you need to be a monk, but I’m a firm believer that things like:
- Mindfulness
- Visualization
- Technical study
- Journaling (heck, even writing these articles is a form of mental training for me)
- Having a full personal life
...are all going to have a positive impact on your performance on the mat.
One final philosophical thing that helps me:
The last mental thing that helps me when I’m dealing with anxiety about a big tournament, my performance, or anything like that, is zooming out.
In a year, what will I think about ADCC? Do you remember ADCC 2022?
I do – it was historic – but only a few details.
I remember Nicholas Meregali’s crazy match with Tye Ruotolo. I remember Kade’s heel hook over Mica. I remember Izaak vs. Vagner.
I remember sitting on the couch in my friend's apartment for 2 straight eating chips and pizza and watching 10+ hours of grappling per day. I remember ordering cookies for us to the wrong address and having to drive home as fast as I could because I was probably binge-eating my feelings from not getting into ADCC myself.
I remember Gordon Ryan flipping off the crowd after his win in the finals.
But that’s… pretty much all I remember.
And that’s just from 2 years ago.
ADCC 2019? I remember even less. 2017? Even less. I remember Craig’s flying triangle, Gordon subbing Keenan, and Chael Sonnen being in the absolute for some reason.
I only really remember certain things that happened – peak moments.
Whenever I’m trying to prepare mentally, I remind myself that competing (especially in a massive event like ADCC) is pretty much all upside. If you perform badly (unless you’re someone like Steve Bartman or Tonya Harding) no one will remember it because they’ll be too busy remembering other people’s highlight reels.
Because of this, worrying about screwing up or performing badly is illogical.
Especially for me as a newcomer, ADCC is a positive sum opportunity.
Whenever I zoom out, I think about how I will view ADCC in 1, 5, 10, or even 20 years. Honestly, I think that the details will blur, and only one question will matter:
Did I give it my all?
Closing Thoughts
Last week, when I shared the article for Week 2, I asked people what kind of things they wanted to read about.
The two main topics were mental preparation and recovery from hard training.
This week, we talked about mental preparation because this week for me was focused a lot on the mental side of competing.
Next week marks four weeks until ADCC, and it’s our deload week here in Austin, so I figured that would be a good time to talk about recovery, peaking, and resting. I’ll be on the road in Chicago seeing my family and friends from back home, teaching seminars, and resting my banged-up body.
It’ll be fitting to talk about the recovery methods that I use and that other athletes use.
Talk to y’all next week. Thanks for reading.
Read more from Chris at TheGrapplersDiary.Substack.com
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