Below are the notes from Friday’s Youth & Teens Competition Class. For this session we focused on the mental side of competition, and touched on the tournament point system and strategies with some technical drilling and live scoring drills.
CONFIDENCE & PREPARATION
Confidence is key. Confidence can come from one or both of the following:
- Results (you win a lot)
- Preparation (you do everything you can do – training, eating healthy, getting good sleep, etc.)
Preparation will lead to success. The more you do, the better your results.
Olympic Gold medalist Tom Brands said that what holds athletes back is the mindset of “I did everything the coach asked of me, and nothing more.”
So what are you doing to set yourself apart?
TRAINING MINDSET
The number 1 rule of training is this: “Getting better is more important than winning.”
(From the book “The Mental Edge”)
Training should be purposeful, a combination of refining your strengths, fixing your mistakes, and adding new elements to your skillset.
Ex: If the foundation of your game is takedowns and guard passing, continue to refine and add to those skills while developing a good guard by studying, drilling, and putting yourself there in training.
COMPETITION MINDSET
The number 1 rule here is: “Focus on performance not results.”
Place all of your attention on executing your techniques to perfection. Win or lose, focus on what you did well and what you could have done better. Not the opponent, the ref, or anything else. Never make excuses.
Use the Success Log (from the book “10 Minute Toughness”)
POINTS SYSTEM
Takedown: 2 points
Sweep (reversal using the guard): 2 points
Knee on stomach: 2 points
Guard Pass: 3 points
Mount: 4 points
Back (with hooks): 4 points
There are no points for escapes (i.e. trap & rolls, reversals not using the guard, hip escapes etc.)
TECHNICAL DRILLING
1 technique from the feet, preferably a takedown but if you’re game is guard-focused it can be a guard pull.
1 technique from the ground, either a pass or a sweep.
Our next Youth & Teens Competition Class is this Friday 7/1 at 6pm, for students in the M/W/S classes. Students are not required to compete in order to attend. We will focus primarily on hard training and conditioning this time, while also reviewing points and strategies.