Heart vs. Skills
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My son and I competed in a Grappling tournament last weekend. It was more like Jiu Jitsu than anything else. We both did Gi and no-Gi divisions.
After the tournament I started really doing some soul searching on why I didn’t do better… It reminded me of a scene from the movie Apocalypto. Our hero attempts to defeat the handsome gentleman pictured here. It doesn’t go so well. In the picture, the victor is making the statement, “Almost,” (because the hero almost won,) “Your name is Almost.” In the movie, “Almost” is translated into the word “Olac.”
Well, If I had to choose a fight name right now, Ifeel like I’d have to go with Olac. Why is it that I never seem to finish the job??
I sat down and reviewed the videos of my fights. The are a couple of the fights where I was just out done. I did what I could, fought hard, but still lost. I found that these didn’t bother me.
But half of my fights, I seem to tap when I really don’t look like I should. In those cases, I feel that in a lower stress environment, like just in class rolling around, I could probably take these guys. But on the mat in a competition these guys are beating me. Why am I so quick to tap?
I had to painfully admit that they just wanted to win more than I did.
That didn’t taste very good.
But it has given me something to think on. I always think about what move or position to improve on. But this is a mental thing. It’s different than technique. What I really need is to grab someone better than me, and have them push me into ugly territory. I need to keep from tapping so soon. I need to sit, trapped in a position for a while, with no hope of escape; and be okay with that. I need to hold longer, and fight harder.
This is an element of training that I think can be easy to overlook. We are so used to tapping as soon as a good hold gets put on, with a brotherly, “nice job.” But when do we work to fight that extra little bit to not tap.
Well, for me at least it appears that the answer is: Not often enough.
So, I begin my journey toward no longer being Olac.
Wish me luck 
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