Members of our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu team recently competed in this year’s IBJJF Pan Am tournament in Florida this past March! They did a great job representing our gym and Flavio Behring Jiu Jitsu. To help you better understand the lessons learned, here are the insights of our competitors: Alex Palomin, Lindsay Hauck, Ray McDonald, and Tom Rinkavage.
Q: What was a notable highlight for you as a competitor in the 2023 Pan tournament?
Lyndsie Hauck: Submitting a tough opponent with a triangle. There was 2:15 left on the clock. I was losing 6-0.
Alex Palomin: As a competitor, I had one fight. This fight was six full minutes where I was not tired at all, barely broke a sweat but I never got a chance to truly be on the offensive. Nerves were high and once it was over I got to sit with my thoughts. It felt like a really long time tying my belt.
Ray McDonald: This one is easy, my judo game was on point. I dominated the grip fight and takedown portion of the tournament.
Tom Rinkavage: To be blunt, I can’t say I had a competitive highlight at Pans this year. I lost my first match and it was a boring affair- I tried to hang on to closed guard throughout most of it, got passed eventually, and that was the match. It was more disappointing because of the lack of jiu jitsu than for the outcome.
Q: How has your competition experience in Pans affected your training moving forward?
Lyndsie: Pans left me with a desire to train and drill with purposeful intent. Professor has us rep things for sometimes multiple classes. At times, I let this get repetitive and sloppy. I am motivated to drill with intent, discipline, focus, and precision.
Alex: Pans was a bit of a wake-up call for me. I do well at local tournaments, but I struggle to turn up the intensity. This will be my focus to be the aggressor and the one leading the fight not following.
Ray: I am even more invested in my judo training. It’s an awesome feeling when you start the grip fight and know you are on a different level than your opponent.
Tom: As always, competition confirms what areas you’re strong in and exposes your weak spots. Now that I’ve had some time to process my performance, I will be making an effort to move more in training, as opposed to trying to maintain a position or just hold guard. And I will also be working more on side control escapes, because that has been an Achilles heel in several matches now.
Q: What advice would you give your teammates interested in competing outside of Utah?
Lyndsie: If you have the desire, the means, the time…Let’s go! Competing will never be a comfortable thought, you gotta jump. Your team is there to help you along the way.
Alex: Compete in as many local tournaments as you can in preparation. In training rolls, look for points, keep a conscious count. It is a big part of the sport. Even if you could beat someone with a submission with unlimited time, that doesn’t matter because you have a set time and those points matter. Point positions also lead to submissions.
Ray: First, you need to include takedown training. Nothing irritates me more than watching two guys dance around for 5 minutes with shitty grips and then complain when they lost by judges decision. Second, If you are interested in competing you need to start competing immediately. I hear people say they want to wait until they get better at jiu jitsu before they start competing and this is a mistake. Going to tournaments is a skill in itself. The only way you get better at the skill of competing is to compete.
Tom: My advice would be to do it, 100%. It’ a given that it will focus your training and improve your jiu jitsu. But it also deepens friendships with your teammates. As close as we all are on the mat in training, spending a few days in the same house, eating meals (or not eating) together, and supporting each other through the nerves and wins and losses of competition really does strengthen the social bonds, which has always been one of the huge benefits of training at Absolute for me.
Q: Each of you has competed in multiple tournaments. How do you structure your training plans?
Lyndsie: With Professor Rob at the forefront and leading the way, I also have a nutritionist, a fitness coach, a physical therapist, and a chiropractor that I rely on. I do what they say and provide how my body and mind feel each week.
Alex: I think I have gotten away with some of my early on success in competing. I would look over my matches and see flaws with my game and as I learn more, even more flaws with past matches. With this tournament I have to really change my mindset. I may still have lost the match but I think the feeling that I didn’t give it my all might be gone and I can address issues in my game and not just in my head.
Ray: Right now I am using the rule of 2…each week I aim to get 2 No Gi workouts, 2 gi workouts, 2 judo workouts, 2 upper body strength workouts, 2 lower body strength workouts and if you can do the math this means a couple of two of day workouts each week. I also try to get at least one day of skiing each week during the winter and one day of biking or hiking in the summer and fall…this is huge workload for a master’s athlete so recovery is very important as well. Also note, that most weeks I miss a workout or two because of work or family requirements.
Tom: I’ve been competing in about three or four tournaments a year for the past couple of years. Basically, I try to keep a minimalist lifting program going consistently throughout the year to stay in shape. As far as my jiu jitu training goes, one of the most valuable parts of competing is having Professor Rob break down your matches in the weeks following and giving you tips and techniques on how to improve, so I always try to remember those lessons. And usually, about eight weeks ahead of a big competition the team will step up the intensity of training.
Q: What’s your favorite quote that inspires you to compete and do your best?
Lyndsie: Some think you become great on the big stage, under the bright lights, while everyone is watching. But those lights only reveal the work you put in while no one was watching.
Alex: My second tournament I was going against a good wrestler and my nerves were on high alert. Bret Gold said and I am paraphrasing “Just go out there and do the Jiujitsu you know”. I went on to beat that guy and then beat him again for 3rd place with Bret’s coaching. This quote may not be exactly what I need now but it has gotten me to win matches I might not have if I let nerves win out.
Ray: “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt April 23, 1910
Tom: The unofficial team motto is, “burn the ships!” and I like that a lot- get out there and get after it. Leave it all on the mat and have no regrets.
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