My son competed in his first grappling tournament recently. He did a great job, got some wins and came away with some medals. It was also quite a learning experience for both of us, which was sort of the point of competing in the first place.
I've competed in BJJ before, but it was a very different experience. I was an adult beginner competing against other adult beginners. What really struck me when watching the kids was that holy ****, these kids can wrestle. My son has never wrestled and he got taken down at will. He still did a nice job but we definitely came away with some things to work on. We've been talking about getting him involved with wrestling anyway. I think he needs to get a season under his belt before competing again.
Anyway, this is probably old news for those of you involved with competition on a regular basis. But it was a surprise for me - not because I didn't understand the value of wrestling, but because the kids he trains with seem to have very little wrestling experience. In contrast, the kids who showed up to compete ALL seemed to have wrestling experience.
I'm curious to hear thoughts from some of the experienced BJJ competitors about the impact of wrestling on submission grappling tournaments. Do you think wrestling is changing / will change the sport? It seems to me that wrestling will pretty much be a prerequisite for BJJ competition in the future if you expect to compete at a high level.
I'm sort of thinking out loud here. What do you guys think? Am I off base? On the money? Other thoughts?
I've competed in BJJ before, but it was a very different experience. I was an adult beginner competing against other adult beginners. What really struck me when watching the kids was that holy ****, these kids can wrestle. My son has never wrestled and he got taken down at will. He still did a nice job but we definitely came away with some things to work on. We've been talking about getting him involved with wrestling anyway. I think he needs to get a season under his belt before competing again.
Anyway, this is probably old news for those of you involved with competition on a regular basis. But it was a surprise for me - not because I didn't understand the value of wrestling, but because the kids he trains with seem to have very little wrestling experience. In contrast, the kids who showed up to compete ALL seemed to have wrestling experience.
I'm curious to hear thoughts from some of the experienced BJJ competitors about the impact of wrestling on submission grappling tournaments. Do you think wrestling is changing / will change the sport? It seems to me that wrestling will pretty much be a prerequisite for BJJ competition in the future if you expect to compete at a high level.
I'm sort of thinking out loud here. What do you guys think? Am I off base? On the money? Other thoughts?