#34 Best Competition Performances

Are you a BJJ competitor? Ever wanted to compete but nerves held you back? JT & Joey break out their best ever BJJ competition stories. They are very different experiences both with crazy highs and serious lows. This episode has everything as the boys discuss what truly makes the best day on the mats you could have:

Running Late with no time to think
Being in the same division as a World Champion
The pressure of having everyone watching
Not having anyone to coach you…
Claiming the top of the podium

There is so much in this episode that if you have ever competed you will love it and if you are on the fence this lively chat will get you over the line and into the competition arena!

Speaker 1: 0:04

Very careful a good martial artist does not become tense, but ready, essentially at this point, the fight is over. So we pretty much flow with the goal who was worthy to be trusted with the secret to limit the spot .

Speaker 2: 0:29

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJ podcast. I am JT. Hey guys, I’m Joey. And today we’re talking about best competition performances, epic. Oh, started time. You must have had one in mind coming through here, coming up with this topic. I didn’t even Scholly full disclosure. Joey came up with this topic by smiling. This is yours. This is yours, buddy. You know, it’s all good. We plan out our podcasts every week and they’re in a certain order. And we talked about this a long time ago and it’s not so much bragging. It’s just like, sometimes you have terrible. Sometimes you got a comp and it’s the worst. And it’s sometimes you have shining moments and it worked and it’s untouchable good. It’s hard to explain it sticks with you because you’re like, this is the best feeling ever. If you’ve ever experienced that. Guys , maybe you haven’t, maybe you’ve never competed, but it’s worth it for all the , all the bad experiences. It’s so worth it. Because when you have that, that victory or you win that comp or whatever it is, you overcome a nemesis. It makes your lifetime tell it to the grandkids. Scraping totally. Joe, Joe, the natural Worthington, this the success himself. Maybe you can kick us off. I, you know, there’s a couple, but there’s one that stands out in my mind as being particularly special. Okay. Very nice. Um , it was a couple of things converged or, you know, happened on this day. It was the day I met Joel Costello. Oh, well , so a good friend of ours. Joel is a black belt is a coach here in Sydney. He runs Gracie Balmain, total legend. Yeah. He trains Bulletproof with us down here in the gym a couple of times a week. Awesome guy. And we , we met at this competition. Beautiful. That was the first time our paths would cross. It was at my period of like the height. I would say the height of my jujitsu froth. Okay. I was a blue belt. I was just training all the time. I think I didn’t have, you know, I was working kind of, I was freelancing in the film industry, so I had little bits of work, but then long periods of time off and , uh , things were buzzing at the academy. I remember I had a good friend of mine, Marcus Schmidt, a German guy who owns a check . Matt Berlin. Yeah. Nice. Yeah . Yeah. And they actually had the hall of Czech . Matt Berlin on, on the Bulletproof program had an academy subscription during their lockdown to those guys. awesome guy. So anyway, so we were ma Marcus and I were both blue belts and we were just kicking the out of each other the whole time . And he was always technically better than me, but I was like a little bit stronger. So it was like, you know, whatever, give it to him. Yeah. We had , uh , I remember it was like a period of competitions and this was just one of the comp side, been competing quite a bit. And I had a new girlfriend at the time, a Brazilian girl that I was dating. I think this was the first comp she was coming to say, oh, sorry , know , it’s always a pain, you know , especially when you’re taking your Brazilian girlfriend to what you do a Brazilian spot. Perfect. Yeah. Right. Like you’re like, holy. Like so much pressure. Right? Yeah . Um, so anyways, it was, the comp was at Homebush, which is at Sydney Olympic park and it was the highly Gracie cup. Oh. So it was like a halal Gracie kind of sanction , you know , kind of event. He was there and I lived in the Eastern suburbs. I was living in Bondai at the time I was running late for this comp I woke up. I can’t remember what happened, but I was running late . There you go. And I got in my car and I’m driving out of Bondai and it’s about a 45 minute drive issue. And Marcus calls me and goes, Hey brother, do you have an accident ? Where, where are you right here? And I’m like, bro just left my house. And he said, bro, they just called your name or no. And I’m like, oh . I’m like, dude, I’m still in Bondai. And he’s like, bro, like just get here. And I’m like, I’ll just come. And you know , I’m probably going to miss it, but uh , I’ll just come. So it was a blur. Right. I speak to this comp, get that . It’s a huge place. It’s a Massey , you park your car. And then you got like a 15 minute walk to get to finding wherever these comps being held. And I run in, you know , Marty by my side, I run in and they’re like, bro, you’re on now. You’re on now. And I’m like, holy. And I literally like throw my gay on, run up onto the thing, slap hands . And uh, I don’t remember like what happened. I don’t remember how, like it was also fast that I didn’t even have time to process any of them . The normal comp stress, like who’s here. How am I feeling? Am I hungry? I could take a Pierce . Like , it’s just , I gotta go. Boom. And uh, Joel and I, and all I remember is this big tall with a , with a nose clip on. Yeah. He’s always got the nose , the nose. And I’m like, I’m like, no , this clip I’m like, this is guy. I think he is like, I saw it as like a , as some kind of like flex and I , you know , you know, cause, cause on your opponent, everything is a flex. Yeah, of course like didn’t smile at me. You incite me. Or you’re like smiled at me like Michael Jordan. I took that personally. Everything. Everything is a slight on you against you. All I remember is I pulled God. I pulled guard on him at some point and him being a big giant, we’ve got a great photo of it where it’s like him just standing there. And me just like hopped up around his rib cage and close gaps with a close God. We’re hanging out there for a little bit. And I remember he [inaudible] no , he was trying to open and I was like , refusing. I let go of my God came back to my feet and like took him down. Oh yeah. Like body lock legs behind him, put him straight down. And uh, that was huge. Obviously got the points. I think I got the points for the takedown and the man . I can’t remember anyways. What is that in point, if you G if you, there was no guard, it’s two for takedown . Yeah. It’s two for takedown . But if you go straight into the Mount , you don’t get points done just to get past points, but you should get points for getting them out. Of course you don’t get the pass points. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. And anyway , he came back super hard and all I remember is IHG mountain. A couple of points. Yeah. And uh , I think he swept me at the end. Like he was coming back anyways. So I had, that was like sick. And then my next match was really quickly up again. And uh, it was another guy who would become someone that I would compete against very frequently guy called Michael Khan also from Gracie Sydney trains out of castle hill. All right. Shout out, shout out. Legendary guy. I’m sure he’s a black belt now. And I don’t remember how the fight started, but I subbed him with the triangle really quickly. Yeah. And it was like, boom pulled him. I think I’d pulled close guard again. Cause that was my style back then. And uh , just whipped this triangle on and I’d never done a triangle. Like I’d hardly done them at training and I threw triangle on this guy. I never trained it, but it just came to me in a moment of inspiration and it worked . Imagine you busted. And so, and I remember , and I’ve never done this, but I try and go to him and he tapped real quick. And I, and I was so elated by just like, you can tell my energy right now. Right ? Like from the whole event, I triangled , this guy got up and ran over and like high-fived all my teammates like gave my girlfriend a big kiss. So ungracious, I then came back up so token. And then , uh , and then I had the final, which was a guy called Joe. And I remember that quite well. And she called that can only be one that’s right. Jovi Joe . It was a , it was a dude from Canberra and he was a toll kinda skinny guy. Yup . I never saw him again in jujitsu, which was kind of interesting. Right. You think, oh . What happened to that person? Yeah. They stay on or whatever. Did you break his spirit? What happened? You’re going to love this all , I mean is I’m in the guy’s guard and he’s got he’s he’s God was, God was pretty tricky. I’m sure it’s a long legs, skinny legs. And I’m just, I’m looking for a way around and something happens and I kind of, I kind of pass, I’d like to say a knee cut , but it’s not like I knew it knee cut back then. Sure. So I just kind of pass. Yep . And I go straight to the mound and the mounts there and I’m like, that was easy. And I’ve got one arm like cross facing under, around , like under his head. Yeah. And no word of a lie. I somehow I grabbed my own slave and I faded his hand over his throat, like in a ZQ . Ooh . But I’ve never seen or known of [inaudible] . I got to clarify, I didn’t feed the finger in. I just grabbed my gay . All right. So I was just like, I’m in this position. I come in and I’m like, oh my slaves here. And I grabbed them , like, I’m just going to dig my hand into this. Guy’s my hand and jam it in. Right. And unlike , just saying kill mode at this point course . And the guy starts bridging super hard. I just feel him like bridging super hard. So I like double down and just extend the out of it. And it’s so deep and I extend the out of it. And the rest like, stop, stop, stop. Then it’s done. It’s done. And I’m like, oh , and the rest, like, man, the guy was tapping your mentor , like go. And I’m like, I’m like, oh , I thought he was, he was tapping with his foot. He’s tapping with his foot. And I thought he was bridging. So I’m like, I’m snapping this thing on the hard, such a Savage , such a con poor guy, poor guy. But he never actually spoke again. It gets worse crushes . He gets up, he kind of limps off a little bit and , and know I was like, thanks man. He was like, oh , thanks bro. Like his spirit was a bit broken because , um, we didn’t actually have much of a catch-up after the fight, but it was all good between us. My girlfriend was super proud of , but that was the first time I heard the expression. Is that a Sangha new audio light in the eyes? Yes. Like when, when you go see the blood. Yeah. I found out through Facebook, he uploaded the video of our fight and he’s like, oh, I had a really good match, got a silver medal at the highly grace car , congrats to my opponent, whatever. You can see it that, you know , one minute, whatever, that’s the moment that my knee buckles and basically what happened is as I was passing, I think he had something going on his knee out on him . And he actually goes, ah, and that’s when I passed him out. So he kind of gave up at that point. Of course, I didn’t even realize I was so high . Right. But I’m like, oh not only did I like double down on the Zika when he was tapping, you broke his knee. I hurt his knee and I, and more so I thought it was all my doing, but it was actually, he got injured. Of course. Like what , what were you to think here ? You’re the natural. And so, so that was it, it was gold medal photo with Hyla , amazing girlfriends, impressed all the guys that like Joey and he blitzed it. I’m like, oh , what’s new guys. Never come prepared kids. And I could honestly say to everyone, I’ve never had an experience like that, a competition ever again. And the next two times I would face Joe Costello. He kicked the out of me and it turns out he was really sick on the day. All right . So he’s like, oh bro. I had like bad tonsillitis. And he goes, oh, I totally wasn’t going to compete. But I was like, nah , I got to do it. So you know, all these little things and you’re like, ah, okay. That was just the day when the stars aligned somehow. And that adrenaline from running late , just, it was perfect. You know , thinking it was, it was absolutely perfect. I was, I wasn’t hanging out in there before the calm . It was just straight into it, you know? Oh , wow. That’s, that’s amazing. It, it , it kills me how easy you got that? Well, I mean, not easy, obviously you came at it really hard, but like, I think it’s very rare. And I think I speak for the majority of people who might be listening to ever have such a , a golden run. Right. Like it’s not always that straightforward. And also just to just beat everyone, you know, like sometimes a person’s best comp experience is just get on the podium. That’s right. You know what I mean? Yeah . Or not get subbed in your first match or yeah , yeah . Totally. A hundred percent. And I want to say that is not how you should model your comments . Can I just provide that as a caveat guys, unless you are completely frosty blue belt in your mid twenties, you live in Bondai and you have a Brazilian girlfriend go for it. That’s that, that is the model for you. But maybe there’s something there that, you know, folks could try, like playing with how long you spend at the place before you can pay it . And sure. Like Headspace and all that. Cause I’ve always thought, man, that was really telling because every other comp I’ve done since I’m like, I can feel the nerves. Yep . Thinking back, I’m like, ah , it’s hanging around nervous energy, you know, like excited. But it’s also a bit depleting. Yeah. So I’ve, I’ve thought like how could I replicate that intentionally? Yes. Without risking actually not showing up for my fine , not getting scratched. Yeah. But yeah. Special day will live in my heart forever to those that were a part of it. Thank you. Joel, Joe, Michael Kahn . You guys legends Marie , if you’re listening. Thanks for being there. I was just like , this is guys . He was one of the Gracies that I don’t know best , best key competitor ever out of that family. I know. Right. That’s all good man. Amazing bro. Tell me yours. Well, the funny thing is the story I’m going to tell actually I want to share this story because I already had it in mind, but is the complete contrast to your story and actually, well, I’m not going to spoil it, but basically I’ve had a few different bouts of winning, but the reason why I want to talk about this one is it’s about competition pressure because you build up this pressure in your head. Right. And a lot of people can’t deal with that discomfort. And I have tried to condition myself to see it as excitement. Like not see it as like, you know, people say, oh , I feel anxious or scared or whatever it is. And you know, I feel the same thing, but I go down and I’m hype. I feel good. This is a good thing. Like yes, harness this energy. Like here’s what it’s about. So I’m going to talk about my best performance at worlds. So that was actually 2014. And that was the last time I went to worlds. And that was as a purple belt. How many times you’ve been to worlds in four times. Holy. Yeah. All right. So best performance at worlds . And uh, it’s , it’s one of those things that for any of you out there who want to go, that IVG Geoff path , uh, you’ve got to kind of know what you’re getting yourself in for. And what I had previously done is gone to Brazil, trained in Brazil, followed up to two worlds in California and , and gone there. Anyway, this time I happened to come up with the Alliance team. I’d been training at Alliance for about four and a half months and just absolutely getting destroyed, like training really hard, but getting destroyed and live in Lockie were there at that same time. And so it was cannon and that’s like a lion’s HQ in Sao Paulo. That’s right. And uh, yeah. So I’d , I’d been there for this time around, it was like a five month stint and I’d been there previously for six months and previous journeys as well and was just really determined, just determined. Like I got to do the best I can. And I had been so conditioned by just training as hard as I could at Alliance that I felt like I was prepared. I guess the thing is in Alliance, they have a strategy where they back, they have an, a player, you know, they say this is our guy. So that’s how they get their points. They declared, this is our guy. And if this guy or woman gets the championship, they get the points because they can only have a certain number of competitors per category. Right . And I was in the same category as , uh , Nicholas Marin , golly. Oh, his when he was a purple belt. Wow. Yeah . And uh , I think maybe Isaiah with the ego . Right? So I was the no guy. I was the Z guy for going to sleep. Nah . Um, and I think exactly , uh, Ben Yancy was also in that category. Maybe he’d gone down anyway. He’s a sassy dude. He told me real hard. Yeah. I was, I was living in the same accommodation as his Ark and he said, oh man, you look so old. And about my place, he’s like your face, your fit . But you look old and I’m like, oh, that’s cool, man. You’ve got the young face, but you’ve got that old body kind of fat. I poked him in the belly upstart mother. But then also, you know, he’s a world champion respect. Um , and at that time, Nicholas mirin , golly was on a tear like beating it, like doing the kind of Keenan Cornelius thing, like winds , white winds , absolute cetera. Like every single competition. And this is a guy who potentially might have to fight. And I trained with him only once or so . But you guys are representing the same team. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re on different sides of the bracket. Right. Which is cool. So it means I won’t have to fight him till finals, but there’s plenty of other ultra tough humans in those , of course in that category. And uh , anyway, I just didn’t really know who anyone was and when you’re at world’s guys, it is a circus. Like you have to really, you couldn’t do what Joe did. Worlds was in Brazil. This is in California. Cali . Yeah . Yeah. Yeah. Uh , it changed over, I think back in 2007 ish. Anyway, it’s huge stadium, you know , uh , California state uni, CSU, the pyramid psychotic the big stairs. It’s awesome. You get to see all your heroes there , the teams line up the team chance. It’s it’s exciting. I think if you did , you do too , you should at least once in your lifetime go to worlds. Even if you are just going for a holiday to support your team, go to see it because it’s really cool. It’ll it’ll put the fire in your heart to want to do more jujitsu. But uh, yeah, I was there, there was a few people there. I think Craig Jones might’ve even been there. great Jones, man, whatever Mexican ground karate. That guy doesn’t know nothing. I mean, no he does . He know I was just quoting the thing on his clothes off . No, I think it’s great. That’s fine. You know, it’s cool. But I , I think ultimately being there with the team, cause I was staying at the hotel with the , with the whole team being around all the guys being there with Bernardo and Michael and just all the champions and it’s a great comradery. Yeah . And so when you’re there and they’re the biggest gang, like as much as adults is a big crew Alliance team is the biggest posse. Right? Cause they come in all the affiliates everyone’s there and cause I’d known people over the years, I actually felt like, Hey, I’m, you know, I’m part of this. And everyone was like really supportive of me, but when I was on, no one was coaching me. Okay . Yeah. Just everyone was everywhere else. I’m a purple belt. I don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. And I had my first fight and I don’t know who the guy was, but honestly, the thing about it is there’s so much adrenaline. Like I was in the bullpen, I was in the bullpen too early. I was there for an hour block , just bouncing up and down. Just like, let’s go let’s and just, you know, around its main mugging each other in the , uh , all the eye and just marching up and down, people doing aggressive, weird warmups . I was just trying to keep the energy going. Was it , uh , I’m guessing it was like amplified in terms of how people are acting and behaving compared to what you get in a local comp here. Definitely. And I think that Los Lex , oh , way more flex , but then also there’s more chat . There’s more expectation. Right? Each team’s got their favorite at each way and bell and you know, there’s always, who knows maybe, you know , I think at that time maybe unity had bones like big Johnny, but like big bones and let’s go, let’s go. There’s a famous video of him like screaming for the heavyweight final. I think it’s that year. It could be wrong, but you know, there’s this there’s so much invested by everyone. There you are. But a speck , unless you’re one of those you’re spec . Right . Anyway, I made friends with my bullpen guy. I’m like, oh , okay, Matt nine, Hey Matt, nine guide . I’m James Thompson. I’m the guy. You see that on the list you call me I’m here. I’m here. Don’t scratch me. Because friends of mine had been in the bullpen with the, you know, beats by Dre, headphones on not listening to their name being called. And if you don’t jump in and go that’s me, they will just move on. You scratch. Oh yeah. You spent five grand to go all the way to worlds . You didn’t pay attention. You are gown. Holy. Yeah. And then their friends . Are they doing the D is it more , um, accurate? How they announce your name or is it the Brazilian guy? That’s never pronounced like yours . There’s plenty of like plenty of American, California, Joe Worthington watching Tanya . But no, man. I think it’s , there’s a lot of Cali kids. It’s all good in that way, but it’s professional. You better learn, right ? Like you better look at the screen, pick your fight and know when you’re up. Like no one’s doing it for you. Yeah. I got on tall guy, lanky guy. I just did my game. Pulled God . I swept came up, passed . He came up. Uh , I try and go on by him , like real quick. It was uh , like , uh , like a blur, but like in slow motor to me, like I just had no emotion. It’s just bang. And I was off . I was like, ah , cool, good start . Okay. Fist bump. Might’ve popped his elbow, but all right . Cool bro. See you later. Cool. Next round. Got a buy mad. Oh. Then what do I do for 40 minute ? Like, it was kind of weird because you start out when you’re at worlds, it’s a long time in between you start, you might wait an hour and then as the rounds go through, it shortens up, shortens up the time shortens up. So you’re fighting harder guys at shorter intervals, which is tough. Um , next guy I fought , he was a California kid. Real tough. Maybe from Paragon that used to be an Alliance team thing, but then they weren’t and yeah, we just had a war back and forth and they , the guys on Instagram, they always do a selfie that Jim is just their gym . Instagram is full of selfie, pictures of the coach and all the students. It could be, they used to, they used to, you used to be the home of Jeff climber , Jeff Glover and build a grill. Okay. Back in the day they were the stars from that gym before they kind of left and did their own thing. Right. Um, he was really tough, but I ended up , uh, I ended up getting his back and choking him. That was just, it was it. Didn’t it , it took a while . It was hard for in up getting his back and choke names . Yeah . Oh God. Yes. Who subs in? Yeah, two substance on technically three fights in by and he had two fights, but just feeling the sweat now filling the work like yes. I’m making my way through the rounds. My next match, I think was a guy from south America. I don’t know what country, but I couldn’t pick it. Wasn’t Brazilian and I straight foot locked in hard wrecked his ankle, wrecked his ankle really quick. God pulling this whole time, but okay. So I’m just going to rewind a bit. When I was at , um, San Paulo training, they were like, oh, we’ve got a new game for you because I was like, all right , I’ve got kind of four or five months to work on a game. They’re like, you’re going to do sit up guard . And I was like, oh, okay. I play Riversdale here . I’ll do it. They’re like, no, you’re going to do sit up God. And I was like, oh, that’s cool. They like investing with me. They’re teaching me just so you guys are there. If you don’t have a sit up, God is sit up. God is the strong man game. It’s basically you sit up out of God, stand up on the leg and perform a single leg. Take down . Oh, it’s not even loves that. It’s not even a God. Really? Like he kinda cut from like a Della hit with some kind of [inaudible] and you just sit up on the leg, come up on the single , just come up on the single and Mira . Golly works out a lot. He does also like Cabrini , uh , what do you call it? Like a lot of top lines guys. Who’ve done it and strong guys too. I’m not necessarily that good at God, but I’m strong. I’m going to sit up and take you down. And so when I had that explained to me that no, no, no. This is the guard for guys that don’t do God real good. I was like, oh dang. But it worked right. Like, cause yeah, whatever, like my guts . Okay. But I was like, yeah, I’m the stronger I’ll come up on that leg. And anyway, I signed a Footlocker in this guy, like pretty well. And I was like, dang, I am. I feel good today. Like I know what I could do it. Like I could man, whatever, if I don’t get Marin , golly , like he was on the other side of the drawer. Like man, let’s maybe this is the day. So yeah. It’s starting to shorten up like I’m four hours. I’m like, yeah, dude, three subs from three matches. Then I’m, I’m surprised Melissa right now. Like this guy. No, you have to understand. I’ve had some very average like loss first round lost , second round been submitted times. So this why I’m bringing up this story. So the next round I’m fighting a guy called hunter from fight sports team and he has a particular game that I’m not aware of. And this is where it’s actually look, not that I think you should study your opponents. But I think afterwards I was speaking to, I might’ve been speaking to Craig. He’s like, oh yeah, hunter, he’s got that real good Footlocker from 50 50 game. And I was like, anyway, so anyway, whatever I pulled guard and I’m fighting this guy strong, athletic as hell. And I was like, oh , oh, I think he might be stronger than me. That’s a scary thought. And um, I was, I actually was like trying to sit up on, sit up guard and he smashed me down. I was like, oh, hang on. All right . So it’s playing Riversdale Heba and I got to sweep and I came up on the sweep two points. Yes. Anyway, we scrambled, he tried to take me down. We went out and I pulled guard again, same deal. Couldn’t sit up. Good, whatever swept again. Came up, scramble for nil . Okay, it’s gone. Okay. This guy’s not changing anything. So then same scenario, Paul guard , try to sweet come up on the sweep, but it was kind of not secure and we’d a bit scrambly . And I did the dumb thing, which it would have been great to have a coach. When I look across to just check, if I get my point, like little side glance, like check the time, check the points, get the points. I’m up six Neil . And he just, just hits me in the 50 50. And I’m like, oh, and my front foot was still on top. I’m on top of it . I’m now on 50 feet. And he crosses my foot over to like, decide he’s going to flip flop . And I just don’t know. I don’t know what exactly what he’s doing. I’m just like, I’m up six nil . There’s I dunno, four minutes scope like me in this store position, this guy. And he goes to put it on the straight foot lock and he goes to, he goes like, right, I’m going to cinches it up. And he goes to turn on my , oh no, you don’t. And he did a little shoulder check where he’s going to Footlocker me and you like, look like you’re going to tap bro. And I was like, hell no, I’m not going to tap. It’s like kicking and shoving. And like just fighting like so hard. I was like punching him in the butt cheek. I was like, get off my foot. I was gone mental. And he’s like , alright , fully turned into it, belly down, bridged into it. And then it was just pop, pop. My foot went there , like, ah , like he , I could sit my, my legs hanging straight and I could like, see my own foot. You know what I mean? Oh, that’s up bottom of his foot. And the referee looking at me, looking at him and I’m like, you like how long lift raft ? It’s just like, I have to give you a pat on the back for that one, pat, pat. And he was like, yeah, I couldn’t stand on it. Like, holy, that’s it. That’s my run. Right. And we get up. I can barely put any weight in my foot. And uh , anyway, we go off and that’s that’s my day, you know, he fights Nicholas mirin galleon next round. I’m not sure. I think he gets triangled . How hard did you cheer for Marin ? Golly , I did it. I did it actually. I didn’t want , I didn’t watch man. I was kind of, I was a bit gutter . I’ll be honest. I was shattered because I thought this, this could be the day because he, he loses the Marin. Golly. He gets bronze. Does that make sense? So all right. Yeah, but if he won , if, if I no, no, no, it wouldn’t have mattered. Like if I had won that match, I would have made podium. Right? Yeah . So I have never made it to the podium at worlds . And I really felt like this is my year. I’ve put the work in. I met the height of my powers and you know , it didn’t happen. And now my ankle, my right ankle is completely. I couldn’t walk. And so I knew I was just sitting with an ice pack on my ankle, man. And I tell you, I ate about five killers of that pizza from the cafeteria. Let’s do hot dogs and pizza, but long story short, Nicholas Murren , galley wins and hunter from fight sports. I forget his last name, but he’s a bit of a ledge. He, he got bronze that year and you guys should remember Edward Nozomi does a flying triangle and submits Nicholas Marin , golly , in the final of the absolute of purple belt. Oh no way. So Nicholas Marin , golly, doesn’t get the double. So he’s one at waist because white and absolute is considered like the that’s the grant , but he he’s trying to do it at every major tournament in the world, like Abu Dhabi. Holy. And he’d won every other comp that year white and absolute, except for worlds because Edward nudge me flying triangled in holy. So you know what happened? They kept him at purple for another year. Marin . Golly . Yeah . Holy. Cause they’re like , you gotta write this graph . You have to win every complaint . Absolutely. How unfair is that to every purple belt in the world? It’s so bad and I don’t get me wrong. It was just a PRI a point of pride for them. Well, he should , he should have most, definitely been a brown belt, right? These called in every public place on the podium at every purple belt comp around the world is a strong case that you should just be a brown belt. And that’s the thing he did eventually after another year of savaging , everybody purple belt become that like super chant , right? Wait and absolute of every category. Holy. But that’s what I’m saying, guys. The reason why I wanted to say this is my best performance . It was my best performance. Even though I didn’t ultimately win. It was my best prep and my best performance on the day. And that’s the highest stakes comp you can do pretty much, pretty much. And , and you know, I can say I put it all on the table and that guy messed me up and that’s fine. But then you’re in America, you know, with no healthcare or healthcare. I mean, I had travel insurance, but you know, I just basically had to spend the rest of my trip, rehabbing my ankle foot up on ice, watching the NBA finals. What had happened to it? What did you die? Had I completely torn one ligament and done partial tests to other two ligaments, but I wasn’t getting an MRI and I wasn’t going to hospital. And then I was off to Canada two weeks after that, all this . So , um, but anyway, being there at worlds , I got to witness Bernardo, furrier , almost beat her Dolph over here , but not, well, it was the last time they ever fought. And there was a moment where Bernardo could have taken his back and it was pretty huge. And then there was another huge moment when Felipe Penner beat Andre Galvan. And what is amazing about this when you watch the finals guys, and this is something I’ve just, I’m a little bit off piece here, but they, you have 10 mats when everyone’s competing. But when it comes to finals on the Sunday, they pin it down to two mats and that you just focus on those. And it was amazing. It was , it was crazy to see. And all of Alliance team was cheering for Felipe Penner , even though he’s Gracie Baha. And I mean, obviously as his own team, if Andre Galvan had won, the final at OSS would have won the team trophy. But because Felipe Penner like, and fleet panel was on one, he was tearing it up and he’d beaten an Alliance guy to meet you associate to make that final. And yeah, man, he put it all in Galvan . If you watch that and they’re all like they were going, Ooh, greasy BA Ooh, like, you know, all the Alliance team. And cause they’re like, don’t let Galvan team because it meant that Alliance got there like 10th or 11th theme trophy or it was, it was, it was, it was massive for the team. And what was funny was full transparency. Felipe Pena pop for steroids only like three months later that was sold to him by a lion . Can’t say that’s part of it. And then go home was really upset because Alliance still kept the team trophy and then go vote vowed that he would double down to take more steroids, any other competitor ever. And so when , when he bashfully VCC . And how juicy was he? He was like, I’ll show you how to take steroids. Yeah, nah. Anyway, so guys look, that’s weld . It’s obviously not, not the glory of Joe’s story, but there was a lot of prep and a lot of consideration in all of that. But what I would say is the competing of it was quite effortless. I’d never felt that good in a comp like it’s the highest pressure situation and actually everything around it felt uncomfortable, but the time on the mat felt good. Wow. And that makes me think the way I prepared was was right. Yeah. Right. You’d just done. Absolutely everything you could have done. Yeah. But , uh , man, I just I’m I’m so Jade right now I’m just flashing back is it’s exciting to talk about isn’t it? It’s so cool when you’re in that stadium and it is , uh , I feel a little bit unhealthy, you know, when you’ve been inside all day, there’s no air con it’s a bit dank . It’s like fluorescent lighting and. And you kind of just general smell of sweaty bodies and testosterone feet . Yeah. It is . It is rank. Yeah. It’s a bit gross, but I mean you’re sweaty and dirty and whatever, and it’s just there, but you might have a chance encounter like a world champion sits down next to you. Who’s just won a fight and they’re really happy. And so they really laid there quite , Hey man, how you going? How’s your jujitsu. What’s up probably was Thema . You doing and you just, you become friends, you know? And I think that’s the beauty of competition, even though a lot of people out there might not identify as competitors. It’s so good for you. And you realize that we’re all out there fighting that struggle and overcoming our nerves and all our senses of self doubt and insufficiency. And it’s, it’s a great bonding thing to go. Like you made so many friends through your comp experience. Right ? Totally . Always. Yeah. Like I, the comps, yeah . The comps really? That last one I went to there . There’s such a social thing. Yeah. And you see all these people that maybe used to compete against, they don’t compete anymore. They’re just there to watch. It doesn’t matter. Right. You’re just like, oh man. You’re still like in the community. Yeah. In the game somehow. Yeah . You know ? Yeah. It’s awesome. It’s a beautiful thing. And a great piece of advice actually got from Kabaka. Now he’s from check match originally. And then he then started team Zenith Senate , but he was Bush’s coach and really taught Boucher his game. And I had talked to him at a comp one time and here’s the man has the Harris forums of all time. I say, this is a man Gary forums, but he’s he’s forearms or Bez . Harry’s your head, Joe carpeted for believe it to stop throwing in that guy. He said to me, one competition is worth four weeks of training in terms of learning. Right. That’s his vibe. That’s how he sees it . He wants his guys to compete. There’s a comp every weekend compete every weekend. Cause he’s like, you’re that far ahead of someone who trains for months and compete to once. Yeah. In terms of learning the insufficiencies of your game and what works, what doesn’t all of that. And I’ve always kept that in my mind competition as a learning thing, it’s not about so much, the ego is just really finding out the truth. It’s a good point. You can see that in the people that do compete all the time, they just get good at competing. Don’t they like it . They just handle the nerves. Well get used to the prostitution game. Like yeah. It’s all down. Yeah. No , it’s a, it’s a beautiful thing. I want to encourage everybody at any stage. You know, if, even if you don’t consider yourself a competitor, prepare yourself, train up and have some, a bit of courage. You might only have one or two fights, but you might make a best friend and you , you guys stay friends forever way beyond, you know, jujitsu or competing or anything. Yeah . So I think that’s, that’s a great thing. cool. Cool beans, man. Good stories. I hope you guys listening. Enjoyed that. Yeah. There are other stories. There are others . I can’t say I’ve got many that can top the can top the one I just mentioned, but I’m excited to at some point to do worst competition performance stall , man , that’d be good. I got some beauties. Glorious fails , also performed in front of the same girlfriend, horribly wrong. It’s the balance. That’s why you’re not together anymore. All right guys, thank you so much for tuning in. And if you want to hear more information relevant to Bulletproof, we do have our YouTube live, which is every Sunday, 5:00 PM. Australian Eastern standard time. So if you’re hearing this on the other side of the world, you can watch it after the date. It will be posted on our YouTube. If you don’t follow our YouTube, please go and subscribe at Bulletproof BJJ on YouTube and uh, it all , um, it’ll get ya. Yeah. Heaps of good content going on there. You can actually pay, we’re going to ask JT questions, right? If you’re there at the live at 5:00 PM. Ozzy time. Yes. Anytime it’s like you can engage. So get on there and any digital related questions , strength, mobility, competition, whatever. Throw them out . This guy. Love chat . Thanks Brad . Thanks everybody. Thank you.

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