I joined a BJJ competition

I started doing martial art when I was 20 year old, I joined a Muay Thai gym called Jak Othman in ss15

It was sort of a life changing decision, as I will further venture into the realm of martial art then on

By the way I joined in with my friend Kenneth, he however didnt stick as he prefers team sport ( understandable, I don't only because I can't play

So after enrolling into Sunway University, I had to be more efficient with my time so I started looking around for gyms in my area

Coincidentally, MuayFit just opened a branch, and offered discount, I signed up for a 3 year membership straightaway 

So I started training No Gi Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu

Okay No Gi means we don't wear Gi, Gi is a shirt that provides a lot of grip

Anyway there is no Gi class in my gym so I have stuck with No Gi for 3 years

My coach changed a lot until now they settle with a blue belt ex female fighter, she is okay

The thing that is not okay with my gym is that they only offer 2 No Gi class per week, and 1 hour per session, that is utterly not enough !!

I can't accuse them though, most members join Muay Thai and Fitness class, and BJJ class is way too inconsistent

From business perspective, it makes sense

I think many people shy away from BJJ maybe because firstly a lot of body contact, though ironically sometimes there are more women than men in a class

also it takes really a lot of time to be good in it

I have learned for 3 years, and there were still times I got my ass handed to me by a better player, it doesn't feel good at all

So when I signed up for the competition, I had already known, 2  hours per week of training was not going to cut it

The few of us who joined, we came out with a solution

In addition to the 2 classes, we will come to spar every Wednesday, plus our boxing coach, whose sons are both fighters, is willing to roll with us on Wednesday

On Saturday, we will go JiuJitsu foundry in Damansara Uptown for the open mat session

On Sunday, we will go Elitez open mat in Kelana Jaya
(Open mat is a sparring session where people who are not member of the gym is allowed to go

So we somehow get like 5 days of BJJ training every week now

The biggest problem in my gym is that, we are the best in our gym, and we are actually not very good, when this is the case, we can't improve as no one is better than us ( except our coach

That is why when we first joined the open mat, we lost so hard and barely got a win

That was when I started doing note for BJJ

I wrote down all techniques I learned in the class

And for the techniques I don't know, I look it up on the internet and make note

My BJJ improve so freaking much after this

Every time I went to an open mat and lost, I reflected on my weakness and I went on the internet to search for a solution

Now I am confident I can at least not get tapped out as much as last time

My improvement in that 2 months :

I learned a lot of escapes from all positions, at least one for each position and submissions

I learned to defend straight ankle lock

I learned to do takedown

I learned to takedown people who standing guillotine me

I have more submissions in my arsenal

I have more transition from all positions

Apart from training techniques, I trained my physical ability too

Basically my schedule is

Monday morning : Legs Plyometrics

Monday night : BJJ class

Tuesday morning : HIIT jogging

Wednesday night : circuit training & BJJ sparring

Thursday night : Leg workout & BJJ class

Friday : REST

Saturday morning : HIIT jogging

Saturday evening : BJJ open mat

Sunday morning : BJJ open mat

There were only 2 months, I improved a hell lot, but not enough to win

I had some holes in my techniques, therefore I lost

I am much more confident now however

I got into a full guard and failed to do any submissions, so after that competition I developed a few more setups in my full guard, I am excited to try out