I'm a white belt preparing for my first submissions only round robbin tournament next weekend (5min rounds) and would like some advice.
1. What would you guys recommend looking for from a submissions perspective to submit my opponents. I'm currently working on armbars/ foot locks, guillotines etc (simple but effective)
2. What takedowns would you guys recommend (something simple)
3. In this week leading up to the tournament what should my training be like / how much should I train.
I'm not going to do anything fancy / injure myself - I want to have fun and roll with some different people outside of my gym but at the same time I'm rather competitive. Any advice from anyone would be appreciated.
Thanks guys.
Not advice, but I thought you might find this interesting. This website has a bunch of cool articles about what takedowns and submissions are high percentage at different levels based off of analyzing a bunch of matches. It might be worth checking out. High Percentage Martial Arts.
If the tournament is a week out, don't concentrate on learning anything new. Focus on those things at which you are best. You simply don't have time to integrate anything new and have it work in competition. Play your A Game.
You said you were going in to have fun. That is the right attitude. Your first tournament should be all about having fun and learning how the tournament scene works.
As far as the last week of training, what I have my guys do is hard rounds Monday, drill game plan Tuesday, Moderate rolls and light takedown work Wednesday, Walkthrough/light rounds Thursday, Friday rest. There are other plans, of course, but I have found that one to work well.
For takedowns in BJJ tournaments I suggest ones that are low risk and low energy expenditure since most BJJ tournament rulesets only award 2 points for them. For me I found the dump, trip, and go behind from the inside/outside high single leg, snapdown and ankle trip from front headlock, and various trips from front/rear bodylocks to be the best for BJJ rulesets.