Below is a story about competing for the first time, told by one of our favorite students here at Ivey League MMA, Miss Erika Mish.
She’s a great kid and below will give you some insight as to why.
Hi i’m Erika Mish.
This weekend I competed at naga battle at the beach. It was my first competition. i was really nervous at first. i was not really sure what to expect.
i keep thinking that i would be going against some one that was way better than me. but i had to remember that they would pair me up with some one that was my skill level.
i also was not sure how i would respond to coaching but i knew that i did not want my mom to do it. So the day of the competition i was really nervous. but my nervousness went down when my coach showed up because i knew that she knew how to help me and was there for me.
i remember standing by the ring for my match looking at all the other girls thinking who am i going to go against and hoping nobody lied about their skill level.
when they finally called me to go on the mat for my match i remember looking behind me to make sure that my coach was there and she was (with en encouraging smile). so i walked on to the mat and the ref. talked a little then we shook hand and were off.
during the match i am glad that my coach did not yell but talked calmly to me also i was glad to have a calm face to look at and voice to listen to.i learned a lot from my match and realized what i actually knew.
because if you do not know it and have not been drilling it then you will not think to do it in the match. the matches go so fast that you do the moves that are instinct to you.
another thing that my coach told me that is true is that when the match started the nerves go away. i had nerves until the very second that we started to grapple.
also time seems so much longer when you are in the match than it might feel at another time or if you watch a video of your match. i lost the first match ; not with out a good fight though.
i heard that there was only two girls per a division so might be the girl in my division and i might go against her again.
so i walked around, watched a team mates match, then my coach told me to go get my Gi on so that i would not get too cold. then i went back down and i drilled some moves on my brother to help me/ keep me warmed up and my coach walked me through what i did wrong so could try and correct it.
also drilling helped me to not be as nervous for my second match because my nervousness came back a little bit after my first match. then i waited a little bit for my next match against the same girl because we were the only two in our division and we both did Gi and no Gi.
i was not as nervous before the second match and talked to my coach to get a game plan of the moves i wanted to try and get. i tried those and eventually won the match 🙂
it was hard but good. after i was tired but happy. i had so much fun in both of my matches. in fact when my coach asked how i felt after my first match i responded that “is was fun!”. i also had a great opponent who was nice and we were both there to have fun.
we both thanked each other for a good match and shock hands with the other coaches. i had a great time and want to do another tournament soon.
–Erika
