Welcome to the sixth chapter of the Brain and Combat series, dedicated to a very common phenomenon: the silver plateau, when competition results don’t seem to be moving anywhere. It’s a place of ‘almost there’ but it’s ‘almost’ for too long. There have been many silver medals won, even a few golds from smaller competitions, but big wins and/or steady progress towards higher stake events does not seem to be coming. Many fighters succumb to fatigue after trying and not making progress, often concluding that this might have been all they had in them. The truth is, this is simply a stage that signifies how far one can go with endurance, regular practice, and the appropriate skill sets. Above that, as you’ll understand by the end of this chapter, a very different game starts. If the change in the game is not recognized and the fighter does not start diversifying their skills, they can be stuck on the plateau.
Changes in the tournament crowd
The game undergoes many changes as you progress through your competition journey. The composition of the attendees is one of them. The people you competed with at the local competition are not the same people as those lined up at the regional championship. The players’ motivation, skill set, and character all change towards a higher level, which requires adaptation. In the early stages, you can break away from the pack by having a good skill match, being diligent, and developing personal skills. Larger events require a more strategic approach because your opponents are pre-selected by previous tournaments for similar skills and strong drive. The weekend fighters and those who tried it out of curiosity are gone, and you’ll be facing fully dedicated fighters.
This change comes about in two dimensions. On the professional side, you enter into a more competent tournament crowd with refined skills and a massive arsenal of tricks. While on the event side, you progress from small competitions to regional and global ones, with higher stake, bigger audience, and more stress. Let’s take a look at how these changes come about.
How the game changes toward a more competent tournament crowd
Beginner and improver level
At the beginner and improver levels (commonly around 1-3 years of training, or for example, adult white and blue belt in BJJ), skills are quite diverse. There are people who are new to martial arts and others who have extensive fight history in multiple athletic disciplines. Most fighters are still in the process of developing their game, picking up the details of the techniques, and most of them haven’t fully put together the entire movement system yet. Their emotional connection to the sport is also quite weak. Only a handful of them have already decided that this is the martial art they want to excel in. Most of them are still trying out the fit and what the activity can do for their lives. At these levels, training tends to consume more resources than later due to the cost of equipment, the task of getting in shape, and the stress of dealing with a lot of new information and characters.
As a result, competition is a mess. Performances vary greatly, in one match, you can have an opponent who doesn’t even know where they are, in the next one, you may get a mixed martial artist smashing it. The outcome of fights at these levels is highly random and cannot be directly linked to your skill or match with the sport. Loosing can be down to so many things, that it’s hard to draw conclusions. The competition goal is not yet to excel, but rather to become familiar with the intensity of the event and the specifics of a sport.
Professional levels
From professional level (from about 3-4 years of training, or e.g. adult purple belt in BJJ). Those who are still in the game already are dedicated to their chosen art and found a way to allocate a substantial amount of resources into it. Integrated into their lifestyle, training provides them with enhanced self-esteem and comfort when competing. To reach this far, their skills need to be suitable or intentionally adjusted to match their sport, which means they are much more prepared and competent opponents.
Since most fighters are long-term practitioners on this level with often remarkable competition histories, most things that distinguish someone in lower levels, such as drive, skills, and knowledge, start to be matched among competitors. Nuances become more important and the psychology of the game takes precedence. Self-regulation strategies are of utmost importance at this level, as a 10% decrease in mental and physical power can result in the loss of the gold in a game where all other skills are matched.
Next: How the game changes towards higher stake tournaments
