WINNING is very important! But what do you do when you lose?

So you lost – what do you do next? First, accept the fact that you lost because of YOU! Don’t sit there and make excuses in your mind and try to justify the loss to yourself and others. Don’t blame the referee, don’t blame an injury, don’t blame the rules, don’t blame anyone or anything, it was you! Once you accept total responsibility that it was you and hold yourself accountable, you can begin to learn.

Second, analyze everything that you did in the match and before the match. Did you train as hard as you could have? How was your diet, did you eat clean, stay away from alcohol, and fuel your body for performance? How was your mindset, did you visualize yourself running through your opponent? Did you fight like you know you should? Like you know you could? Did you go into the fight to play your game and win or were you afraid to lose and took no action. Did you fight well and with all your heart? What mistakes did you make in preparation or the fight?

Now that you have accepted responsibility, analyzed your match, your mistakes, your training, and identified all the holes in your game, you can begin to grow and improve. Some things you will know how to fix and some things you will need help fixing. This is why you have a team, a professor, and a trainer. If you lost because your opponent was more technical than you, go to your professor and work on your weak areas. If you gassed out, talk to a conditioning coach and figure out how you can improve. If you were lazy and didn’t train like you should have, well you know what to change there.

Most people in Jiu-Jitsu or Mixed Martial Arts have heard the saying that “you win or you learn” and that is 100% true! However, it’s not guaranteed that you learn if you lose. You need to accept responsibility for the loss, analyze your mistakes, and put the time in to improve your game and grow.

NOW GO OUT AND WIN!