I just finished competing in the Grappling Industries Toronto Tournament (Jan 13, 2018). I took away so many little lessons. Competitive experience is so valuable.
By the way, Grappling Industries is very awesome because they give you lots of matches for your money.
You can train until you puke but some things you can only learn while competing in a match. Here is some stuff I learned from competing in the last few tournaments.
Personal Examples:
In one of my matches my opponement and I were engaged in a scramble for top position. I felt my foot hit the wooden floor and I thought we were out of bounds so I stopped scrambling. Big mistake. Ref did not stop fight and my opponent secured a dominant position and scored 3 points.
Lesson: Always keep scrambling for dominant position until the ref stops you. Don’t think that just because you are out of bounds that the ref will instantly pause the match.
In a previous tournament I remember I thought I was winning the match so I kind of eased off the gas for the last 20-30 seconds. My opponent used this time to sweep me.
Lesson: Keep attacking and looking for the submission from start to finish. Even if up on points. When I stopped attacking I became defensive.