I missed competing at the IBJJF World Masters 2018 this year but a number of my teammates, and training partners, competed. This year, however, was a tough year of the fighters that competed from Hawaii. A number of the fighters got eliminated in the first and second rounds.
Here are my top three thoughts as to why this happened:
The competition is getting tougher
There is no doubt that the quality of the fighters is getting higher. The reason for this is that more older people that train BJJ are competing. As more people compete the schools are getting better and better in their training programs.
The need to train with different styles
It was very obvious that the fighters that train with a myriad of people, and styles, AND had the game to adapt to those are the ones that did better.
Too much focus on specific techniques and not enough flow
The big problem we all face is that we may be awesome in one technique but the problem is that we need to be awesome in getting to those positions.