Andrew Wiltse recently sat down to reveal the first loss he ever suffered in competition and explain not only how it happened, but how he felt in the moment too. It’s refreshing to hear something this honest from an elite-level competitor, especially considering that Wiltse has been seen putting an absurd number of points up against opposition at the local level. Even when he isn’t setting records, Wiltse still doesn’t really face any adversity when he competes in smaller tournaments and the gulf of skill between him and hobbyists at his belt level is readily apparent. That’s why it’s interesting to hear that, once upon a time, Andrew Wiltse took a competition loss just like every other person:
“I go out into the f*cking ring… And this is when I realized that I get really nervous for competitions. My heart rate was probably 200… It was like: “Oh f*ck, I’m gonna have a stroke! And I go into the cage, I have basketball shorts on. I didn’t actually own any grappling shorts until I was a blue belt. So I had basketball shorts with pockets, a T-Shirt on… And the guy is an actual grappler – he’s got his rashguard, his shorts that don’t have pockets and all that.”
“And we go out there… As soon as I got into the cage, I start to get legitimate tunnel vision. Not in the way that people try to overplay it, but everything from here out was just f*cking gone. It was blurry and I was fixated on that dude across the cage. My heart was already going crazy and I’m already exhausted from breathing hard before the fighting even started.”
“And because I considered myself a Judo guy – I had a very traditional Judo stance – I was, like, standing straight up. I went for a foot sweep… And I, actually, almost got him to fall over. I was like: “F*ck yeah, I’m gonna win the match. And then, he went from almost falling to flying armbaring me. Bad, really bad, and it was really nice too.”
“He f*cking flying Armbars me! And there was so much adrenaline going through my system that I fight it for 30 seconds, with my arm fully extended! First I tried to stack him, then I tried to roll over him, and then I tried to hitchhike out… And this whole time, this guy is fully cranking on my extended arm.”
“And after about 30 seconds of me not feeling any pain – but kinda, in here [gestures his heart] feeling that something is wrong… I start to hear the cartilage pop and tear. And I remember thinking to myself: “I don’t wanna lose, I really wanna get out of this and win.” Because I couldn’t accept losing back then. At the same time, I was like: “This isn’t hurting, but it doesn’t sound good.” And I ended up tapping.”
Andrew Wiltse revealed the moment he suffered his first loss in competition in a video uploaded to his official YouTube account:
