As a student of BJJ rather than an instructor I thought this may be relevant:
In my naivety I thought all BJJ instructors would’ve competed many times throughout the years of training necessary to acheive BB. I thought (again perhaps naively) that BJJ was a sport (as well as a martial art) and as a prospective student I would be confused to find a BB instructor who had never competed…ever!
If an instructor had never competed how would he or she be able to offer advice about nerves, rules or just what to expect at a competition. It would be as if they could only instruct a partial BJJ and not a complete BJJ.
Rightly or wrongly if you could choose to learn say golf from a guy who has competed or a guy who just practices on his own everyday. Most if not all of us would choose to learn from the guy who has competed. It may not mean that this guy is the best instructor or even the best golfer but to a prospective student it’s academic.
So, even if it is just to advise and support students I personally feel some competition experience is important. It would be a strange thing for a prospective student to walk into a BJJ academy and be told that there was no-one there who competed BJJ (could happen!). Where would such a person expect to find BJJ competitors?
Sorry if this is irrelevant nonsense.