I've previously discussed breathing but have concentrated on unusual situations, like conscious hyperventilation and the Valsalva Maneuver. I should probably have started out by talking about something that is a bit more universally applicable. Let’s talk about this: no breathing equals no oxygen equals total exhaustion. Storytime: I once talked with a very frustrated and discouraged … [Read more...]
Breathing
The Limits of Human Endurance, with Endurance Athlete Mike McCastle
Mike McCastle set a new world record on Jan 23, 2021, immersing himself in ice for 2 hours and 40 minutes and surviving! He joined me on Episode 323 of The Strenuous Life Podcast to talk about this absolutely insane challenge including, The physical preparation and mental strength required to it off, The limits of the human body, Tummo (inner fire) breathing and visualisation, How … [Read more...]
One Breath, One Attack; A Heuristic for Guard Domination
There's a BJJ black belt strategy for the guard that anyone can use... This approach keeps your opponent in danger of getting swept or submitted and makes it hard for him to even think about passing your guard. It's really simple. Ready? Here it is... "One breath, one attack!" This strategy means that you continously try to improve your position, at least one time every time you … [Read more...]
BJJ Breathing Tricks When You’re On the Bottom, Getting Crushed by Your Opponent
One of the very worst things is to be trapped on the bottom with all your opponent's weight on top of you and be unable to breathe. This is usually followed by exhaustion, panic and surrender. But it doesn't need to be like this - there are several approaches to breathing in BJJ that can make sure air gets into your lungs, oxygen into your blood, and keep you in the game, even when you're … [Read more...]
Grappling with Claustrophobia in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
This article grew out of an email conversation I had with a reader of the Grapplearts newsletter about his problems with claustrophobia while grappling (read about the initial conversation here). How could he possibly control this awful feeling? At first I suggested various structural or technical solutions to avoid getting crushed on the bottom, for example: breathing when you are on the … [Read more...]
What To Do When Your Mind Goes Blank While Sparring or Competing
Lots of grapplers run into the problem of their mind going blank when they're sparring or competing. In a class setting they might be able to bang out repetitions of techniques, demonstrate combos, and flow with the go like nobody's business, but as soon as they hit the mats to actually roll, well, all of a sudden they have absolutely no idea about what they should be doing. This can be an … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Get a Really Heavy Kneemount
When I started doing BJJ the kneemount position kind of confused me... I knew that it was considered to be a good position, and I knew it led to a bunch of submission options, but still, it never really 'clicked' for me. … [Read more...]
‘Cardio’ For the Martial Arts
Cardiovascular training can be a confusing topic and there are many different and divergent views on the subject. Different reputable sources inform us that you don't need to do cardio - just spar really long rounds (for grappling), or that you should spar twice as many rounds as you are going to fight (boxing), or that you should do sprints, or do long runs, or lift weights for muscular … [Read more...]
A Weird Dilemma…
I recently sat down and figured out which of my articles I got the most feedback from. Here's another article that I've received a LOT of feedback on. Back in 2004 I was asked a very interesting question about grappling endurance by someone I'll call 'Fred.' Here was the problem in a nutshell... … [Read more...]
Podcast EP8: Tony Blauer on Fitness, Fear Management, and Combat Psychology
I just interviewed Tony Blauer. He's the head of Blauer Tactical Systems which specializes in close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for law enforcement, military and professional self-defense instructors. We had a great conversation about Crossfit, fear management, adrenaline dumps, and his recent 'immersion' in BJJ... This is pretty relevant stuff! Everybody (who's not … [Read more...]
breath, breath, BRIDGE!!
One of the things I talk about in my Beginning BJJ online Course is the importance of not telegraphing your moves, particularly your explosive escapes, by holding your breath. Now this lesson led to many interesting conversations, including one with Mr. Will Wood, who trains with Garrett Erickson. … [Read more...]
Keeping the Will to Fight
As is so often the case, Mark Twain said it best: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." This applies to dogs, grapplers, MMA fighters and jiu-jitsu players alike. … [Read more...]
Air Chokes
For the last two weeks we have primarily been discussing strangles that cut off the supply of blood to the brain – this week I’d like to move on to ‘chokes’. A choke is a submission which primarily cuts off the flow of air through the windpipe, as opposed to a strangle which primarily cuts off the flow of blood to the brain. … [Read more...]
One Simple Tip for Surviving the Smother
There's nothing worse than tapping out to a smother. It is one thing to get caught in a nice technical choke and having to tap out, but it really sucks to get slowly smothered as someone covers your nose and mouth with some part of their body. … [Read more...]
What the Hell is a ‘Valsalva Maneuver’?
Today’s question is: “should you ever hold your breath while sparring”. Many instructors would tell you that holding your breath is a big no-no, and generally I agree with them. What I want to talk about today, however, is a possible exception to this rule. … [Read more...]
Conscious Hyperventilation
I sometimes get asked questions about how to breath while sparring, in particular, how to control your breathing when you are really fighting hard. When you are sparring at an easy to moderate pace then it is a good idea to keep your breath regular, deep and even. … [Read more...]
Breathing and Stretching and Yoga
Yoga pays a lot of attention to breathing – Yoga has many special breathing exercises, ranging from the simple to the downright esoteric. For martial artists and grapplers, however, the integration of breathing and stretching is of particular interest. … [Read more...]
Going Anaerobic Part 3: More Routines
Here are some more ideas if you want to try anaerobic conditioning. The common theme this week is that more time is spent going hard than resting, so willpower is important here! … [Read more...]
Going Anaerobic, Part 2: Some Sample Routines
Last week we discussed some of the factors around incorporating anaerobic training in your conditioning routine. As promised, here are some real-life examples of anaerobic workouts: this week all the sample workouts have more recovery time than exertion time (don’t worry, you’ll need it). Finally I should mention that you want to be fully warmed up before you try any of these routines. 1 – … [Read more...]
Going Anaerobic, Part 1
I get asked fairly often when someone should incorporate anaerobic training into his or her conditioning regimen. By "anaerobic" training I basically mean sprints and interval training – where you go hard and fast for a relatively short period of time. … [Read more...]