clarkgriswold said:
Maybe it's a slightly different question, but for me the options are kind of whether to take an hour class and roll for close to an hour probably like twice per week, or take class 3-4 times per week and train after class less.
Being a young guy (17), and extremely enthusiastic about MMA, the first 8 or 9 months of my training, I just wanted to come in a roll and spar endlessly. I figured I'd take the Straight Blast Gym concept of "Aliveness" to the next level and just maximize sparring and rolling time.
Now that I've been away from MMA (except for Sundays) for 2 months, I've really started to realize the benefits of drilling and lighter-intensity training. I got the Grappling Drills DVD by Stephan Kesting, and already I am noticing results from it (even though I've barely been using it). Randori (rolling) is what makes BJJ effective, but that doesn't mean repetition drilling and light training are not equally as important.
My advice to you is varying intensity and including variety in your training regimen. If you just roll hard all the time, no matter what your age, you're eventually going to hurt something, and studies also show that if you do not periodize your training, you will stop benefiting from such hard training.
For example, if you had 3 classes per week, here would be a VERY basic plan:
"A" Day: Normal Class, stay after 30-45 minutes and drill
"B" Day: Normal Class, stay after 30-45 minutes and roll LIGHT
"C" Day: Normal Class, stay after 30-45 minutes and roll hard
Just out of curiousity, what level are you at? If you're beginner-intermediate, drilling is extremely important. Staying after just a half hour to do drills and technique repetition will work techniques and grappling movements into your muscle memory. This shortens your synapses, meaning that you will be able to perform the technique CORRECTLY in a shorter amount of time with very little time to think about it. Rolling will give you the timing, resistance, and experience you need to apply the moves, but without drilling, you really are only halfway there. I'm only realizing this now.
Also, your age might have less to do with feeling "beat up" than you think. I'm known to be one of the most conditioned people in my gym, and even I have trained so hard that I wake up the next morning to feel like I've been hit by a truck. Like I said before, you need to vary intensity, on top of a proper diet and a good sleep schedule. Try mixing up the intensity and type of work you're doing, make sure you're getting 7-8 hours of sleep minimum, and take in a diet of about 60% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. If you're not already doing all that, try that out, and see how much of a difference it makes.
To answer the original poster, it depends on what you're training for, where you are in your plan, etc. If you're preparing for a fight, you want to be training very short, intense sessions at your peak. If you're at the beginning phase of your plan, longer sessions dedicated more to technique training are better.
You don't necessarily have to learn "more techniques" in a longer class period. It's really a better approach to limit the amount of techniques you're learning and drill them as many times as possible. Don't stop when you think you "have" the move. Keep drilling it until you can make it instinctive. I forget who said it, but there was a quote I heard once, "The wise man is afraid to learn something new before applying what he has already learned" or something like that.