I need some help- not performing well in competitions/Gassing

[ITRDC5]

Hi Everyone,

I am a purple belt in BJJ, ive had mixed success in competitions( actually used to win quite a lot of golds) over the 8 years I have been grappling. My last competition(first at purple) I absolutely and completed shit the bed so bad I got really depressed over it- I still am and im scared to compete. I'm not overweight and in fairly good physical shape.

I am absolutely clueless when it comes to conditioning outside of BJJ, I have started running over the past few months- just steady state running to get into something cardio related.

I know I should be doing some form of sprinting/interval work, but I have no idea of how much to do and how often/far out from competition?

I warmed up good but I just felt exhausted in my matches, like I couldn't breathe if that makes sense? I don't know if it is an adrenaline dump or not, one thing I can say is that mentally I just could not think at all and my skills completed went out of the window.

My typical training week would be this- Lifting is reduced on lead up to competitions

Monday- Upper body Lifting and BJJ @ Night
Tuesday: Lower Body Lifting
Wednesday: Steady state cardio for an hour
Thursday:Upper Body lifting and BJJ @Night
Friday: Upper Body Lifting and Wrestling class
Saturday: Stead state cardio for an hour
Sunday: Drilling @ BJJ

Can anyone suggest some inclusions of conditioning outside BJJ that would be beneficial?


Many thanks

 

[Badger67]

I will respond to this tonight OP.

 

[belph]

How's your conditioning in training?

 

[TerryMCLOOPS]

Hey dude just got back from the pool where I live. Here's the workout I did today. No equipment needed. Good conditioning.

Warmup. Spend ten minutes warming your body up like you do before class.

Then...

1. 10 minutes jumping jacks. Do them right and no breaks.
2. 1 minute rest if you want
3. 5 minutes lunges then 5 minutes squats. Do them right and no breaks. Key or its a total waste of time. Repeat for 40 minutes no breaks. The point is constant leg work for 40 minutes.
4. Rest 1 minute
5. 50 burpees with 2 pushups instead of 1 ("2 pump burpee") jog in place or do jumping jacks for rest if you need to.
6. 50 burpees just like before but with 3 pushups ("3 pump burpee") jog in place or do jumping jacks for rest if you need to.

My opinion only: ditch the weights if youre gassing dude. Those weights are a waste of time for me but everyone is different.

Lots of calisthenics and lots of running is what I do and I have a pretty solid gas tank. You gotta learn to kick yourself in the nuts, burpees do it for most people.

I do a shit ton of long runs but you wanna do some intensity too.

400m run as fast as possible and rest for 2 to 3 minutes, repeat. The idea is get the heart rate maxed out and then bring it back down, training good recovery. Nothing I say is scientific its all from my experience so you gotta decide if I sound crazy or not. Not authority here.


Rowing machine is good for this too, I like 30 second max sprints with 1:30 rest easy rows x 10 or 20.

These types of intervals combined with the longer sessions are money. Train hard dude.

 

[cincymma79]

I lifted four days a week and 3.5 miles every other day while competing plus doing classes at least 3 days a week. Do you need that much? Probably not. But I could go all day and not get tired.

 

[ITRDC5]

How's your conditioning in training?

Its pretty good to be honest, I don't ever sit up rounds and can do an hour rolling with 30 sec break inbetween rolls no problem

 

[belph]

Its pretty good to be honest, I don't ever sit up rounds and can do an hour rolling with 30 sec break inbetween rolls no problem

unless the match times are significantly different or you're playing a different game I'd guess it's an adrenaline dump.

 

[ITRDC5]

unless the match times are significantly different or you're playing a different game I'd guess it's an adrenaline dump.

Yeah my thoughts exactly, any idea on how I can stop this happening?

 

[belph]

Yeah my thoughts exactly, any idea on how I can stop this happening?

Well for BJJ I'd say Competing more is one way. I've heard of people going to unfamiliar open mats as another way too.

Another big thing is just making sure you don't turn a competition into something it's not. End of the day, it doesn't change anything for regular Joe's. We don't have a ranking nor does it effect our pay. It's just an aggressive roll with someone you're probably unfamiliar with.

 

[deadshot138]

Back when I grappled I felt the best conditioned when I trained how I competed. If you're rolling at 60% in the gym and 100% on the mats you're gonna gas and get fucked. Pissant training partners might complain but that's their fault. I personally hated it when higher belts would take it easy on me.

 

[ITRDC5]

Thanks guys,

Point noted about taking it too seriously- I do and I get mentally very worked up about it. I need to work on this more and point noted dead shot about consistency in the gym- I can be too nice at times especially to lower belts but I did need to push a bit more .

 

[Robocok]

You probably have a good aerobic base based on what you described. Some high intensity max efforts 5 minutes or less in the month before your competition will help with the blowing up issue when you go harder than you normally do during rolls in class. Running or cycling are both easy ways to get into this zone. You're going to run all out for these. If you can do them uphill, even better. The point is that you go as hard as you can and purposefully blow yourself up so that you're panting and feel like you're going to drop afterwards.

I would do something like go all out (as fast as you can, don't hold back) for 30 seconds, 1 minute, 90 seconds, etc, with 5 minutes or so of rest in between. You should feel recovered before starting each new interval so that you can go all out. If you need more than 5 minutes to recover, it's ok, though there is merit to doing variations of the workout not fully recovered. There are tons of variations to this, but this is a nice simple interval workout that will add the icing to the cake of your fitness base so you don't blow as easily when you go harder than you're accustomed to.

I would end the session when you notice a significant drop in your speed/performance/energy even after resting between efforts.

This work out is like powerful medicine, a little goes a long way. I wouldn't do these more than 2× a week and not for more than 2-3 months. It has diminishing returns but initially, the effects are awesome for competition where you'll be going hard and don't want to blow up when you go all out.

One other thing.. ease into the running or cycling so you don't injure yourself sprinting when you're not really used to using those muscles.

Edit: remember to warm up

 

[Smato_rules]

Something I noticed was I gas a lot less in tournaments when I am strong and been lifting.

For example: I did a tournament in July, I was lifting a ton for the last year and was deadlifting 495, but just came back to grappling a month earlier after a six month layoff. I felt absurdly stronger than my opponents and I did get winded badly, but I never got fatigued in my muscles i guess is how I would describe it. It was like I never felt weak even being very winded in my matches. I did another tournament in February and stopped lifting entirely just after that July tournament, instead trained bjj seven days a week for almost 8 months straight. My cardio was through the roof, but I fucking felt so weak and like jello out there. I got manhandled haha and honestly gassed worse in that tournament than the July one.

Long story short, when I got my barbell lifts up to a respectable number I gassed less than when I rolled 7 days a week but was much weaker. I see you already lift, so unless you for some reason aren’t very strong, idk what to tell you haha. Sorry my post is hard to read and follow, my brain isn’t working this morning

 

[ROcknrollracing]

You need to be doing aerobic tempo work whether that be jump rope, 75% sprints, swimming, high knees etc for aerobic development

As you near the fight you will want to include lactic capacity and alactate capacity work and deload the strength work

 

[Badger67]

Thanks guys,

Point noted about taking it too seriously- I do and I get mentally very worked up about it. I need to work on this more and point noted dead shot about consistency in the gym- I can be too nice at times especially to lower belts but I did need to push a bit more .

This in conjunction with warming up too early/too long is a big contributor to adrenaline dumps. I used to suffer a lot from them so what inwould do for judo tourneys id stay away from the venue until an hour before comp.

If nots adrenaline dump, check the style of play your opponents have that stifle you. It may be the achilles heel of your style IE smash passers tend to gas opponents easily.

 

[ITRDC5]

You probably have a good aerobic base based on what you described. Some high intensity max efforts 5 minutes or less in the month before your competition will help with the blowing up issue when you go harder than you normally do during rolls in class. Running or cycling are both easy ways to get into this zone. You're going to run all out for these. If you can do them uphill, even better. The point is that you go as hard as you can and purposefully blow yourself up so that you're panting and feel like you're going to drop afterwards.

I would do something like go all out (as fast as you can, don't hold back) for 30 seconds, 1 minute, 90 seconds, etc, with 5 minutes or so of rest in between. You should feel recovered before starting each new interval so that you can go all out. If you need more than 5 minutes to recover, it's ok, though there is merit to doing variations of the workout not fully recovered. There are tons of variations to this, but this is a nice simple interval workout that will add the icing to the cake of your fitness base so you don't blow as easily when you go harder than you're accustomed to.

I would end the session when you notice a significant drop in your speed/performance/energy even after resting between efforts.

This work out is like powerful medicine, a little goes a long way. I wouldn't do these more than 2× a week and not for more than 2-3 months. It has diminishing returns but initially, the effects are awesome for competition where you'll be going hard and don't want to blow up when you go all out.

One other thing.. ease into the running or cycling so you don't injure yourself sprinting when you're not really used to using those muscles.

Edit: remember to warm up

Thanks man.

I have started doing regular 5kms, managing a rough time at the minute of 25 minutes.

Regarding high intensity work , I see some people doing this all year round- like crazy burpees squat workouts etc .Surely this cannot be good for the body all year around?

I get your point regarding a few times a week, I'm a bit of a noob when it come to conditioning and understand that this type of workout is a high stresser.

So correct me if wrong, sprint as fast as I can for as long as I can then rest?

Yeah I do blow out in competitions, sometimes it is a physical thing but last time it was so bad mentally I just couldnt think either.

Regarding cycling , I struggle to get a good "lung" type of workout with this, I just find its more tiring from a muscular standpoint - I'm doing it wrong surely.

 

[ITRDC5]

You need to be doing aerobic tempo work whether that be jump rope, 75% sprints, swimming, high knees etc for aerobic development

As you near the fight you will want to include lactic capacity and alactate capacity work and deload the strength work

Sorry mate , what does latic capacity and alactate capacity relate to in lamans terms?

I usually come out heavy lifting 2 weeks before competition

 

[ITRDC5]

I feel I should explain a bit more what exactly happened to me at my competition.

I did warm up sprints on a machine around 30 minutes before my match, got sweat on.

I am a top player at heart, passing and get on top - I never pull guard.

My opponent pulled guard- berimbolod me and got on top, I remember playing my butterfly guard and just my brain/ lungs not working properly.
He then passed and I turtled, he got my back and I escaped. Me back on top and he did the same thing.

Like I didn't feel like I was expending a shit lot of energy but I was absolutely gassed? The guy ended up winning 23-0 ( how embarrassing).
The worst part was then I took him on again as it was a small division- he then merked me 18-0( improvement I suppose)<45>

This wasn't like a savage brawl type of match- I've had those before with judo black belts, take downs and reversals/scrambles etc. Where the pace is super high.

I felt completely starved of air and my reactions felt slow and dumbed down.

I just feel like a mentally was there at all, this has happened to me before at white belt- again someone bolod me from DLR and I shit the bed.

The worst part is I've competed in some divisions where I've pushed the pace on much stronger/bigger opponents and came out on top.

 

[Badger67]

How many sprints and how intense? Sounds like you could have overworked yourself. Sprints can be very taxing on your NS.

General rule of thumb I use for my warmups and some people i coach:

Get HR to 120 - 130 BPM ish and hold there for about 5 minutes. It's okay to get it up to 170-180 but don't keep it there. You want to prime your CV system but not overwork yourself before matches, and you also want to avoid cardiovascular drift.

Make sure any joints that give you issue are loose.

Focus on movements that are multi joint or whole body.

Visual but don't over stimulate.

 

[ITRDC5]

How many sprints and how intense? Sounds like you could have overworked yourself. Sprints can be very taxing on your NS.

General rule of thumb I use for my warmups and some people i coach:

Get HR to 120 - 130 BPM ish and hold there for about 5 minutes. It's okay to get it up to 170-180 but don't keep it there. You want to prime your CV system but not overwork yourself before matches, and you also want to avoid cardiovascular drift.

Make sure any joints that give you issue are loose.

Focus on movements that are multi joint or whole body.

Visual but don't over stimulate.

Hi Badger,

Thanks for your reply

I honestly cannot remember, and to be frank with you I have never monitored my HR. Its something I plan to get into with getting a sports watch.

I think I did 7 x 30/40 second intervals of sprints but that would be a guess

What is cardiovascular drift ?