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

[Robocok]

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.

I think a hill would serve you best, either running or cycling. The point is too 'blow your lungs out' so to speak and to get your heart rate as high as possible.

It's difficult but not impossible to do this in a sport like grappling where you have a partner. It can be achieved, but it's harder to control and sustain that level of intensity when dealing with another person.

If you're not experienced at cycling, then it will be easier to achieve this running, but I can explain why you're having a hard time reaching that level of cardio intensity. The reason you're getting muscle fatigue before you max your heart rate probably has to do with your gearing. You might be in too tall of a gear, that is your cadence is too low (you turn the pedals too slowly). Riding a big gear like this will use the legs in your muscles more, but will be less taxing on your cardiovascular system. When you ride in a low gear where you spin the pedals faster, especially going uphill, you place more stress on your heart and less fatigue on your legs musclular endurance. For the purposes of this type of high intensity cardio training, this is what you want.

Again, running or riding uphill will make it easier to achieve this.

I think you'll have a better quality workout if you sprint for a set length of time like 30 seconds, recover 5-10 minutes by walking (don't just stand or sit, you'll clear the lactic acid in your muscles faster by staying mobile and keeping the blood flowing), sprint 1 minute, recover, sprint 90 seconds, recover, etc. The reason being that you're going to 'blow up' or 'hit the wall' after a short time of sprinting and then your output and the quality of your effort will be greatly diminished. If you truly go all out, after 5 minutes your pace and performance is going to drop too much to really be a great effective workout after a few minutes. You'll force yourself to slow down to recover and it's better to end the interval at that point to recover and prepare for the next one at that point then to keep pushing.

Think of it like doing weight lifting in sets. The purpose of resting between sets is to ensure that you're recovered enough to continue to do more quality sets. Once you're too fatigued to do more quality sets, you don't need to beat a dead horse. You've done enough to wind down your work out and do a cool down.

This is why I prefer to do the shortest intervals in the beginning of the workout after I complete the warm up, when I have the most energy for the intensity I want in a 30 second effort which will be greater than the intensity I use in a 5 minute effort. It makes more sense to do the more intense effort first while you have more energy.

Again, big long hills make all of this easier. You don't want to run out of road during an effort before you hit the wall. After you notice the quality and intensity of your intervals going down you can cool down, which is ending your workout with a light effort to clear the waste product and lactic acid built up in your muscles. You might feel exhausted like you just want to sit or lay down after a hard interval or training session, but the cool down is important. Stretching is best done immediately following the cooldown when the muscle is still warm.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[ChickenBrother]

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.

Dude, maybe you're overthinking it. In the OP you say you've grappled for 8 years - have you been competing for that entire time and this is the first time this has happened? I agree with others ITT that it sounds like you just had an adrenaline dump and maybe some dehydration.

Also for the guy to skunk you that bad, was he just a ringer? Did he demolish everyone else in the division and win your bracket?

Conditioning is always a good thing for competition but it doesn't sound like you're massively underpowered or have completely shit cardio to start with.

We all have bad days on the mats sometimes and maybe you just had one of those.

 

[ITRDC5]

Dude, maybe you're overthinking it. In the OP you say you've grappled for 8 years - have you been competing for that entire time and this is the first time this has happened? I agree with others ITT that it sounds like you just had an adrenaline dump and maybe some dehydration.

Also for the guy to skunk you that bad, was he just a ringer? Did he demolish everyone else in the division and win your bracket?

Conditioning is always a good thing for competition but it doesn't sound like you're massively underpowered or have completely shit cardio to start with.

We all have bad days on the mats sometimes and maybe you just had one of those.

Thanks Chickenbrother.

Unfortunately this has happened at least 3 other competitions that I can think of.

I have always thought that mentally I do build it up quite a lot in my mind ..I'm not scared to compete but I do take the events seriously and I'm scared now that I have an event like that again -i just don't know what I would do .

Regarding the mental aspect -adrenanlin dump , I know that competing on a regular basis is beneficial. However are there any good resources from a mental standpoint that would help?

 

[ChickenBrother]

Thanks Chickenbrother.

Unfortunately this has happened at least 3 other competitions that I can think of.

I have always thought that mentally I do build it up quite a lot in my mind ..I'm not scared to compete but I do take the events seriously and I'm scared now that I have an event like that again -i just don't know what I would do .

Regarding the mental aspect -adrenanlin dump , I know that competing on a regular basis is beneficial. However are there any good resources from a mental standpoint that would help?

You want to be as relaxed and confident as possible when you compete. It's like taking an exam in school - if you study half assed or don't study at all, when you take the test you have the added anxiety of not being confident + you might not know the material. If you study a lot you go in relaxed and confident and that makes you perform better.

If you're putting in the mat time in practice and rolling well + doing rudimentary conditioning on the side, then you've done your part to "study" for the competition and have every reason to go in relaxed and confident. Worrying won't help and only makes you perform worse.

Establish a standard routine when you compete. For example, chill out with your favorite music until 15 min before your match, then take a swig of gatorade or bite of an energy bar, put on your favorite "fight song" to get you focused to compete, then do your standard warm-up before stepping on the mat. And that's it. The routine becomes familiar, comforting and mechanical so you don't waste any mental energy before getting on the mat.

And when you compete, think of it like going to open mat at another gym. You wouldn't bat an eyelash at rolling with a bigger, stronger higher belt in that setting, let alone at your home gym. And the reason you don't sweat that is because you don't attribute any significance to the outcome of that roll - you just want to get your roll on and test yourself. Now think about the real significance of a match in competition. It's the same thing - just a chance to test yourself against guys from other gyms. If you clean house and win your bracket, cool - you can tell your buddies about it the next day. If you get smoked 40-0 in one match, cool - you have a much funnier story to tell your buddies about.

 

[Waimea]

Lots of burpees

Time under tension exercises (loaded wheelbarrow, farmers walk etc)

Beet juice supplement, spooful of honey before competition.

Deep breathing

 

[ITRDC5]

You want to be as relaxed and confident as possible when you compete. It's like taking an exam in school - if you study half assed or don't study at all, when you take the test you have the added anxiety of not being confident + you might not know the material. If you study a lot you go in relaxed and confident and that makes you perform better.

If you're putting in the mat time in practice and rolling well + doing rudimentary conditioning on the side, then you've done your part to "study" for the competition and have every reason to go in relaxed and confident. Worrying won't help and only makes you perform worse.

Establish a standard routine when you compete. For example, chill out with your favorite music until 15 min before your match, then take a swig of gatorade or bite of an energy bar, put on your favorite "fight song" to get you focused to compete, then do your standard warm-up before stepping on the mat. And that's it. The routine becomes familiar, comforting and mechanical so you don't waste any mental energy before getting on the mat.

And when you compete, think of it like going to open mat at another gym. You wouldn't bat an eyelash at rolling with a bigger, stronger higher belt in that setting, let alone at your home gym. And the reason you don't sweat that is because you don't attribute any significance to the outcome of that roll - you just want to get your roll on and test yourself. Now think about the real significance of a match in competition. It's the same thing - just a chance to test yourself against guys from other gyms. If you clean house and win your bracket, cool - you can tell your buddies about it the next day. If you get smoked 40-0 in one match, cool - you have a much funnier story to tell your buddies about.

Did laugh at that last part about losing , thanks for the advice.

After talking it out here , one thing that has kinda dawned on me is that I never actually enter with any form of gameplan.

Like I seem to always "just see what happens" and not go in with a single pass or takedown- I'm always thinking but what if they pull that guard and I've focussing on passing another guard etc?

I havn't actually been to much open mats at other gyms , only a few over the past few years- its something that I need to do more of for sure to take the sting out of competing!

 

[ChickenBrother]

Did laugh at that last part about losing , thanks for the advice.

After talking it out here , one thing that has kinda dawned on me is that I never actually enter with any form of gameplan.

Like I seem to always "just see what happens" and not go in with a single pass or takedown- I'm always thinking but what if they pull that guard and I've focussing on passing another guard etc?

I havn't actually been to much open mats at other gyms , only a few over the past few years- its something that I need to do more of for sure to take the sting out of competing!

My buddy who wrestled D1 once told me one of his proudest matches was in a dual meet against a nationally ranked guy. His coach told him he didn't expect him to win, but his only job in this team match up was to not get pinned. Pins or forfeits are worth 6 team points and every other match outcome is worth something less.

The guy said he was trying not to laugh as he got dominated, taken down, turned and repeatedly controlled on the ground while not getting pinned. Instead he lost 0-15 via tech fall, i.e. the match was stopped by "mercy rule" before he could get pinned, because he was getting his ass kicked too badly. So the other team only got 5 team points for that match and his team won the dual meet.

 

[JimRussel]

EPO.

 

[the_winding_way]

If you want to knowledge up on how to approach your conditioning I recommend you check out 'Tactical Barbell', and 'Tactical Barbell II: Conditioning.'

They are both short books, pretty cheap, and will give you both a good theoretical overview of how to approach strength/conditioning (without getting too academic) as well as different training protocols to follow depending on what your goals are. The best thing about it is how flexible the programs are. It covers the specific needs of martial artists as well.

Someone here had a training log following one of the templates for fighters. His name was @Genghiz I think. If you check it out you'll see the kind training he did.

Hope that helps.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Doesn’t sound like a conditioning thing at all to me. Sounds like you need to work your skills and get comfortable on bottom. You can have the best cardio and muscular endurance in the world but if you aren’t comfortable playing bottom, getting swept or passed you are going to get tired.

To get dominated that bad something is seriously amiss. Maybe your gym sucks or maybe it’s just you. Either way it all starts in the training room and I’m thinking it’s how you train

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Have you tried... IDK, this might sound crazy... but ask your coaches?

You know.. they are there, they see you training and competing.. what makes you think sherdog will be more accurate?

 

[belph]

EPO.

Look man, if we're taking PEDs it's to end up like Paul Harris. Brute strength bby

 

[Badger67]

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 ?

Sorry for late ass reply.
cardiovascular drift is i lamens terms an increase in HR with no change in workload.

People who are:
1. Not in good shape
2. Adrenaline dump
3. Aren't warmed up properly
4. Exert way too much energy too soon

Will experience this and their performance will dwindle. And, against a resisting opponent, this feels worse than simply experiencing it during a run per se. Try an experiment if you like, jump right into a hard roll with no warm up against someone who is warmed up and is capable of beating you 60/40. Next day, try getting a decent warm up and competing against this person again. You'll notice a significant difference in how you feel in terms of exhaustion, and probably survival rate.