BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

I have come to the conclusion...

...that I do worse when I try to "go in tournament mode" than when I just relax and go with the flow of what the other person is doing. When I try to amp myself up and be uber-aggressive and fast, several things happen that aren't good for jiu-jitsu:


1. I tense up.

2. I waste a lot of energy because I am all tensed up.

3. I try to force things to go the way I am trying to make them go. (And I end up using muscle, which makes me even more tired).

4. I miss opportunities to use leverage because I am so he!! bent on making things go my way.

5. I am exhausted at the end of that grapple.

I have noticed that the exact opposite is try when I decide to be relaxed and not worry about "going hard". At the end of most of those grapples, I notice the following:

1. I got more sweeps

2. Moved into more dominant positions (or if I was going with someone better than me, escaped more).

3. Saw more opportunities to try submissions

4. Was not as tired at the end of the grapple

5. HAD MORE FUN!

So, the next time I compete, I am going NOT going to go into tournament mode. I am going to relax and go with the flow. That doesn't mean I will let the other person be in dominant positions. But I will try to use their aggression against them.

On a completely different note, I have been training a lot lately. Around 6 times a week for the last few months. My body is feeling the effects. I went through a couple of weeks there where I felt like I could keel over and go into a coma at any time of the day. But, thanks to some tweaks in my diet, vitamins and sleeping patterns, my body is finally adjusting...mostly. What do you do--besides cutting back on classes--to keep your body energized when you are training hard?

4 comments:

Georgette said...

I made sure I was getting adequate sleep. For me that was 8 hours, sometimes 9. It meant coming home around 8:30pm and scarfing something quick (not fast food, something healthy but uncomplicated), showering and falling onto the pillow by 9:30. My poor husband.

Mrs. Ibarra said...

Georgette is so right about the sleep. I have figured out that it is the key ingredient to successful training. Georgette please share your "something healthy but uncomplicated" food ideas. I don't get home until almost 9 p.m. from training and I struggle with what to eat...I need the fuel but it's oh so late and I am oh so tired and 5 am comes way too early.

A.D. McClish said...

@Georgette-- I am the same way. I really need 8 hours. If I get less, I am dragging. Somehow my husband can function on a regular basis with only five or six hours. I would be a monster if I tried that. lol I second Mrs. Ibarra's request for quick and easy, healthy meal ideas. But then again, you probably have a post about that somewhere on your blog. Do you?

Kintanon said...

I just happened to see this one, but a comment on "Tournament Mode" needs to be made.
Tournament mode doesn't necessarily mean cranking up the strength or going more spazzy than usual. It just means you aren't exploring, you aren't playing, you aren't LETTING your partners play their game you are forcing them to play YOUR game.
Your tournament training mode should involve repping your best techniques over and over, just using exclusively the set of techniques that you plan on trying to execute in competition.