Saving energy with Breathing and Leverage

Friday, 05 February 2010 13:39

When you sit on the side of the mat after a tough roll to catch your breath and watch a higher belt roll - do you notice how they are not gasping for air or sometimes not breathing heavy at all? It's almost like watching them dance. Graceful transitions effortlessly performed.

This might be the Invisible Jiu Jitsu we hear about.

Again Jorge has told me I need to breathe better because I lose so much energy during my roll. But it's hard to relax and breathe when you feel like you are being smashed or you need to frantically hip escape or scramble to not have your legs sucked away from under you.

These are hard lessons. Hard because you will need to put yourself in tough places and positions in order to work out how to escape them. And sometime while in those places there is no room to breathe, no room to escape and seemingly no way to remain calm.

And there is a fine line in being calm and being lazy. My problem is that I am being too lazy while trying to be calm.

Then there is the issue of holding your breath - (see previous article on Breathing for Jiu Jitsu) this is something humans do unconsciously. Do you ever notice even practicing technique that you get light headed? This might be why. Rhythm breathing is really working for me even though it makes me sound like a machine or a steam engine sometimes. But I notice I am doing it in my everyday life now too - working in design Photoshop if I am deep into a design I start 'ssh ssh sshing' (to the point my coworkers thought I was asking them to be quiet by mistake) even running up the stairs of the Subway station I am pattern breathing - my brain is being conditioned to forcing me to breathe when I am 'working'. What I mean is when I am exerting energy I am reminding myself to breathe.

Always breathe out when you are working. So on a push up you breathe out on the way up. On a squat you breathe out when you are returning to standing position. If you are breathing out when you are relaxing and then holding it in while you work - that's not going to help.

Sometimes when you train with someone who is either new or a beginner we have those moments where we feel the effortless movements and transitions...our breathing is rhythmic or moves have force and intention yet we still remain calm. You feel It's the Gentle Art.

But Trying to roll in the same way with a belt who is higher may not be an option - although we need to try. How else can we be expected to fight 6 competition fights unless prepared to train with technique and not strength.

Breathing and leverage. I'm hunting you. I'll be checking my ego at the door.

And of course - the Gracies have some input...as always: