In order for BJJ competitors to improve, they need to give it their all during training sessions. During training, if you sit out a round because you’re tired, it’s a waste of precious training time.
Why would you subject yourself to this training regimen?
When you roll tired, that’s where the magic happens. That’s when you use the real Jiu-Jitsu without all your physical attributes. When you are really tired, you just defend and work on your escapes. It’s always better than sitting on the side.
Famous BJJ and MMA coach explained on his IG why training exhausted is vert beneficial:
“Sparring tired: It’s common to feel utterly exhausted some days in the middle of your sparring rounds. Sometimes you come in feeling fine and have a couple of very tough rounds and feel very fatigued. It’s natural to feel like stopping, maybe taking off a round a two and then starting again. You think this way because you are thinking in terms of WINNING OR LOSING rounds.
If you’re exhausted it’s going to be very difficult to win and quite likely you’ll lose to your next partner. So you take some rounds off and start again when you’ve recovered a little. This not good if you want to play at a competitive level. Doing this means you will never get the experience of performing through exhaustion. Change your mindset. Tell yourself – I’m exhausted – but I will keep going with a lowered set of expectations. Let’s imagine I’m ahead in a tough match and have to protect my lead and not get submitted. This will simulate the skill of operating under great fatigue and duress – a common thing in tough matches. You don’t want the finals of a tough competition to be the first time you do this – your own mind will start to fight against you – learn to tame it in the gym first and it will be much better than trying to learn it in the middle of a big match.
Obviously if you are more recreational, older, perhaps not in competition shape, this will not apply as much, but you can still experiment with it to some degree. Remember, you don’t have to stop completely, just lower your goals and keep going – you will learn a lot about yourself in those rounds.”
5x world BJJ champion Bernardo Faria knows a thing or two about how to train in order to become a champion. He achieved a phenomenal double gold medals in the BJJ Mundials in 2015.
Faria shared his secret to get the most out every session: never sit out a rolling round and after the training session is over do more rounds and with the toughest training partners:
When the class finished and everybody would go home, would go shower, I would try to do three, four or five more rolls of five or six minutes so I would try to row for thirty or thirty five minutes more after the class finished. To make it even worse, I would try to roll with people that are fresh…
What about getting tapped all the time because you are so exhausted?
Faria explained:
When I was very tired and I would not even care if someone tapped me even if the guys was blue / purple belt and if it happened I would not care because I knew that during the week I was training more than everyone.
Training for competitions is very rewarding: constantly fixing holes in your game, tightening up your game, eating better, sleeping more, lifting weights, rolling with the toughest training partners, training tired, not taking breaks, more focus, determined, constantly improving, motivating and lifting everyone around you. Resting on weekends.
