Doesn’t it feel amazing when you can go 100% against a training partner you have complete trust in? Or not even 100%, but just hard enough, whenever you have a chance to roll against people you trust?

It sure does… But it can also feel extremely exhausting.
Which is why, contrary to what some may think, it is vital to take strategic breaks during rolls.

Here is why that is the case, as explained by John Danaher himself:

Jiu jitsu can be a very exhausting game. In daily life what do you do when you’re exhausted?
You take a break. Jiu jitsu is the same.

When you feel the exertion level has been too high for too long – take a little break in the action.

Obviously you can’t just get totally relaxed or get quickly crushed, but Jiu jitsu affords many opportunities to lower the intensity to a degree where you can recover enough to get back to a high exertion level that you can sustain until the end of the match.

Danaher elaborated on when these moments present themselves:

Most of these opportunities for partial relaxation occur after a positional change.

After a hard fought takedown where you land in an opponents guard is a good example.
A short break after the energy expenditure of the takedown allows you to go forward with sufficient energy reserves for the positional ground battle.

Gaining endurance in Jiu jitsu is largely about this skill of learning where and when to take a little break in the action.

 

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