BJJ, Competition, and Stress

[ford.304]

So I just got my butt handed to me at my first BJJ competition as a white belt, and I want to talk about what happened and why I think everyone needs to compete anyway. For anyone who competes in martial arts this isn't going to be anything new, but *I'd* never heard of it. so...

I've been training daily for the last 8 months. I was feeling pretty good about my chances of at least placing -- I'm in decent shape, I'm a big dude, and I do well enough rolling with the other white belts at our gym. I've been through the stress inoculation everyone talks about getting from hard BJJ training -- I don't panic when a 300 pound dude is on top of me any more, and I don't tend to gas out from wasting my energy. I've played sports recreationally (although never too seriously) all my life, done a few shooting competitions, taken race cars around corners fast enough I was shaking afterward, and while I've had some stress-induced failures I thought I was pretty comfortable with the concept. I was a little worried about getting myself too hyped up and burning myself out through trying to muscle the guy around more than I should, but I had a plan to try to *not* do that, so I felt ok.

And then I walked onto the mat at competition, feeling only a little bit bouncy and nervous-- and my body felt like it imploded before I even contacted the other guy. Like nothing I've ever experienced. My muscles had no strength, and mentally I just wanted to go curl up into a ball and wait for it for be over. Every action felt like I had to beat myself before I could even try to beat him. I expected something like that 4 minutes into the match, when your hype and cardio catch up to you... not now. Now right away.

And the other dude hadn't even tried to choke me yet.

So, that's bad. But I probably could have recovered a bit. Still, as William April says -- I didn't have a parking space in my brain for my body abandoning me before the fight even started. And so I spent the whole match trying to vaguely defend myself as my mind was spinning in circles trying to guess what the hell was happening to me ... was it because I hadn't eaten as recently as I would have liked to? Was I dehydrated?

Was I just a coward?

And in the meantime I was getting worked over by a 200 pound dude... and the guy after that, and the guy after that (it was a round robin tournament). My energy never came back. By the last fight I was at least trying to work within my limited available strength and will-power, but to little effect.

So, I'll link to this article on adrenaline dumps, which I wish I'd read ahead of time:

http://www.bjjweekly.com/blog/post/m...renaline-dumps

As a wrestling coach, I’ve seen a lot of different reactions to adrenaline dumps, from crying to manic laughter to puking to freezing up, and the classic gassing out 30 seconds into a match. The gassing out was what really started me thinking about what was happening. I knew the kids were in good cardio condition, there was no reason they should be getting tired in 30 seconds. But no matter how many sets of stairs we did, or how intense our drilling was, we still had kids just gas out in competition.

I also saw a lot of mentally tough kids, even at the high school level, just lose it and start bawling their eyes out.

And close by saying that every damn person who cares about self defense should not only do BJJ or a similar martial art, but should *compete* in it, at least once. Because the stress effect is like nothing I've ever experienced, and I would absolutely hate to be this surprised by that reaction when the other dude isn't going to stop when I tap out.

[SLG]

I don't know that I completely agree with the article. I've asked a couple other guys to look at it as well.

I've felt mortal fear many times. Sometimes in conjunction with an adreneline rush, sometimes not. When I used to fight regularly, with worse consequenc3s than a bjj tournament, I felt performance anxiety more often than fear. That would disappear 5 secs into the fight. Physical release is very useful for dealing with adreneline, IME.

The problem with adreneline, for me, is when there is no physical release. I came closer to shooting a guy last week than I have in a while. I got a good adreneline dump after, and it didn't totally go away till I woke up the next morning. The immediate effects passed within minutes, but then you have the residuals that usually need sleep to dissapate.

Curious to hear what other fighters have to say, since it has been quite a while since I fought in tournaments.

[voodoo_man]

When I ran track in high-school I ran distance, mile, two mile, distance relay. Right as we would be lining up I'd be amped up, in 9th grade you can't really know what the difference between stress, anxiety and adrenaline are or do to you. I'd have a high heart rate and lots of energy, even for a two mile when I knew I'd need to take it easy until the last few laps (I played the percentage game of turning up my pace per lap). Except my first lap I'd almost always put a time up of under 1 minute. That's a little too fast for a mile or two mile run and definitely above my pace (at the time). I learned through trial/error and experience that I needed to control, through breathing and mental preparation. Really all you can do in high-school.

Fast forward to really doing high adrenaline stuff with real consequences. I sought out stress inoculation through specific training. The mentality/mindset of "train as you fight" really hits the nail on the head. When I did sambo my old world instructor use to hit the crap out of us with a bamboo stick, especially when we didn't get a move right or failed at something. Didn't know then but it worked better than I thought, but as a child/young teen we focus on the pain and not the result. When you focus on the result we get better results.

What does all the above mean? When you go to class, find/roll with partners who are better than you and go balls out, within a hair of the most safe way you can. For BJJ, I've never competed and have no intention to, but regularly go to open mat with brown/black belts because I want to hit it hard with people who can accept it.

The concept translates over to shooting under stress with serious time constraints working through stress/adrenaline, you just have to find the right stress input...

[Wondering Beard]

First of all: breathe deeply.
Before you get on the mat, take long deep breaths because you need to oxygenate your brain. When the brain starts releasing its chemical cocktail, it gets quite hard to actually think and you will need thinking to put your opponent down.

You are not a coward.
What most likely happened is anticipatory and/or performance anxiety. It's not the same as fear but emotionally, it feels pretty much the same. Biochemically, you still have pretty much the same biochemical cocktail being released, so there's not much difference there. You felt your strength leave your body; I'm pretty sure that your arms and legs felt like dangling noodles with no power whatsoever but that was not reality. Your strength was still there, you just couldn't access it because of the cocktail your amygdala released.

Front sight, press.
No, I'm not advocating shooting shooting your BJJ opponent :-). Col. Cooper's admonition applies beyond guns. What Cooper talked about was making your actions and thoughts purposeful and not letting anything other than what you had to do interfere with your mind. The anxiety you suffered from in that competition took your mind away from the simple (though difficult) task in front of you: take your opponent down. Your mind was swimming all over the place and you were unable to bring the necessary focus to the task at hand. This brings us back to my first point: breathe deeply, oxygenate your brain so that you can think. This will bring back your focus and your focus is small; actually, make your world small. Your whole world should be about taking the other guy down, nothing else should exist in your world. All your focus is on sensing, feeling what the other guy is doing and all your thoughts are about using that data to take him down. Keep your focus very tightly on that, the people around don't exist, the next bout doesn't exist, your dojo doesn't exist, nothing exists but your focus on taking that guy down and bring everything you have to completing that simple task. You may or may not win the bout but you won't end up feeling so "lost at sea" and you will be able to learn from what you did wrong and what you did right.

Short version: breathe to be able to think and keep your focus small to get past the anxiety.

[Cheap Shot]

Respect for competing ford.

And from a brand new baby white belt thanks for sharing your experience.

[FPS]

Cowardice is running from a fight. It has nothing to do with feelings of fear and involuntary body responses. You went through the tournament and pressed on in spite of what you were feeling. That is courage.

[ford.304]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Also, I meant the "coward" thing as what was spinning through my head at the time instead of what I *should* have been focussing on, not so much what I'm worried about today.

I hugely appreciate the feedback from guys who have been in more serious engagements. Couple questions for you, SLG & voodman(or anyone else with real experience who wants to chime in):

Did you feel the same kind of "performance anxiety" going into an engagement? Seems like "don't fuck up and get yourself hurt/get your squadmates hurt" would elicit a similar sort of reaction.

Did your adrenaline "rush" last you through the end of the fight, or did it wear off halfway?

The part that surprised me most was how divorced from my mental state the physical reaction was. Honestly, if you'd asked me two seconds before the chemicals hit, I would have said "eh I'm a little nervous but I'm comfortable." Feels like I got the hangover without the high ;-)

[voodoo_man]

Performance anxiety stems from inexperience, lack of confidence, preconceived expectations and/or plans failing, as well as a few other things.

Training will guide you the right way, but training under stress will inoculate you from fucking up too badly. Thinking dynamically is really the name of the game in any high adrenaline/stakes situation.

Personally I train my ass off to make sure when it's time work I am not thinking about the simple stuff and focusing on the important stuff. If you are confident in your ability you won't make many mistakes and know some of the short cuts to get the job done right and/or faster, this is why experience is very much needed sometimes but training is absolutely needed.

The rush come and goes depending on the situation and how involved you are. I've read a lot of things and studies on adrenaline and the "dump" that it causes, and it really does stem from what we perceive actively and subconsciously. I've been in pursuits with felony wanted vehicle's that I knew had a 90+% likelihood ending up in a OIS, initially I get a dump because I start thinking about everything that needs to happen, then I calm down once I start tactical breathing and taking one bite at a time at the elephant. Then the dump would hit again once the chase ends and the violence starts or sometimes before. That is a bad example however simply because my heart rate is probably pushing me into condition black or where the average person would be in condition black. In BJJ you can get there it's just difficult because consciously or subconsciously you know you can tap and end it at any time.

We each have to develop a methodology which works for us when dealing with high stress or possible adrenaline dump situations. This is the only part in my life when I game anything serious. I want to cheat to win here and to do that you have to train yourself to breath properly. You have to train yourself to clear your head and focus on the task at hand. This is done through visualization and playing the "what if" game constantly but also having a goal in mind. In combatives or BJJ, anything that requires the use of violence, you should have your "favorite move" or two or three. You know these moves well and you've practiced them a million times, you like them for whatever reason and you can default to them, automatically and autonomously. In a pinch and during a surprise dump you will default to them. You should have these moves for every type of violence, hand to hand, rolling, pistols, blades, rifles, etc. Call it "your finishing move." For me that's been the easiest way of winning/surviving, though that's not always the end goal.

If you have to self talk, do it. Tell yourself you are clearing your head. Talk yourself into being calm.

These are just things that I've picked up and depending on the situation that presents itself I use what I need to in order to get through it.

[Paul Sharp]

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug! First, congrats on competing. It's the best way to test yourself without going to prison or being the subject of a lawsuit. [emoji3] I've competed in fight sports my entire life, and sometimes I still get bit. I recall walking out to a ring, up the steps to get in the ring, moving around a little once I got in the ring, feeling indomitable... and then feeling completely gassed as I stood in my corner waiting for my opponent to walk out... I turned my back on my opponents corner as they were announcing him so I could tell my cut man to get my mouthpiece out so I could get some air in, it was that bad. I ended up winning because I was able to rein it in and drive on but it was a lesson to me that even after 20-30 years of competition in all kinds of sports as well as quite a few real life events, adrenaline will still get you if you don't monitor that beast.

Now, if you haven't already, buy a copy of Mental Toughness Training by Dr Loehr. It's an old book but John "Renegade" Davies recommended that one to me in the late 90's and I still use techniques from that book to deal with mental prep and competition day issues.

One of the SBG black belts wrote about competition here; https://leahtaylorbjj.wordpress.com/...1/why-compete/ There is also a wealth of info on competition prep; physical and mental on the SBG sites. Some written by me, (full disclosure).

Other than that dude, keep rolling, compete as much as you can, and have fun.



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[Irelander]

Tagged thread. Very interesting. I just started BJJ yesterday.