Bullshido: help me athlete better

[ghost55]

After my hilarious failure of an attempt at competition in last weekend's IBJJF tournament, I came away with three main thoughts:

1. Holy shit I suck donkey balls.

2. I would like to suck less.

3. This competition thing is fun and I would like to do it again.

The competition I am currently strongly considering signing up for is NAGA Germany. It happens near the end of May, which gives me about two and a half months to prepare. I want to compete in the 61.5kg division, and that means watching my diet carefully (I walk around at around 62-63kg when I don't have a severe case of the Holy Moments). I also plan on going from four sessions a week to six sessions a week, and adding creatine to help with recovery. I also am going to be sticking to what I did before the last tournament: sleeping more and going out less. Is there anything else I should be doing to help myself suck less?

[itwasntme]

I know I'm usually blunt, so at the risk of sounding like my normal, sarcastic self: ask your coach. You've already been given all the general advice (train more, eat right, don't party, rest...), and your video didn't provide much more than evidence of your opponent's skill level.

FWIW, I'd focus on adding a throw or two that doesn't require you to shoot, or at least get better at comboing your takedowns (working a different takedown off of a failed one). I like laterals (not wrestling, similar to yoko otoshi). I believe sambosteve calls it "the pancake" and has a tutorial on Youtube.

[ghost55]

I was thinking more about general athletic rather than technical stuff. Like are there any other supplements I should look into. We actually did a lot of wrestling/Judo stuff on Friday. I'm definitely going to be working on my throws.

[itwasntme]

I was thinking more about general athletic rather than technical stuff.

I'm sure you'd rather hear from more experienced martial artists, here.

Like are there any other supplements I should look into.

Don't throw money at something you, me and everyone else knows is going to provide minimal benefit just for the sake of, what will essentially only be, a feel good in your belly about how much you did to prepare for this next competition. Creatine and a multi is understandable, and protein powder if your diet calls for it. You're not a pro and have at least one greater priority (college), so I wouldn't worry too much about supps.

[ghost55]

Okay, I'll stick to creatine and whey protein. Also I think now would be a good time to take up running.

[slamdunc]

I think now would be a good time to take up running.

The thing that I always ran into when I was competing and coaching was gassing out. The more running I did, the better I got in the ring (point fighting and boxing). Once you gas out, the game is over.

[battlefields]

Or you could spend that running time doing HIIT and, you know, really increase your cardio.

[gregaquaman]

The supplements are a bit like changing the tables settings on the titanic. Start by training hard as a mother fucker and work from there.

A little trick our guys do is get together on their day off and do ten rounds of hard sparring.

we have a twelve week program going on at the moment. Check the Facebook link. That is a lot of off the street doing fight prep style training.

[plasma]

You want to be better at Jiu Jitsu. Do Jiu Jutsu. However, I will say after my wake up call, I started running and fixed my diet. Eventually I added weight lifting and swimming.

[Krijgsman]

My Judo/Wrestling/Jiu Jitsu coach pretty much tells everyone to run. "Hey coach, I am gassing out." "Yes, yes you are... are you running?" "No..." "Run".

I mean, I lift and all that because I like being big and strong and having a sexy round tushy, but in the end running is going to do a lot. And then roll as much as possible.

[Ulsteryank]

I hate running, but it's just one of those things you have to do. I used to think extra sparring on top of the cardio in the gym would suffice without running, but it just didn't cut it.

What's your gym like for comp prep? My BJJ gym has competition only classes that's a solid brutal fast paced 2 hours of cardio and sparring. I've only been to a few and already notice a difference in MMA.

Sounds weird, but also learning to regulate your breathing, and noticing the difference from being gassed, and an adrenaline dump could possibly help.

[BKR]

I hate running, but it's just one of those things you have to do. I used to think extra sparring on top of the cardio in the gym would suffice without running, but it just didn't cut it.

What's your gym like for comp prep? My BJJ gym has competition only classes that's a solid brutal fast paced 2 hours of cardio and sparring. I've only been to a few and already notice a difference in MMA.

Sounds weird, but also learning to regulate your breathing, and noticing the difference from being gassed, and an adrenaline dump could possibly help.

No, it's not weird at all, spot on in fact. Whether or not ghost55 is to the point he can do that is another question, but it's good to have on the radar.

[ghost55]

No, it's not weird at all, spot on in fact. Whether or not ghost55 is to the point he can do that is another question, but it's good to have on the radar.

I'll definitely try to work on staying calm while rolling. The new non-shit creatine powder is not causing any disturbances, and I'm also using beta alanine since a friend suggested it. And running begins this week.

[blackmonk]

It is questionable how directly running benefits combat sports, but it is the number one, most prescribed fix for cardio issues. I

My cardio was best when I mimicked the length of a match (in my case, judo and sambo) with varying strenuous activities. I would structure it in such a way that required power/anaerobic movements intermittently throughout, but it was not an interval or HIIT thing, necessarily (as in there wasn't a 2:1 ratio of work to rest).

Example: 5 min round

1 min, kettlebell swings
1 min, box jumps
1 min, suplexes with throwing dummy
1 min, bulgarian bag
1 min, bear crawls

And then I would pick a sixth activity, so that way each round had a slightly different load, similar to a match:

1 min, burpees
1 min, kettlebell swings
1 min, box jumps
1 min, o goshi with throwing dummy
1 min, bulgarian bag

I would complete 3ish rounds, or however many would mimic the work load of whatever tournament I had coming up. The entire workout would usually involve low-rep strength training first, then these rounds, and then possibly some walking on an incline treadmill.

It turned me into a machine, and got me super lean.

[BKR]

I'll definitely try to work on staying calm while rolling. The new non-shit creatine powder is not causing any disturbances, and I'm also using beta alanine since a friend suggested it. And running begins this week.

You have a month and a half to the tournament, right ?

What kind of running do you plan to do ? LSD ? Interval training ? You can do a maybe 2 week cardio cycle and then will need to go to maintenance on whatever gains you got.

Have you evaluated your cardio first ? How ?