Coach Tim and I were both insanely busy last week, and I couldn't think of anything to write about, so we skipped it. I've been asking the new white belts at my academy what they want to learn more about and this week the request was unanimous: How do I breathe?
It seems like a really silly question, right? I like to joke that I was so bad for the first year or so that I was training that one of my coaches only had one tip for me: Breathe. We'd be rolling, and afterward, he would look at me very seriously, lean in, put his hand on my shoulder and say (in his awesome Brazilian accent): "Veronica, is okay. You can breathe. You must breathe."
He was right. I was concentrating so hard on not being choked, not being arm-barred, not being swept, and -- let's be honest here -- not being outright KILLED (because that's what rolling feels like when you first start out) that I had forgotten to do the most basic thing: Breathe.
I'm not ashamed to say I spent a good deal of time during that first year making sure I was breathing. I'd been on the sidelines when Coach Tim was giving a post-match talk to my husband, and Coach Tim told me my job was to remind my husband to exhale. He told me the important thing was for him to exhale in order to calm down and cool down between matches. He explained that the body will always inhale enough to keep going, but sometimes we forget to exhale.
Now when I'm rolling, I sound like a leaky tire. I'm constantly making a sscchhhhhhhhh sound -- a really steady exhale. When I'm caught in a submission attempt or a tight hold and I feel my body starting to freak out and my mind starting to believe that feeling, I focus on a slow inhale and slow exhale. If I can breathe, I'm alright (unless we are talking about an arm-bar, but that's for another day). If I can breathe, there is no need to panic and I can get back to the business of defeating the submission attempt.
Coach Tim's Advice on Learning to Breathe in BJJ:
Holding your breath is problematic during grappling because the lack of respiration deprives your energy systems of oxygen. Further, since many breathing issues in grappling are associated with excessive muscular tension, holding your breath will impede your movement. Lastly, this one fabricated off of pure speculation - holding your breath probably makes it more difficult to process the problems we encounter during grappling.
Generally, students hold their breath less during drilling than sparring. This is because holding your breath is a signal of another problem - lack of adequate tension and torque and inefficient movement patterns (more vaguely and commonly called "incorrect technique").
This is why more experienced students will generally have better breathing patterns - a more effective movement pattern will enable you to more predictably create and remove tension/torque during your sparring and this efficient use of energy gives you more breathing room than less experienced students are permitted. Dominant positions are also a great place to stop and catch your breath, provided you have the right movement pattern and positioning to precisely stifle your opponent's escapes.
So, how do we fix breathing problems? Awareness that you are not breathing is the first step. The second step is to exhale; not breathe in and out, just exhale. Your brain and lungs have a pretty good thing going - they tend to fill with as much oxygen as needed when we inhale. If you focus on somewhat forcefully expelling your breath, your breathing pattern will become more regulated. Also, be sure to incorporate an awareness of breathing into your drilling - start with your best positions and attacks and try to drill with your breaths happening at the same, appropriate step - the moments during a technique that you are allowed to release the tension in the grappling system between you and your partner.
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