I have become a somewhat regular at Keith Allan's Combative Arts Group. In class we were training some grappling and escapes one night. Now for a little back ground on me, I train for obstacle course runs a bit and consider myself in decent shape for an old dude. But one thing i learned really quick is that all of the stand up training in the world is no match for the stamina needed for grappling class. We went from grappling straight into boxing and it was outrageous! I was gassed out and lacked the snap in my usual punches. So lesson for me... Incorporate lots more Ju Jutsu ground fighting in my routine or I will not be able to deploy my pugilism if I escape a grapplers meat hooks. Anyone else with the same experience?
To make things worse i was training under the eye of my Sifu's best friend. Boy did i feel like a mutt!...lol http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f286/dragonmark/0827032046_zps33b9bd5b.jpg
Something to consider: when Randy Couture, a three-time Olympic alternate who had been wrestling since he was five, started MMA, he could wrestle all day, but the boxing would wear him out. He realized part of it was that he was uncomfortable boxing, and tensed up, which ultimately burned up his oxygen reserves. With that in mind, I would suggest that perhaps your lack of experience on the ground may be burning up more oxygen than if you had more experience. As far as "fighting" conditioning goes, there are a number of good sources. Of course there's SPP (Specific Physical Preparation) like punch-out drills, clinch pummeling, etc. But for GPP (General Physical Preparation) I'd recommend looking at Mark Hatmaker's "No Holds Barred: Conditioning", Randy Couture's "Xtreme Training", and Martin Rooney's "Training for Warriors" and "Ultimate Warrior Workouts". "NHB: Conditioning" is probably the cheapest and requires the fewest pieces of equipment, only needing a pullup bar, a kettlebell/dumbell, and barbell. Couture's book is next in line, requiring more equipment, while TFW requires a full fitness gym with an area for running suicides and a wide variety of weights. While these are all for general, total-body conditioning, UWW's is more a sampling of workouts taken from various fighting disciplines, but still has a lot of good ideas. Personally, I'm a fan of circuit training. One motion at a high level of intensity for, say, 30 seconds, then another, until you've done a "round". Rinse and repeat. They can be GPP-focused (medicine ball slams followed by kettlebell swings followed by pullups, etc) or SPP-focused (collar-tie pummelling followed by left-right hooks followed by uchikomi for a hip throw followed by ground-and-pound on a bag, etc.) Finally, if your emphasis is getting up off of the ground, how much do you actually know, on a technical side, of how to accomplish that? For my money, the butterfly and half guard offer a great variety of sweeps (reversals), and wrestling has a wide variety of escapes if the opponent is on top of your back in the form of sitouts, wing rolls, tripods, etc. So I'm wondering if you're utilizing an arsenal of techniques that are optimum for your strategy. Otherwise, if you're just trying to push the guy off of you, you could be expending a LOT of energy unnecessarily.
Well in this particular training night we were trying to escape from a turtled position, a rear naked choke, and from aggressor inside the guard, and then just rolling in general. I am the light weight in class so i always have to deal with bigger stronger cats so it takes its toll on my reserves. My non gung fu fitness routine involves 4+ mile runs on roads with hills ( not tread mills) Pull ups-3 sets as many as i can Dips-same as above Sledge and tire- 3 sets of 20 Burpees-5 sets of ten with 8 pound medicine ball. And log squats- 3 sets of 15 , dont know how heave the log is. I would imagine i need to do it more often. Usually i split up that routine into two days but i may need to bang the whole thing out 2 or 3 times a week if my old bones can heal from it.
A big part of grappling is figuring out when to use your strength and your stamina and when to relax. Especially when you're newer, you wind up using muscle to compensate for bad technique. And yeah, rolling with bigger dudes is difficult. Personally, I've always found striking more exhausting. At least with grappling you can lay down every once in a while, get put to sleep, etc.
You may want to add more weight lifting into your routine. If you anticipate moving bigger people off of you, then moving something other than your body might be a good idea. But if I may ask clarifying questions, what techniques do you do when someone is in your guard or on top of you in turtle? Are you comfortable with your skill at getting guard if you wind up in a bad position?
Frankly i am starting over in that respect. I am a not a fan of grappling. If i were to rank myself in Ju Jutsu on the ground, i would say im a beginner. Lifting weights is unfortunately a no go. I have tendinitis problems so i can no longer do much lifting at all. Recovery always depends on how bad my tendinsflare up.
funny also very true, i was a standup fighter who wasn't used to grappling at first, so i used to make all those same mistakes you mentioned, would tense up when i am supposed to relax, would try to muscle my way against force instead of using leverage and momentum going with force, grappling was alien to me so i made lots of mistakes, especially used to panic whenever someone choke me in headlock rear naked choke or guilotine choke, anything around my neck i would exhaust easily..... but now, i am also agree that a good workout in boxing can be more tiring than a grappling session of course the more we train, the more we build a tolerance and stamina, but this is always room for improvement and i think if stay with it and train properly we will find that both ground fighting and standup fighting are equally exhaustive, especially when consider breathing and that boxing isn't always about hard hitting fast combos, there is a time to relax when boxing, so really it depends on the workout, or in real life the actual fight
