How to regulate your training intensity for optimal jiu jitsu growth

By Shane McCarthy

Do you find yourself always injured after training? Or worse, do you find your training partners are always injured post roll with you? Are you able to roll for an entire training session, or do you find yourself needing multiple rounds off just to recover? Maybe you’re one of those practitioners who thinks the goal is to “not get submitted” and work on only defensive Jiu Jitsu? You think you’ve accomplished something by laying in the fetal position for multiple rounds. Ryron Gracie would be proud. You could also be one of those practitioners who believes in “flow rolling” and “being like water,” truly embodying The Gentle Art, but you couldn’t explain a single technique you used during the roll, or why they were effective.

I’m not sure if my sarcastic tone came through in the opening paragraph, but it’s my opinion that there are multiple ways to train with appropriate intensity, and none of the above would I consider correct. More importantly, none of those scenarios help move us forward in our collective goal of becoming more effective grapplers. Students are constantly asking me about training intensity. Drawing from 15 years of experience, I believe there are a handful of ways to regulate your training intensity.

Step 1: Goal-Setting

First, you have to consider your personal goals. Are you currently training for competition? Are you working around an injury? Have you been training intensely for five consecutive days? All of these factors should be accounted for in deciding how you train. Your overall Jiu Jitsu goals also should be taken into consideration every time you step on the mats. 

If you’re training for a competition, your rounds should be short, positional-based, and high-intensity. The shorter duration of the rounds will keep you moving and will avoid stalling. Short rounds also limit the time spent making decisions to improve your position. The positional aspect will guide the intensity so your pace can remain high while limiting variability to aid in preventing injury as you prepare for a comp.

If your goal is to train around an injury, positional rounds will again limit variability and allow you to still get quality training while minimizing the risk of re-injury. Seek partners who are smaller and willing to work around your limitations. In lieu of positional rounds, you can also implement goal-specific drilling to limit variability. For example, if you are recovering from a meniscus tear, you could focus on guard retention with the win condition of establishing chest-to-chest position for the person on top. This setup minimizes potential impact on the knee, if you’re mindful of your movement, and both you and your partner get quality time to practice guard retention and passing. 

If you’re coming off a five-day Jiu Jitsu bender, you can limit the number of rounds and change your focus to ensure that you’re positionally sound. What does “positionally sound” mean?

Focus on establishing a guard and keeping your partner in that guard while focusing on the smaller details of frames, hooks, and the amount of tension applied during the roll. Once all of those aspects are in order, you can then focus on off-balancing your partner in a direction in which they don’t have any base or ability to counter. If they start dismantling your guard, you no longer look for an offensive opportunity, but instead shift your focus to reorganizing the guard so that all of your frames and hooks are in place. Ultimately this involves a smaller amount of energy expenditure and improves the understanding of guard maintenance and positioning that will lead to an effective offensive maneuver. 

Step 2: Communicate Clearly

Communication is key. Ninety-nine percent of issues can be resolved in the gym by creating an environment of open communication. Let your partner know ahead of your roll what you would like to focus on. If you have an injury, tell them before the roll so they know to modify their intensity. If you feel that your partner is bringing too much intensity to a roll, the only way they’ll learn how to regulate is if you openly communicate to them. Likewise, if they are training too lightly and not providing the right amount of tension in order to properly execute techniques, make them aware. The best way to approach this is to ask your partner to try and match your pace and intensity. They’ll have an opportunity to down/up regulate. Even if they lack personal awareness on how to do this, it will at least get them thinking …  hopefully. You also can always ask for feedback, especially from a higher belt. Normalize asking them how they thought the roll went and if there was anything you can work on. If you were too intense or spazzing, or a wet noodle, they’ll let you know. 

Step 3: Build Body Awareness and Sound Movement

Another important factor to consider is your own personal body awareness. Most of my job as a coach is helping individuals learn how to move their own body efficiently for jiu jitsu. Often a person who is “flopping” or “spazzing” just doesn’t know how to move their body. It’s the first day white belt energy that some people carry well into the upper belt ranks. 

First, ask yourself, can you execute a pushup, lunge, squat, and sit up with ease? If not, devote time off the mats to building your foundational strength. If you can, ask yourself if you can do all of those movements carrying a load equivalent to your body weight. In other words, using weights, can you press, lunge, deadlift, or squat your body weight? People who can’t do this sometimes resort to momentum or force – i.e. what people mean when they say someone is flopping, spazzing, or out of control. A lot of this can be rectified by a solid strength and mobility routine outside of the gym. This type of training is beneficial for overall wellbeing and longevity. Remember, if your jiu jitsu “hard” it’s most likely not technically sound and you’re compensating by using force, which puts you and your partners in danger. 

Step 4: Learn to Control Your Submissions

Lastly, a topic worthy of its own article: applying submissions. Listen, I’ll be direct and honest with you. If you need to hit a fast and forceful submission on a training partner, you’re a jerk. Especially in the training room. That level of force and speed acting on someone’s joint is just completely unnecessary. Most submissions themselves are a position you can control. Slow and steady pressure and controlling the intensity is truly a checkmate for a submission. Your partner will tap, and the tap is the agreement that they know if you applied any more force they would suffer an injury. This rule goes both ways. If you need to spazz out violently, kick, spin, jump, etc. to escape a submission, you are also not technically sound. More importantly, you are not honoring the agreement of the tap, which goes both ways. You are putting your partner, who has the submission, in a predicament. They want to go home feeling accomplished and not horrified that they put someone unconscious or worse, someone tried spazzing out of a submission and wound up popping their (insert ligament/joint here). It’s a mutual agreement that keeps everyone safe.

Overall, I hope some of these suggestions help or at least prompt some reflection. Ask your coach and upper belts what they think about training intensity. Everyone’s training capacity and intensity levels are unique, so what may feel like a normal pace for one individual would be another person’s World Finals pace. It all goes back to open communication with your coaches and the people with whom you train.