Mini Ep. 56: Controlled Breathing

Speaker 1: Hey everybody, before we get started this week, I have huge news. She actually did it. We're pleased to announce that Beatrice Jin, top-ranked women's competitor in North America and long-time BJJ Mental Models Premium community member has published her first ever course with us, exclusive to BJJ Mental Models. It's called Stop Being Nice. It's a three-part audio series designed to solve real mindset problems that regular folks experience in Jiu-Jitsu. If you struggle to be aggressive and competitive in Jiu-Jitsu, you'll find the solutions here. If you're already a BJJ Mental Models Premium subscriber, you've already got access, and if you are not, good news, you can get it now and get your first week free, go to BJJmentalmodels.com and check it out today. Hey, welcome to BJJ Mental Models. I'm Steve Kwan. BJJ Mental Models is your guide to a conceptual and intelligent Jiu-Jitsu approach. Back again with one of our mini episodes. This time I want to expand on a concept from the last mini episode, where I talked about the importance of staying loose. Today I want to talk about the importance of controlled breathing. These are two very closely related concepts because it's hard to do one without the other. If you are staying loose, odds are your breathing is also pretty controlled. If you're controlling your breathing, odds are you're staying pretty loose. So, these are two things that we probably want to practice in parallel. Now, in terms of controlled breathing, first let's talk about what this means. Basically, it means that we want to be mindful of our breathing. We want to maintain a deliberate, relaxed cadence of breath when we're sparring. If we are anxious or stressed, odds are our breathing starts to get a little bit ragged. So, we all like to think that the mind leads the body, but often the relationship between mind and body are more complicated than we would think. There's some science that demonstrates that what we do with our body can impact our mood. The most notable example being that smiling actually makes you happier. So, if you smile a lot, even if you don't feel happy, the act of smiling will eventually start making you feel happier. And although I'm not entirely sure if this applies here with breathing, I feel like there might be a similar relationship as well where when we control our breathing, it helps us better manage our anxiety levels. And of course, in a fight sport, managing stress and anxiety are key because that's part of what prevents us from making silly mistakes. For the same reasons that we discussed in the last episode about the importance of staying calm, we also want to make sure that we maintain our breathing at a slow, consistent pace when we're grappling, even when we're moving quite intensely. In that past episode about the importance of staying loose, we also talked about how if you're tense, it makes it easier for your opponent to read your actions and somewhat telegraphs at least your state of mind. It might also telegraph your intentions too, depending on the situation. And if you've ever caught someone, especially a lower belt in a bad position, you've probably seen this happen where their breathing just goes off the chart. They start breathing really rough and ragged. And as an experienced practitioner, if you can make your opponent breathe like that, you know that you have them in a bad spot. So, this is something that's very fundamental and important to learn in Jiu-Jitsu. Controlling your breathing, especially in bad situations. I can't say for sure, but when you control your breathing, it also feels like it helps regulate your energy expenditure as well. Now, I'm not advocating for any particular breathing method. There's a lot of woo-woo science in terms of breathwork. But overall, managing your breath is a great practice, not just for being effective at Jiu-Jitsu, but also for just developing a mindfulness practice overall throughout your life. This is part of why many mindfulness practices involve focusing on your breath. That's just a very obvious anchor in terms of what you can focus your attention on if you want to bring your awareness into the present moment. So, much like with being too tense, breathing too heavily is also something that can be hard for you to identify yourself if you're new to Jiu-Jitsu. And this is another example, like with tension, where it can help to just ask your training partner for help. Ask them to tell you if you're breathing too heavily. And if they're experienced at Jiu-Jitsu, they'll be able to tell you this. You can tell if someone's breathing too heavily, and that's again another indication as to why it's important to manage this, because if someone is breathing too heavily while I'm sparring with them, to some extent, I know they're afraid. And if I know that they're afraid, then I already have an advantage. I'm already coming into this match with a better, stronger mindset, and that makes me feel like I have a better chance of winning. So, to some extent, your breathwork also impacts your opponent's ability to read your confidence. Hope all of this helps. Again, this is a pretty straightforward concept. The most important thing is that you do it. Breathe relaxed like you're just hanging out on the couch, even when you're rolling. And being able to maintain that soft, deliberate, relaxed cadence of breath should help you be more relaxed while you're rolling, which I think will have a ripple effect throughout the rest of your Jiu-Jitsu. 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