Mini Ep. 55: Staying Loose

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. And in this week's mini episode, I want to dig into some really fundamental ideas for how to be more effective at Jiu-Jitsu, even beyond techniques and body positioning. I want to talk about some overall goals about how you should be managing your body when you're grappling. I have said before that if I were to train someone who's brand new to Jiu-Jitsu, before I even talk to them about the different techniques that we do or even the different positions, I would talk to them about the importance of staying loose. Or if you are going to tense up, to at least do so for a good reason. So, in general, by default, when you're grappling, you want to have your muscles relaxed. You want to avoid being overly tense. And the reason why, there's a few. First of all, if you're always tense, it fatigues your muscles, which is going to burn you out faster. Second, it telegraphs your intentions. A good opponent can read the tension in your body and guess at what you're going to do next based on where you're being tense. And third, tense limbs are just easier to manipulate. It's easier to control something that is rigid than something that is bendy. Think of the difference between a stick versus a wet noodle. Being too tense makes it easier for your opponent to control your body if they can get a handle on one of your limbs. So, by default, we want to loosen up. Now, muscle tension is natural, especially for untrained people. If someone is new to combat sports or Jiu-Jitsu, they're probably going to be pretty tense because they're anxious. That's a natural body response. And a lot of being good at combat sports involves training yourself out of some of those natural body responses towards things that are more productive for actually being effective at the art. And one of them is when you want to be loose, right? And when you want to be tense. The problem is that it can be very hard to tell if you're being too tense. Because often in the moment, you're so focused on what you're doing that you're not really paying attention to your body stress level. And also, if you're too tense, that probably means you're pretty inexperienced, which probably means you're not great at gauging these things within yourself. So, the good news is, after training for a while, you will learn to regulate that tension. You will learn to manage it. But at the beginning, if you're struggling to tell when you're tense, I suggest asking your partner. Ask your partner to tell you when you're being too tense. And that way you're getting some immediate feedback so that you know to loosen up. The more you do that, the more you'll develop that skill to just stay loose in the moment, which is ultimately where we want to go when we're training. Now that said, there are times when we want to actually be tense. So, for example, if I am trying to execute a throw, I probably want to be loose at the beginning, but then at the tipping point of the throw when I'm trying to really move the person, I want to tense my body. You'll see Judoka do this a lot, where they're very loose until it's time for the throw, and then they tense up. So, tension is not always a bad thing. It's only a bad thing when it's your default and when you're doing it for no reason. Other examples include finishing a submission. Often with submissions, you want to be somewhat loose during the setup, but you tense when you're tightening it. And that's where some of the breaking pressure comes from. And if you can develop that habit of grappling loose, but tensing when you do submissions, it makes it easier to be safe because it means that you're not likely being tense in a way that could cause harm to your opponent during the roll. So, there was just a quick explanation of staying loose, how important it is, and how to get some feedback from your partner about whether you're being too tense. Managing tension is super important in Jiu-Jitsu, and it's something that really everyone should focus on as a fundamental part of learning the sport. So, please do consider this. It'll help you avoid fatigue, it'll make your actions less obvious, and it will make it harder for your opponent to control your body. So, there's an important concept that we've talked about on BJJ Mental Models. If you want the full-length episodes of the podcast, plus more mini episodes like this, plus our newsletter, all of which are free, go to BJJmentalmodels.com. If you want to work with us directly to level up your specific Jiu-Jitsu game and to get access to the world's largest library of Jiu-Jitsu audio courses on concepts, strategy, tactics, philosophy, and mindset, sign up for BJJ Mental Models Premium. The first week is free. All of that is at BJJmentalmodels.com. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you in the next one.