Being a BJJ practitioner is like being in a war of attrition. You accept
very early on that you are going to have lots of days where you get
beaten down. There's a saying that "some days you are the hammer, some
days the nail". You learn that being the nail is part of the course, and
that the days you are the hammer are few and far between and you savor
these moments for months if not years. This mindset leads to you
considering yourself mentally tough and you learn that even when things
don't go your way you must keep grinding through and this can be a
metaphor for life. These are great qualities that BJJ has instilled in
me but once I added strength and conditioning to the mix the extra
workload carried with it some risk.
After my first article I
explained that there was a dip in my performance whilst my body became
accustomed to the new training regime. When I came out the other side it
felt like I could adapt to whatever workload was thrown at me. Training
hard twice a day was no problem and I kept up a high work rate for
nearly 2 years.
At this point, I found that whilst my body was
coping ok with the work, I started to notice that I was flat at
training. I was just going through the motions and getting from session
to session. My mind wanted to train hard but concentrating and every
effort I made didn't seem to yield the same results as previous. Whilst I
was grinding to a halt my mindset told me to keep plugging along and
maybe even increase my workload to combat my stalling progress. If it
wasn't for my strength and conditioning coach (Jason Gulati from Real
training) recognizing this as overtraining I would have continued to
toil away for next to no reward or worse, at the risk of injuring myself
due to inattention or lack of concentration. So how do you recognize
overtraining and how can you tell if it's affecting you? See Jason's
next article on recognizing the signs.
The next problem is
what to do about it? Basically there are no shortcuts, your body needs a
break and the length of this break depends on how long and how
overtrained you are. Do yourself a favour and take a holiday from
everything, don't even think about your sport. Maybe even take up a new
one? I started boxing with a great coach and friend Eddy Kaliboti, and
that really freshened up my mind forcing it to think and calculate new
problems making my my brain accept the return to Jiu jitsu more readily.
The result, a short well earned break, new skills and a new found
hunger for my chosen sport. Win win win!!!
By Owen Gee Kee
Co-Owner of Underdog Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and Underdog Fight Gear
