The Myth of Relaxing in Training

[Andrew Green]

The Myth of Relaxing in Training
by Andreh Anderson

Not using too much power is important if you want to develop your technique, but if you want to develop a game you can really use against another competitor at a similar level, you have to be very active in your training and avoid the laziness of relaxing. I am NOT talking about spazzing out, but I am saying that you have to take the fight to the opponent at 100% in training if you want to really improve.


I didn't realize this until after a private with Marcelo Garcia. He told me that I was too relaxed and that I would need to step it up if I wanted to really be ready for a competition. He was totally right. Just giving myself permission to force the fight to go where I wanted it to go made a huge difference in the game. I used to counter attack, but now I can lead, counter, and defend as needed. It added a whole new dimension to my game.

Read more: http://grapplearts.com/Relaxation-Myth.html

 

[Makalakumu]

My old judo instructor was 5'5" and about 135 lbs. When you pushed or pulled him, he was never there. When he threw you, you fell and hardly felt him at all. When you grappled him, you might as well have grabbing an empty gi.

Being relaxed in the sense of the character for "ju" does not mean passive or lazy. One can be very aggressive and still fully act within the realm of "ju".

 

[WilliamJ]

There are times when you go hard and times when you focus on technique. You don't do either all the time. Plenty of guys rely on muscle and never get any better, and others just play a relaxed game and cannot step it up when they need to.

 

[Makalakumu]

When I wrestled in high school, I was very aggresive. There was no such thing as "relaxation". So, I understand this mentality. However, with judo or jujutsu and many other asian grappling arts, "relax" means something totally different.

 

[WilliamJ]

Wrestling is different than submission wrestling though. If you have a guy in guard and he is stacking and cross facing you, that is a good time to relax and let him waste his energy. You are in no danger. When you are scrambling for position, that is a time not to relax.

 

[Sarah]

You can be engaged and still be relaxed.

Being relaxed doesn’t mean you just flop on top of them, its more that you are not all tense and ridged. If you are tense you can't flow very well!

 

[Eternal Beginner]

I think most people confuse 'relaxed' with 'comatose'. I have trained with people who kept going on about 'patience in grappling' and what they usually meant is that if they got any sort of dominant (or even just a safe) position they would lie there until their opponent made a mistake out of frustration.

I now train with an excellent instructor, although huge and strong,who is like water and never uses muscle. That is "relaxed". He is constantly moving, never just does a 'lay and pray' but also never just bullies or muscles a submission or position.

Being relaxed means being aware, breathing properly, and expending energy when needed and seeing those opportunities and not wasting energy forcing something that wasn't there to begin with. Being relaxed is not turtling, simply maintaining dominant position or just generally being a human version of an inanimate grappling dummy.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Coming frm a striking art perspective, the idea of being relaxed is possibly different but possibly the same, it simply meanas 'not tense' or 'loose'. Even if you are moving around very fast, you still want your muscles to be loose and relaxed, because that's how you move the smoothest and fastest and most controlled. The only time you tense your muscles is at the moment of impact where you need the power of a rigid weapon and body. A lot of times you hear people on the side telling a competitor to 'relax', which simple means to loosen he tension in your muscles during your movements, so your movements will be faster and smoother; the more you stay relaxed in our muscles, the more active you could be (and the less you burn energy unneccessarily)

To turn it to grappling, would the same apply? To stay relaxed would be simply to not be tense, so you have full range of motion and can move quickly and freely. There are moments of explosion of energy where you 'tense' your musclesm but between those moments you keep your muscles loose, relaxed, which allows you to be more active without tiring.

I ask as a very new beginner who has not learned much of the strategy and flow of grapplng

 

[Andrew Green]

To turn it to grappling, would the same apply? To stay relaxed would be simply to not be tense, so you have full range of motion and can move quickly and freely. There are moments of explosion of energy where you 'tense' your musclesm but between those moments you keep your muscles loose, relaxed, which allows you to be more active without tiring.

Basically it usually means to stop using strength and speed to achieve the technique and focus on technique. The "soft" aspect of that "ju" in there

Which is a good thing, in training sometimes that is what you want to do. Relax, try not to use strength to accomplish techniques, get a technique "right" to the point that you can do it with minimal physical effort. Especially important when working with substantial size differences, to 250 lbs person should not simply squish and out muscle the 120lbs person.

But you can't forget the benefit of training explosive skills, Knowing how and when to simply forcefully explode out of a bad situation.

 

[Fight with attitude]

Wrestling is different than submission wrestling though. If you have a guy in guard and he is stacking and cross facing you, that is a good time to relax and let him waste his energy. You are in no danger. When you are scrambling for position, that is a time not to relax.

It's important to use more energy in wrestling. Without any gi on I can jump over someones guard, pull out of an arm bar easyer, etc. However with a gi on I would need to use a lot more techinque to get where I wanted to be.

While pulling out of an arm bar with a ton of force is a good skill to have in a MMA or submisson wrestling match it may not work againest someone who has more power. I would need to use techinque which would best come from wearing a gi.

 

[SAVAGE]

Relaxing...lets see...it allows you to hit faster (therfore by laws of physics and accelaration hit harder than you would if you were tense)....allows you to control your adrenaline dump more efficiently...alows you to "see" the opportunities to end fights! Thats just a few off the top of my head...I think relaxing is different from laziness!

Gee I hope I am on tangent!