For the people who have been doing this for a while and have sparring experience, how do you regulate your breathing to prevent getting gassed? Had my first sparring class tonight, found myself gasping for air like a fish out of water after my first 5 minute round. What did you guys do to regulate breathing and boost stamina?

 

Just keep doing it, you'll learn when to go hard, when to rest and the breathing will follow.

 

I suggest working on your cardio, that will definitely help you. It's always the big guys that gas out in the first few mins. Also Jiu Jitsu is about making your opponent tired, while you rest. The guy on the bottom of the Hundred Kilos position is obviously going to be spending a lot more energy than the person on top.

 

Cardio is good, but jiujitsu cardio is different that treadmill cardio.

 

Also, you can try breathing exercises when you're on your own. If you do it when you're not sparring, you can focus exclusively on your breathing. If you do it enough, it will become second nature so long as your are mindful of your breath. When you're doing martial arts you want to do a 3 part breath in 4 stages.

3 part describes the stages when you inhale or exhale. For inhalation, (1) breathe into the bottom of your lungs expanding your belly, (2) breathe into your middle lungs expanding your chest outward, (3) breathe into your upper lungs expanding your upper chest upwards. For exhalation, reverse the process: Upper portion down, middle part contracts, lower part inward.

4 stages describe the four stages of breathing which happen in a loop. They are: (1) inhalation, (2) absorption, (3) exhalation, (4) relaxation. The exhalation and inhalation are comprised of the above stages.

It's a lot of effort at first but if you do it enough, it will become second nature...

 

^^^^this is true...
You need to work on your conditioning. Start doing some abnormal exercises because you are going to be working a lot of muscles that you donʻt even know you have. Grappling is the best type on Cardio! You workout even muscle is your body.

I really did to get back into Jiu Jitsu. My back has been working so i havenʻt Grappling in a while.
I Hope this helps!

YOu really need to Relax and Breathe Normally. Donʻt Panic!!! When you Panic, you loose a lot of Air in your lungs which causes you to get tired faster.

 

Somehow I knew you were the first to respond. Thanks Jason

 

No problem. There really isn't any secret other than training and training some more. You'll learn when you should be pushing instead of pulling in time, jiu jitsu isn't a natural set of movements for us, like throwing a baseball is.

Some in shape guys suffer from BTW (blowing their wad) syndrome well into their blue belt, but that doesn't happen too often. Just keep rolling, don't spazz out and it'll all fall into place with time.

Are you going to that Gracie place over by the Hillsdale mall?

edit:
I'm sure you've been there, but check out sherdog.net>grappling forum. There are a lot of retards, but some good stuff gets posted here and there. They also have a conditioning forum that is pretty good too with a HEAVY emphasis on conditioning for fighters.

 

vigorous cardio exercises.... ONe thing that helped me when i was doing mma.... which i loved... Get onto a Track
400 meters....

sprint 100...

quick jog 100 ( try to control your breathing....and get your heart rate down as quickly as you can)

Sprint 100

quick jog 100 ( try to control your breathing....and get your heart rate down as quickly as you can)

Take a 1-2 minute break...... and do it again....

 

"There really isn't any secret other than training and training some more. "

This is 100% true. Just remember you can be training your self all the time - not just on the mat. It takes a very long time to learn to move efficiently and it doesn't come naturally to everyone. Another point to remember: look for ways to conserve energy. Focus on extending power through the appropriate muscles and relaxing the others that are not essential to the particular move you are doing.

 

Grab a jump rope. If you can jump rope for 15-30 minutes straight you will definitely have very good cardio.

 

make sure you listen to Mighty Mighty Bosstones while jumping rope

 

I second this. Gassing during grappling isn't always due to bad cardio, it's often due to a lack of fighting rhythm. After awhile, you'll get a feel for when to relax and when to scramble, instead of just being in scramble mode 100% of the time and getting winded as hell because of it.

Not that being in good cardio shape doesn't help, though
Just look at Ishida Mitsuhiro, the "Endless Fighter"

 

I'll check out Sherdog. I checked out the Gracie studio there, ended up going to B Street Boxing

 

I was under Ralph Gracie for a while.

No big secret, work your *** off and you'll get what you want to achieve.