by Johnny Drama on Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:12 pm
I wanted to make a topic on meditation and the mentality one should have while they train/fight. Basically, how it effects energy levels during sparring. Here is my situation now, what I'm doing, and what I'm noticing.
I train Gi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu mostly. I have a heavy background in internal martial arts, mainly Tai Chi and Hsing I. The guys I train with now, for the most part are complete animals who train every day. I basically train the same amount. I am in pretty good athletic shape. I eat well, I sleep well. I don't do drugs. I don't drink. I don't stay out at clubs. I take supplements (creatine, multivitamins, protein). My lifestyle permits me to rest before training most of the time, and I show up well rested usually. The only thing I do that could be a negative is I have lots of sex. But, you only live once and high school sucked for me so I'm making up for lost time. Anyway, moving on.
Despite sparring nearly every day and getting tons of rest, I noticed I would gas out quicker then most of my peers. I tried running on a treadmill and adding in conditioning on my own to help with the training. It definitely had a positive effect, but not a large gain. I'd say this training was about two weeks time before I stopped doing it do to a heavy grind.
I have a really chatty mind. I think a lot. Some thoughts are positive, others are negative. I do expend a ton of mental energy. I also sit at the computer for long periods of time which leave me feeling exhausted. Before I get ahead of myself though, let me get back on tangent.
I thought about having a chatty mind. I realized that regardless of the type of thought, highly positive or highly negative, it did not matter. Sometimes I would feel invincible before class and have all sorts of confident thoughts running through my head, but when the time to train hit, I would spar and become afraid. Even if I didn't becoem afraid, I still gassed quite a bit. I was investing a heap of energy just thinking before and during training. I tried to cut down on thinking. I started meditating.
Basically, my meditation was this. I'd go up on my apartments roof, in the hot sun, wearing little clothing. I'd close my eyes, breath though my nose, sit cross legged. For the most part my breath was deep and controlled, although sometimes I did the yoga fire breathing method that some of you might have seen Rickson Gracie do. I tried to let go of all thoughts. No matter what it was, I considered it a distraction and just tried to still my mind and see what I was really thinking/feeling. I concentrated on my breath, the sensations of the air against my body. I would do this for about 15-30 minutes per session. 1-3 sessions per day, some of them would be inside though.
I would also do Zhan Zhuang meditation as well as basic Tai Chi. I found this worked best after the sitting meditation. I would do Zhan Zhuang mostly with my eyes opened, and tai chi was always with open eyes. I found this worked as a type of "bridge" in comeing back to the real world while keeping the mental state I had gotten in meditating. Again, all thoughts and visulization were tossed out. Regardless if they had me as a superman. I threw them away. I was just trying to "be".
I found that I had greatly increased energy levels. I also had increased clarity of thought and confidence under high stress situations. I found myself waking up far earlier too. I specifically picked training partners with endless endurance to practice against, and found I could match or exceed their energy. I noticed these guys were basically young, carefree guys who didn't seem to think much, if at all. They possessed tremendous energy.
Obviously, there is more to it then "Don't think and you'll have more endurance".
When I got cocky and stopped training the meditation, or started thinking about how good I did last session, I gassed out and found myself tapping from exhaustion again.
Has anyone found similar results? Can anyone offer specific advice regarding meditation, sparring, and/or mentality to have during training? Any and all comments are appreciated.
Also, I'm going to try and spend much less time on the pc. Ironic that I'm writing it in this post, but I feel its a huge sap on my energy.
Last edited by
Johnny Drama on Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.