Strength

​Being strong helps in grappling, it always has and it always will. It’s why legendary grapplers always have crazy conditioning regimens. The goal is not to never use strength, but to use it efficiently. Pick and choose your battles. We play a long game to an extent. Yes, it’s only a five to ten minute match, but it’s 3-4 or more of those in a short period of time. If you burn everything you’ve got in match one, you’ll play catch up the rest of your matches or you won’t make it through. If we look at athletic events that are always forward, you will see that they are short duration, which should tell you that over five minutes there should be give and take in terms of output. The mindset of Jiu Jitsu should be more similar to continuous action team sports like soccer, rugby or hockey than something like sumo or American football. You should always be moving, but not always sprinting or driving. Your longevity depends upon being able to exist in different intensities and being able to impose those intensities on others. Yes, be strong, but do so intelligently.