Managing Panic”

[Justin]

I just started learning BJJ a month ago. After my first class I was hooked and love it! Rolling is a very new experience for me and, being that I have no clue as to what I’m doing, I’m alway pinnned trying to avoid getting tapped. Which I am certain I only avoid out of my partners kindness then any skill I posses! During the rolls especially when my breathing is being suppressed, such as when I’ve been side mounted, the feeling of panic rises and dominates my thinking and ability to properly assess what I can constructively do, all I can think about is “I want to breath!”. My reason seems to shut down and my survival instinct to simply react rises up. Needless to say it’s not pleasant.

I am fairly certain that the feeling of Panic will always be there to some extent, and that I’ll simply get more and more used to it, my current approach is simply to observe it when it rises up and not allow myself to react as the panic would like to direct me to. Which seems to be to simply flail about mindlessly. Which doesn’t seem like it’d be too effective. My question is there any advice or techniques to better mitigate it so that I can still “keep my head” and function intelligently when it rises up?

Thanks for your time,
Justin

[mynewunit]

I see a few things here. First, Everyone who goes on the Trooper Project podcast says the first few BJJ classes are like drowning. A lot of your problem is just building enough BJJ game to get to a point that you can see what you are doing and what is being done to you. Repetition and patience.

Second, Breathing. I did a bunch of water breathing training. With a few days of practice, I can swim down and back (50 yards) on a single breath. There are a few tricks. Number 1: Practice breathing deep. Breathing once deeply can oxygenate more than 2 shallow breaths. Number 2: You can preload on oxygen. Breathing deeply before exercise will actually store oxygen for you to use later. Check into Wim Hof.

I like the mindfulness. I think this is just going to take time.

[trooper1912]

As mynewunit says, breathing is very important. I experienced the same thing as you when I first started about 16 months, and it eventually went away for the most part. Sometimes when I get put into certain positions by certain people I will still get that feeling, but not very often.

It just takes some getting used to, and getting more comfortable rolling overall.

[flitney77]

I have experimented with different breathing techniques, After discovering the Hoff method.

Also look up Tactical and Box breathing for preloaded. 

Ben