Mat Time - Guest Blogger, Dan Cenidoza

Left to Right - Maine Miller, Mike Turpin, Dan Cenidoza, Greg Lew

Two and a half minutes into my first jiujitsu roll, I wanted to quit. Not just quit the round—quit jiujitsu entirely. I couldn't breathe. My arms felt like concrete. And the worst part? I wasn't even losing.

That moment changed everything.

The Beginning

When I first started training at Grapple Academy, Greg emphasized that the only way to get better at jiujitsu was through mat time. I took that to mean "rolling". Whether he meant it that way or not, early on I placed the highest value on live sparring against a resisting training partner.

Unfortunately, we were in the middle of COVID, so we weren't rolling. Instruction and drills only. There's a lot I could say about that era but I'll skip to the part where we were able to actually start rolling…

I remember my first round very clearly. I could not believe how exhausting it was! This was like no cardio I had ever experienced before. As someone who prides himself on functional fitness, and as someone who thought he could fight, this did not sit well with me!

Not to mention that I felt like a coward for wanting to tap because I was tired. I wasn't even losing! "Who does that?" I thought. It was much later that I found out that a lot of people (maybe everybody) experiences that at some point.

Nevertheless this started my mission to improve my conditioning for jiujitsu and increase my mat time. What follows is my journey and some of the lessons learned along the way. I hope it can help others who are on the path as well.

Limited Training Time

Throughout most of whitebelt my schedule only allowed me to train jiujitsu once a week. As such, I did my best to supplement my jiujitsu with solo drills. It's not "mat time" but it was the next best option. Break falls, bear crawls, triangle bites, shrimping, penetration steps, technical get ups, shoulder rolls, sprawls and burpees.

I should also mention that I own Baltimore Kettlebell Club and at this point had been a trainer for about 15 years. I already had a good strength & conditioning program in place. The exercises mentioned above were to compliment my routine, not replace it. If I only had 1 hour a week to work on my fitness off of the mats, I think kettlebell training would have still been a better option. I say that in a completely biased, but professional opinion :)

Anyway, once a week I set aside time for my jiujitsu drills routine and had an open invite for people to join me. By this time I had moved my gym right next door to Grapple Academy Martial Arts (GAMA). Nobody really came until it was time for stripe testing and we'd use the time to review the moves in that unit of the curriculum.

Occasionally a higher belt would stop in and show some stuff. Sometimes people would come in and we'd do some light rolling. Eventually there started to be a couple people who came fairly regularly.

Then one day Mike Turpin showed up and never left. I'll get back to him later. But this was the genesis of  "Underground Grappling".

When Am I Ready to Compete?

That was a question I asked Greg when I was nearing the end of whitebelt. His answer was "when you can do 5 rounds". At the time I could do about 3 rounds with breaks between them, rolling with people I outweighed by 50+ pounds, and maybe 1-2 rounds with someone my age and weight.

So that was my first goal - do 5 rounds with no breaks. I didn't place any other stipulations on it. They didn't need to be comp rounds or with any particular body type or belt rank and I didn't need to "win". Just do 5 rounds.

In order to get 5 rounds in I had to adjust my schedule and go train during less than ideal times. Also, if I wanted a lot of training partners as one of the few heavyweights in the gym, I had to develop a game that didn't deter everyone else from rolling with me.

Guard play it is, and I'll do my best to not use my strength. Maybe the smaller guys won't use their speed? And the younger guys won't use their energy against me?

Of course, everyone uses their natural attributes. Although it seems like strength is the only one people complain about or expect you not to use. Yes, relying solely on strength (or any other physical attribute) is not the way to technical mastery. If the only tool you have is a hammer, it's probably a good idea to get some more tools. Save the hammer for when it’s really needed!

Competition Intensity

5 minutes in a competition is a lot harder than five-5 minute rounds. You don't account for the adrenaline dump in the training room. But on the competition stage with friends, family and teammates watching… there is much more pressure!

Competing gives you a new level of intensity that you become comfortable with. You can tell who competes, even casually, in the training room. There is a different feeling of what is acceptable rolling with these people. To the non-competitor it may feel mean or aggressive, but to the competitive folk it's just good training.

Pressure, Pinning and Escaping

I was introduced to Mike Turpin at my second competition. He was a brown belt at the time, very active in the heavyweight division, and had a similar background in strength sports as I did. He showed up at my gym one day for the open invite and it was just him and I. He asked if there was anything I wanted to work on and I said "pressure". I wanted to learn how to use pressure; from one big strong guy to another.

I didn't know at the time that was something he was really good at, or that we were going to spend the next 4 months, mostly just him and I, working on pressure, pinning and escaping.

That sucked. Being stuck under someone who knows how to distribute their weight properly is suffocating. Your chest feels like it's in a vise. You can't move. You can't breathe. And every attempt to escape just makes it worse. Four months of that will either make you or break you.

Understanding how to use pressure is a useful skill in pinning. It's also a way to cook people and take their will. Tapping to pressure is the worst!

On the other hand, learning to deal with pressure, either by escaping or relaxing, is something that you need to learn as a grappler unless you want to lose just about every round.

If you do not learn how to relax under pressure, you will find it very difficult to increase your mat time. The same thing goes for giving pressure, do it relaxed or you won't be able to do it long.

Breathe

One word that Turpin etched into my mind, and he only said it once, was "breathe". I was trying to pin him with pressure and like a max effort powerlift I was holding my breath.

As simple as it sounds, most people don't breathe properly while grappling. Holding the breath, shallow or erratic breathing; you're going to gas yourself out like that. Control your breath.

It's going to be difficult to control your breathing if you're not in good cardiovascular shape or you have little-to-no muscular endurance. Work on your fitness, and control your breathing.

This might be the single most important skill for increasing mat time. You can be in great shape, but if you're holding your breath or breathing erratically, you'll still gas out. Conversely, controlling your breathing can extend your rounds even when you're tired. It's that important.

Gauntlet and Shark Tank Rounds

After those initial 4 months training with Turpin a consistent group had started to form. Dan, Pete, Brennan, Chris, Matt, Joe and maybe a couple others that I'm forgetting.

Either way, now we had enough people to start doing shark tank rounds. Usually it was 2 or 3 minutes, or whenever Turp called "switch", and right into the next round. No rest. We call these “shark tank rounds” and did them every practice, especially leading up to my bluebelt promotion.

The belt promotions at Grapple Academy consist of a 20, 30 or 40 minute gauntlet. The gauntlet is essentially an extended shark tank - rolling with a fresh partner every minute. 20 minutes for bluebelt, 30 minutes for purplebelt, and 40 minutes for brownbelt. Blackbelts have been tried and tested enough already and therefore don’t require a gauntlet for promotion.

My bluebelt gauntlet was the most difficult thing I had ever done at the time. I still hadn't fully learned to relax and control my breathing. But the gauntlet forced me to. It opened up a new level of conditioning for me.
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Blue Belt: Just Don't Quit"

Just don't quit"

That was the only advice Greg had for bluebelts in his blackbelt promotion speech. He meant "don't quit jiujitsu" and I knew that, but I took it a step further. Don't quit at open mat is how I interpreted it.

My overarching goal throughout bluebelt was to get as many rounds as possible every time I trained. "First one on the mat and last one off" is what I strove for.

Depth Over Breadth

I got to the point where all I wanted to do was roll. It was as if I didn't want to learn anything new. Not because I knew everything, far from it, but because I already knew too much that I couldn't put into practice. I figured what good is knowledge of technique that I can't do in a live roll?

I'd rather be really good at just a few things than crappy at a bunch of things. An inch wide and a mile deep.

Expert Level

I gradually built up my mat time over the next two years as a blue belt. I learned how to pace myself, I practiced controlled breathing and I was intentional about relaxing in bad positions.

By the time I was ready to be promoted to purple belt I could easily do 10-14 rounds, without rest, in nogi (which is a little faster), with guys my size and/or with higher skilled grapplers.

The transformation from wanting to quit at 2.5 minutes to regularly doing 14 rounds didn't happen overnight. It was incremental—adding one more round, then another, learning to relax a little more each time, controlling my breathing a little better. The gauntlets helped. The shark tanks helped. But mostly it was just showing up and refusing to quit.

Apparently once you reach purple belt that is the beginning of what is considered expert level jiujitsu. Purple belts compete in the "expert division" in nogi, most tournaments require referees to be at least a purple belt, and that's the minimum rank Greg requires for anyone instructing at Grapple Academy.

To be clear, I do not think I am a jiujitsu "expert" but I will claim an expert level of conditioning for jiujitsu. I'm not positive but I believe I hold our academy's record for longest gauntlet at 42 minutes. That's 42 minutes of non stop rolling with fresh partners every 45 seconds. Let that sink in—from wanting to quit at 2.5 minutes to surviving 42 minutes of continuous grappling. That's what mat time builds.

In the end, I set out on a mission to increase my mat time in order to get better at jiujitsu and I feel like I have achieved that. This is not a "box checked" kind of goal, but now something to maintain. I currently get in about 20 rounds per week and I plan to maintain that schedule as best I can.

Summary

Mat time is still the only way to get better at jiujitsu, especially when you're just starting out. You have to get more reps in and you need the conditioning to do it.

Remember it's not just physical conditioning but the mental aspects as well. The invisible jiujitsu. Intensity of effort, pacing, breathing, relaxing, will power, intentionally pursuing whatever it is you're working on.

These are all things to practice while doing jiujitsu.

Key Takeaways
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For White Belts:

• Everyone wants to quit their first few rolls. You're not a coward. You're normal.
• Set a goal: 5 rounds without breaks. Then work toward it.
• Supplement with solo drills if you can't get to class often.

For Everyone:

• Control your breathing. Seriously. This matters more than you think.
• Learn to relax under pressure. It's a skill you can develop.
• Focus on depth over breadth. Get really good at a few things.
• Compete if you can. It teaches you a new level of intensity.

The Real Secret: Mat time builds mat time. The more you roll, the more you can roll. Start where you are. Add one more round. Then another. Keep showing up.

See you on the mats!

Best, 
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-Dan Cenidoza