Do Warm-ups Hinder Progress? Or "I've got 7 seconds of fight in me" and I used it all in the warm-up.

I've got 7 seconds of fight in me. - Kevin James, Comedian

Psychologist, Carle Beuke, Ph.D., recently wrote an interesting article titled, How to become an expert. He talked about using deliberate practice to improve one’s skills and abilities. For those who are unaware, deliberate practice is where you break down an activity into chunks and slowly work on that chunk until you master it. Then you move on to the next chain in the series. 

What I found interesting about his article is that when he discusses sports, he specifically mentions the idea of excessive warm-ups, which is one of my pet peeves about BJJ and grappling training. Beuke writes:

Deliberate practice requires pushing yourself to perform slightly better than you normally would. You need to be at your best to achieve this. This means being well-rested and fresh. For this reason, doing an hour of cardio to 'warm up' for sports practice is not helpful.

Now, as time passes, age and weight affects my ability to accurately assess why I am not a fan of heavy warm-ups. My lack of fondness for them has built up slowly over the years because there have been many times where I have been worn out before drilling even started, or worse, injured. Often during these types of warm-ups my lower back muscles seize up into a pretzel knot, my abdominals lock up or I get calf cramps or a cramp that curls my foot up into a little ball. After that class is all about survival.

I can understand a brief 10 minute warm-up where we jog a little, perform some grappling specific exercises such as shrimping, bridging, rolling, break-falls and then proceed to light stretching.  But what has happened over the years is that Crossfit, P90x and other hardcore training techniques such as Tabata drills have seeped their way into the ‘warm-up’ and many classes often become an endurance test before you can gain BJJ knowledge.

I think this happens for a couple of reasons. The first is because I am dubious that most instructors from 18 to 32 years of age truly understand that once you hit a certain age the body does not just bounce back after exercise. This may lead to a callousness or indifference to the plight of those who struggle because of a complete lack of awareness of what the older grappler is experiencing. Further, aches, pains and injuries accumulate over the years and are easy to aggravate. As a large segment of grapplers are 30 and above it would behoove instructors to be mindful of this.

Additionally, many younger grapplers have different expectations than older grapplers. Many younger grapplers dream about being BJJ, Judo or Sambo champions. Then they want to parlay that experience into becoming an MMA champion. (A good number of these guys can’t figure out why everyone doesn’t want to train as hard as they do and get frustrated by it.) Others want to open their own grappling school one day.

To borrow from Seinfield, when he was younger, becoming Batman or Superman wasn't a dream, it was an option. But for older grapplers, they want to make sure they don’t get injured so they can have the option of going in to work the next day or so they can attend to their children's needs that night and the next day. This means that they have to avoid 'overdoing it" in class. Plus, older grapplers can’t afford to live the austere life of a fighter because they usually have spouses, kids, mortgages and job or career responsibilities. Of course, experiences and desires vary but if you’ve been around the grappling scene for more than a month you understand what I am talking about.

I train at a school that is not competition oriented and I appreciate this, but a lot of people do not have this choice and train at schools that have a lot of students focused on MMA and competing in grappling tournaments. It is my assertion that this often leads to warm-ups that are too rough.

As Beuke alluded to, when the body is excessively taxed it is very difficult to perform drills properly. If the individual doesn’t quit during the session (and I have never seen anyone quit in 8 years of grappling) they will resort to going through the motions and will have difficulty focusing on the specifics. Further, they may not be able to drill with precision due to fatigue. This can lead to bad habits or injury during techniques that require attention to detail such as throws and takedowns.

As a grappler I know that grappling is not meant to be easy. I also know that there is a fine line between pushing grapplers hard to achieve excellence and overworking them. My purpose in writing about this and raising questions is not to bash instructors, young people or grapplers who are easily able to cope with any warm-ups thrown their way. It is to remind people that warm-ups for grappling should be intended to prepare students for drills and rolling (sparring) that occurs afterward. It shouldn’t drain them of their capacity to learn and leave them unable to get the most out of their training session.