One of my teammates recently moved to Camp Springs, Maryland as he received an offer to train full time with Lloyd Irvin's team. After a few days there, he had spoken to my instructor and commented on how he'd never been pushed that much in training. Not because our training/conditioning wasn't hard enough, but because he was training up to 3 times per day. He worked as a personal trainer at a local gym, and therefore could probably only come to class a maximum of 2-3 hours per day, while I bet he now has a solid 6 or more hours of training per day.
It then occurred to me, no matter how great your technique is, if you have bad conditioning, you're never going to do well. You need to not only be able to physically keep up with the other person, but to also be one step ahead of them in order to win. And that's where sometimes toughness can overcome technique. There are people that will just fight their way out of submissions, and the other person's arm/legs/body is so weak from gripping onto that submission, that he/she can no longer effectively attack.
I think one of my first advantages coming into BJJ was conditioning. While it has certainly improved since beginning jiu jitsu, the one thing I could do was wiggle my way out of certain chokes and locks without gassing and could keep pace with the other white belts. I had run cross country in the past, and continue to run at least 6 miles per week, which I've steadily increased. I've heard sprints and interval exercises are better for BJJ, but I often end up doing distance running because it's what I'm used to.
Needless to say, running and conditioning are things I will always maintain. It also helps that running is a stress reliever for me.
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