active rest: Jiu jitsu, like any combat sport, can be an exhausting experience. Sometimes prolonged periods of exertion, especially when trying complete takedowns, guard passes, guard retention etc gains trough and relentless opponents, can leave you very tired indeed. You can't stop when tired – but you can take active rests that can recharge your batteries and get you ready for a next push forward towards victory. Whenever you capture a strong position after a prolonged struggle and you feel you are fatigued to the point where performance will be severely compromised – take a break. Use the position to collect your score and understand that the onus is on your opponent to do something to get out. For a period long enough to physically recover – let the other guy do the work and focus on physical recovery. Now, obviously you don't want to simply go limb and have the opponent escape and undo all your hard work. Do the minimum physical expenditure to hold the position and keep the opponent honest by making some kind of minimal threat, in the case of rear mount – threaten a strangle. That takes little energy but can't be ignored by an opponent. When you feel you have recovered sufficiently – go back on the attack. You will be pleasantly surprised by how just a little time at lower energy expenditure can enable you to recover and get back to genuine offense. What people call endurance in Jiu jitsu is mostly THE ABILITY TO VARY INTENSITY LEVELS SO THAT SHORT BURSTS OF HIGH ENERGY ARE FOLLOWED BY SHORT REST PERIODS THAT ENABLE YOU TO GO THE DISTANCE AND RETAIN ENERGY FOR A STRONG FINISH.
