1. The “Death Grip”

The Behavior: You grab your opponent’s collar or sleeve, and you squeeze as hard as you possibly can. Two minutes later, your forearms are burning, your fingers hurt, and you have zero energy left.

Why It Happens: It’s a natural stress response. You feel unstable, so you hold on for dear life.

The Fix: Relax your hands. In BJJ, efficient grips are about hooking and using your skeletal structure, not just squeezing muscle. If you are holding on so tight that your knuckles are white, let go and reset. Save your grip strength for when you really need it.

2. Holding Your Breath

The Behavior: You finish a 5-minute round and feel like you just ran a marathon, even though you didn’t move that much. You are gasping for air and your face is red.

Why It Happens: When we concentrate intensely or feel threatened, we tend to hold our breath. This deprives your muscles of oxygen and causes rapid fatigue (gassing out).

The Fix: Make breathing a conscious part of your training at Essence BJJ. Focus on exhaling. If you can control your breath, you can control your anxiety and your energy levels.

3. “Youtube Syndrome”

The Behavior: You saw a cool flying submission or a complex “Berimbolo” on Instagram, and you try to do it during sparring before you even know how to escape side control.

Why It Happens: Advanced moves look cool! It’s natural to want to do the flashy stuff.

The Fix: Trust the process. You have to learn the alphabet before you can write poetry. Focus on the fundamental techniques your instructor is teaching. A solid hip escape is worth infinitely more to a white belt than a fancy spinning attack.

4. Treating Every Roll Like the Mundials Finals

The Behavior: You are sparring at 110% intensity. You are grunting, thrashing, and using every ounce of strength to avoid being tapped or to force a submission.

Why It Happens: Ego. No one likes to “lose,” even in practice.

The Fix: Remember that training is for learning, not winning. If you use 100% strength, you aren’t learning technique; you are just exercising. Slow down. If you get caught in a submission, tap, smile, and ask, “How did you do that?” That is how you grow.

5. Apologizing Too Much

The Behavior: “Sorry I’m clumsy,” “Sorry I’m heavy,” “Sorry I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Why It Happens: You feel like a burden to your training partners.

The Fix: Stop apologizing! You are supposed to be learning. We were all clumsy white belts once. Your training partners are there to help you, and they respect you simply for showing up and trying. Instead of saying “Sorry,” try saying “Thank you for the help.”