The Breath Check: How a BJJ Mental Game Technique Can Improve Your Life
My BJJ instructor Jake has something he reminds all of us students about during the self-defense aspects of BJJ training: ask two simple questions: “Can I breathe? Am I getting hit in the face?”
The point to this BJJ mental game is simple: if yes to either, you need to take immediate action to fix the problem. If no to both, then don’t panic and plan your next move. For regular rolling, the first question alone usually suffices. This became what I now call my breath check—a simple but powerful way to assess any challenging situation.
More Than Just Safety Questions
What started as tactical advice evolved into something deeper. Shifting attention to breathing doesn’t just give information—it instantly pulls me out of unconscious reaction patterns. It’s like a circuit breaker that gets me off autopilot.
There’s solid science behind why this works. Controlled breathing, especially slow exhales, activates your parasympathetic nervous system and slows your heart rate.
But I’ve found it does something more useful: It creates a ‘third-party’ perspective where I step outside myself and can observe what’s happening rather than being caught up in it. This shift moves me from unconscious reaction – that ancient part of our brain designed for immediate survival – to conscious response, where I can actually choose my actions.
The System in Action on the Mats
This breath assessment distinguishes between two completely different types of situations requiring different responses.
Immediate serious situation: If I can’t breathe or I’m getting hit, I need urgent action NOW. I still need to think, but there’s no time for planning—just escape or defend immediately.
Uncomfortable but workable: If I can breathe and I’m not getting hit, I can think my way through methodically. I might still be in a bad position that could get worse fast, but I can work intelligently rather than panicking.
I’ll never forget my blue belt test—a 45-minute shark tank where multiple players step in and you roll continuously. At one point, a higher-ranked belt was on me in top side control, I couldn’t move and was getting smashed, and he continued to position himself to essentially smother me with his chest covering my face.
I felt a wave of panic wash over me like I had not experienced before in BJJ.
Then I remembered the breath check: can I breathe?
The answer was yes, right now I can barely do it, but yes. I had a moment to fix the problem.
And then, suddenly, I realized if I turend my head slightly to the side, I could breathe more easily. I did that, and suddenly, I could breathe.
I was still uncomfortable, but I was safe, and I realized he’d need to move to another position to do anything else. I survived until the round ended by staying calm and thinking rather than panicking and tapping to pressure alone.
Looking back, I realized the panic wasn’t because I couldn’t breathe, but from my fear of what was coming next. The breath check helped me distinguish between anticipatory fear and actual emergency.
Sometimes this assessment reveals I’m holding my breath entirely, but other times it’s about finding small adjustments that make breathing easier.
Just making that conscious check and improving my breathing situation changes everything.
The position that felt overwhelming becomes manageable once I’m getting better airflow and oxygen to my brain.
Recognizing a Decades-Old Pattern
What struck me later is that this conscious framework for BJJ was something I had been doing in business for years. During my executive years, in challenging conversations with board members, business partners, or team members, I had learned to check myself almost unconsciously—slowing my breathing and getting grounded in what I called my “base,” where I could see the situation from outside rather than being caught up in it.
Early in my career, when I had to speak in front of large groups, I made it a priority to visit the meeting room beforehand and stand behind the podium. I’d look out over the empty room, imagine it filled with people, and take slow, deep breaths while visualizing my upcoming presentation. This simple technique took less than two minutes but worked wonders in helping me stay grounded when it was time to address the audience.
I used to think of this as placing myself on the crest of a wave and remaining there, without falling behind where I’d get caught up in mind chatter and lose position.
I hadn’t connected this business skill to what I was learning on the mats until months of BJJ practice revealed the broader pattern. This is so common—we get into something new and become so overwhelmed with complexity that we lose sight of helpful connections from other areas.
The Power of Conscious Non-Action
Sometimes this assessment reveals something unexpected: I don’t need to do anything right now. In BJJ, this might mean staying patient in a bad position instead of forcing an escape that could make things worse.
In business, it might mean listening instead of feeling like I need to respond immediately to every comment.
This connects to what Sadhguru calls “response-ability“—your ability to respond consciously rather than just react. The breath check gives me that pause between stimulus and response where I can actually choose.
There’s something powerful about realizing that no action is also an action when it comes from conscious assessment rather than being frozen or overwhelmed.
Making It Automatic
Building this habit took practice. On the mats, I had to remind myself to check: “Am I breathing at all?” during intense rolls. In business settings, I started noticing when my breathing patterns changed during stress.
The system works because it’s simple enough to remember under pressure but sophisticated enough to give useful information. Two questions for self-defense. One question for regular rolling and daily life: “How am I breathing?”
I have also become much more aware of my opponents’ breathing during rolls. As an older grappler, I’m very happy when my much younger opponent is spending much more energy than me—their breathing tells me when I can wait patiently for them to tire.
A Universal Skill
What began as tactical advice from my instructor became a way to access my body’s built-in wisdom about what any situation actually requires.
Whether I’m defending a submission or navigating a challenging conversation, the principle is the same: pause, breathe, assess what’s actually happening, then choose my response accordingly.
The breath check has become my go-to circuit breaker whenever I notice myself getting caught up in unconscious reaction patterns.
It’s available anytime, anywhere, and it gives me real information about both the situation and my internal state.
Sometimes the most practical wisdom comes from recognizing patterns we’ve already developed. Those simple questions helped me see a skill I’d been refining for decades.
