"I've been back to training BJJ after being stopped for more than 2 months, but i keep feeling winded, i know i'll eventually get to the point were my body will adapt but one of the things i wanna do is actually be way better than i was before. Which leads me to my question, how do you improve your roll stamina and endurance, besides continuously rolling and doing drills is there any other way, or a better more efficient way?"
The answer to your question is in the question itself. Barring any cardio, strength endurance training, and diet, the best way to increase your endurance is to be more efficient with how you expend energy. Below is a step by step guide on how to do so, but to maximize how successful you will be, you need to be prepared to seemingly do worse in your rolls before you do better. This is the nature of breaking down your game and investigating your fundamental approach.
Step 1. Commit.
Great rewards await you. I promise. Everything I list below, I did. After a year I saw a profound change in my Jiu Jitsu. In fact, I reached a whole new level.
Step 2. Lose your ego.
You are about to change your approach to a roll. The usual things you use to gauge how successful you are (how many submissions you get, how many times you tap, etc.) will not be relevant.
Step 3. Become an observer.
Get out of your head and experience the roll as an observer. Every time you train FEEL the roll. Feel every detail. Feel what your opponent does. Feel which muscles are activated and when. Feel your balance. In other words be present.
Step 4. Use only the muscles necessary to complete a movement.
Being tense is exhausting and the tenser you are, the less fluid you are and the less you are able to react. Observe every movement. Feel which muscles are activating. Ask yourself which muscles are actually needed. Do not expend energy when you don’t have to. For example, do you really need to be gripping someone’s lapel hard if they are not moving or trying to break your grip?
Step 5. Stop insisting on positions that expend a lot of energy.
Rather than linearly resisting your opponent. Look to bypass their strength by changing directions, etc.
Step 6. Be efficient with your movement.
You have begun to relax. You have learned to let go of your ego. You are present with the roll. You will begin to see (feel) the whole of what’s going on. You will begin to feel what your opponent is doing before they do it. Your understanding of Jiu Jitsu has deepened. Now is the time that you are going to begin thinking outside of the box. You are going to take what you have learned and find painfully obvious and easy alternatives to forcing techniques. Your cardio can last forever.
Do this for a year. I promise that with commitment your mind will be blown.
