I have been training BJJ, GI of course cuz Im lazy and like holding on to fast people instead of moving, since Feb 2011. I am blue belt as of Dec 2011. One of things I have issues with is my strength. At first my strength only delayed the inevitable of being submitted. Fast forward a crap load of private lessons and training 3 days a week in addition, I have come to this conclusion as a HW:
I have to always make minor adjustments to the technique cuz my legs are big and I lack that crazy flexibility my instructor and all the students have
Since I train in PL I am very explosive and strong. I have yet to come across any HW who is stronger than me in tourneys or in practice. Which brings me to my dilemma. I hate to use strength but my game is to be slow and methodical as I work the opponent into a submission of my choice.
I try to put myself in training into a lot undesireable positions so I can work on technique and practice getting out of various positions but in the back of mind I am thinking as I let a person go knee on belly is I could easily flip you, explode out or I think I should have just been agressive and take the offensive from the start of training and finish you off.
I realize BJJ was modified by a person who is small and lack strength, but now I am thinking along those same lines as how to modify BJJ for a big person who has strength and size.
Would I be doing myself a disservice by being aggressive all the time in class and always attack or should I continue to take a passive approach and let the others try to work their game as I wait for an opportunity to sweep and then submit? My instructor just says slap hands and kick their butt. BJJ is about the win and it is not going to be pretty all the time.
I feel if I take the approach I want to and always attack, then my defense may suffer. But if I play defense then my attack may suffer.
You rather listen to a bunch of strangers then your instructor?
I can’t speak for BJJ, but sports in general everybody has strenghts and weaknesses. Those who make their strength unstoppable usually prevail. People do BJJ/sports for years. When you get to the point that you don’t lose for 6months/1 year… long ass time, then you can worry about your weaknesses. In the beginning your strength may just be a figment of your imagination, or something others have not gotten used to yet.
Would I be doing myself a disservice by being aggressive all the time in class and always attack or should I continue to take a passive approach and let the others try to work their game as I wait for an opportunity to sweep and then submit? My instructor just says slap hands and kick their butt. BJJ is about the win and it is not going to be pretty all the time.
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Of course you always want to be as technical as possible because you may (or will) come across someone who is stronger or at least as strong as you.
When training with smaller and weaker people (which seems to be everybody in your case at the moment) I would say to go “easy” with those who are less experienced or around your level. When you roll with people who are higher ranking than you, you should be more aggressive, use your weight more, because they should have the technical level to deal with it and if not, it will teach them to. As you said: BJJ was modified by a small guy to deal with bigger guys so if someone who is supposed to have superior technique than you can’t deal with your physical advantages then it exposes a flaw in their game.
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
You rather listen to a bunch of strangers then your instructor?
I can’t speak for BJJ, but sports in general everybody has strenghts and weaknesses. Those who make their strength unstoppable usually prevail. People do BJJ/sports for years. When you get to the point that you don’t lose for 6months/1 year… long ass time, then you can worry about your weaknesses. In the beginning your strength may just be a figment of your imagination, or something others have not gotten used to yet.[/quote]
It’s not that I am not listening to my instructor, but there is a translation problem. He is from brazil and can speak english but the comprehension and context of conversation is lost to him which is understandable.
As far as strength being a figment, well all I can say is that the heaviest I have went against in a tournament is 331Lbs and I was able to move him around with sweeps and control him with relative ease.
And its not been about winning or losing is more on the point of if I stay aggressive all the time will I be hurting myself when the time comes when I am nullified by a more physical player than I am.
Would I be doing myself a disservice by being aggressive all the time in class and always attack or should I continue to take a passive approach and let the others try to work their game as I wait for an opportunity to sweep and then submit? My instructor just says slap hands and kick their butt. BJJ is about the win and it is not going to be pretty all the time.
[/quote]
Of course you always want to be as technical as possible because you may (or will) come across someone who is stronger or at least as strong as you.
When training with smaller and weaker people (which seems to be everybody in your case at the moment) I would say to go “easy” with those who are less experienced or around your level. When you roll with people who are higher ranking than you, you should be more aggressive, use your weight more, because they should have the technical level to deal with it and if not, it will teach them to. As you said: BJJ was modified by a small guy to deal with bigger guys so if someone who is supposed to have superior technique than you can’t deal with your physical advantages then it exposes a flaw in their game. [/quote]
Don’t be scared of using your physicality (it’s a contact sport after all, being strong/fit/flexible is part of it). But don’t let it hold your technique back.
SergeantQ- It kind of depends what you are doing. If you are starting from the neutral position and rolling full go I say act just like you would in a real match. If you find that that means you are always on top and never in a bad spot, you could do some situaltional live rolling to get used to that stuff. For instance if you are always the person on top when you start neutral and go live, get bottom exp. by starting out in the bottom position and going live from there. You need to be ready for anything, if you want to be prepared to win.
You know your technique is good when you can do the moves on someone smaller than you without using an ounce of strength. You can always go hard with good technique once the time to go hard has arrived. However you will find it more difficult to use good technique when that time comes if you rely on your strength in practice.
Your strength and size aren’t going anywhere, but if you don’t put them aside and develop your technique, strategy/set-ups, and timing you will never reach your potential in BJJ. And when you do eventually meet someone who can meet or exceed you physically (I’d be willing to bet my instructor Charlie Lysak would fall into that category), it will be the one with the better skills who prevails. You can always pull your strength ace card out if need be, but the reverse doesn’t usually hold true.
Everyone makes great points. What I have found is that my instructor totally nullifies my strength and is like 6 steps ahead of me all the damn time…I hate he knows everything I know LOL. Oh well, Monday at class I took some pointers and let the smaller guys crawl over me and chose to defend and look for holes and sweep attempts. However, the more experienced guys, I just let them have it.
I received a lot of good feedback from the experience guys stating that is what they needed in order better their game because I had them pinned and cooked them for a while just to tire them out in order to work into an easy submission. The smaller and/or inexperienced guys were also thankful for me letting them work their offensive game because they always feel they are just trying to survive and hardly ever get a chance to attack.
I believe I will follow this path because I also learned some holes in my game where I would rely on strength and not work for the set up/reversal or sweep attempt.