Yeah, even though I’m female I don’t like rolling with women. Women always tell me I’m being too rough, or putting too much weight on them. For the most part I can’t deal with it. I work with girls when it’s their first day of class, and they don’t necessarily know what they’ve walked into, for self defense classes, or if they’re higher belts. White belt girls I just point them towards the ‘gentlemen’. At first I felt bad about it, but now I’m selfish.
BJJ is more laid back then most combat sports, there are plenty of opportunities for lazy rolling. No MMA person I’ve rolled with has ever understood this though, I think it’s personality types that are attracted to different sports. You can’t really lazily practice strikes, lol.
Hey there psh!! Just wanted to add my thoughts to your posts…Alot of what you say rings a bell with me! I have been struggling with my karate for the past 2 years. One of the reasons for my struggles is it can be hard to get a ‘real’ workout sometimes due to your partner. I have come to the conclusion of a few things
Tell the guys they are doing you no favor by being a ‘gentlemen’ Rolling with a gentlemen will not save your ass when some phycho rapist wants to roll, nor will it save your ass when you have to roll with Mrs. Godzilla! Sometimes putting it out there (the reasons you WANT the challenge) helps Or maybe he’s just a woosey and is intimidated by you !
The ladies thinking you are too rough is a tough one… especially when you get into the higher belts. The way I see it is if you have stuck with it into the higher belts then you should be able to handle some roughness! I try to avoid the ones that shy away from everything but if I am paired with someone like that I usually will perform the exercise nicely and then ask them if they would like me to do it a bit harder so that they will know if they can actually pull their defense off if challenged in a real situation…coz thats what its all about!
Being in someones elses body space effects everyone differently and usually it is not until the higher belts that people actually become more comfortable with ‘willingly’ letting someone in or ‘pushing’ into someones else’s space and the reactions in this learning period are all so different. Its never pretty
Sounds like you really like your BJJ and have a ton of desire to kick ass at it!! Keep at it…your log inspires me to keep with it!
Hey Gal! I’ve actually been doing BJJ for almost 3 years now, and have encountered most of these issues previously. Sometimes they’re still annoying though.
[quote]coyotegal wrote:
Hey there psh!! Just wanted to add my thoughts to your posts…Alot of what you say rings a bell with me! I have been struggling with my karate for the past 2 years. One of the reasons for my struggles is it can be hard to get a ‘real’ workout sometimes due to your partner. I have come to the conclusion of a few things :)[/quote]
I spent a little while thinking that as a blue belt, I should always go with white belts and help them learn, this though meant that I was never learning. Of course you learn while teaching, but not the same as when you’re working with someone on your level and you’re both learning. So now, I try to find a balance between new people as partners and guys that know what they’re doing.
I think if every guy was a ‘gentlemen’ it would be more of an issue, but I know most of the guys styles by now. Some go hard, some go easy, some actually know the difference between the two. I’m still occasionally surprised though and that can be frustrating. Whenever I’m rolling with someone new, I assume they’re going to go full go. That way in case they do I’m protected. If I realize they’re not going full go, and I want to I’ll put a bit of pressure on them and do some damage. Most of the time when a girl starts to beat them, guys will turn it on. It’s actually something you can feel. Sometimes though, you want a 25% roll and neither person goes full go. Words rarely work.
Oh, gotta run an errand, I’ll finish the rest in a bit.
[quote]coyotegal wrote:
2. The ladies thinking you are too rough is a tough one… especially when you get into the higher belts. The way I see it is if you have stuck with it into the higher belts then you should be able to handle some roughness! I try to avoid the ones that shy away from everything but if I am paired with someone like that I usually will perform the exercise nicely and then ask them if they would like me to do it a bit harder so that they will know if they can actually pull their defense off if challenged in a real situation…coz thats what its all about![/quote]
I’m the only female in the academy. I’ve only gotten to roll with one higher belt female in the 3 years I’ve been doing this, so my experience doesn’t really apply to high belt women, but to new girls.
[quote]3. Being in someones elses body space effects everyone differently and usually it is not until the higher belts that people actually become more comfortable with ‘willingly’ letting someone in or ‘pushing’ into someones else’s space and the reactions in this learning period are all so different. Its never pretty
Sounds like you really like your BJJ and have a ton of desire to kick ass at it!! Keep at it…your log inspires me to keep with it!
[/quote]
This is an interesting topic. I am the only female instructor in our karate club, so I end up training mostly with the men as well. I think it makes me a better fighter in the end. But I do have to agree with finding a balance. When we are doing sparring drills I try and split it 50/50 so I am still helping the new students, but I am also still getting some valid training myself.
What I find with the new students in karate is that they are afraid to attack, afriad to hit. I try and get them to work more aggressively with me while I work on defense. I do agree that quite often words don’t work.
Now I do run into the ‘gentlemen’ at dodgeball. They usually stop though after I’ve caught a few of their throws. We usually say that you know when your skill is respected when the men don’t let up on their throws.
[quote]LastStand wrote:
This is an interesting topic. I am the only female instructor in our karate club, so I end up training mostly with the men as well. I think it makes me a better fighter in the end. But I do have to agree with finding a balance. When we are doing sparring drills I try and split it 50/50 so I am still helping the new students, but I am also still getting some valid training myself. [/quote]
Yeah, it’s a difficult balance to try to find. At first I felt obligated to always go with whatever female was in the room, or to make sure that I was with a white belt, but that gets old fast. While it’s possible to learn from people who know nothing, it’s hard and sometimes annoying. So, I only work with new kids when I really feel like it. No one wants to deal with my cranky pants anyway.
[quote] What I find with the new students in karate is that they are afraid to attack, afriad to hit. I try and get them to work more aggressively with me while I work on defense. I do agree that quite often words don’t work.
Now I do run into the ‘gentlemen’ at dodgeball. They usually stop though after I’ve caught a few of their throws. We usually say that you know when your skill is respected when the men don’t let up on their throws.
Anyway I love reading about your bjj classes![/quote]
Guys, classes yesterday were awesome. Our coach teaches an intro to BJJ class at a CF gym, and since I missed everything on Sunday I tagged along to it. The class was only me and three other guys, so it was really informal. He asked if we had questions, and I let the CF guys ask all of their questions, and they asked about a few things I had never seen before. So, I’m just going to go over what I was glad to see. It’s going to be a lot of little posts in between chores.
Escaping the Guillotine from the knees.
Man, if you watch enough UFC you’ll realize that a lot of fighters seem to not know any basic ways to get out of the guillotine. Seriously wtf? Anyway, if you’re in the gullotine on your knees, first take away some of the pressure. With the hand farthest from their body, grab their wrist and pull it down. To be the strongest at this don’t pull down relative to the floor. You’re not defending against the floor. Pull down against your body thus engaging your back. With the other arm grab over their shoulder so some of your weight is off your neck and onto their body. Once you get a breath, put the arm that’s closest to the body between their arm and body to wedge the grip a little loose, then do a wrestler sit through to the side they have you neck trapped on. Keep your grip on the wrist the whole time, and when you sit through you have a kimura behind their back.
Then we talked about the importance of creating frames, and how to use them to control hips. When mounted, if you create a really strong frame against their hips with your arms, you can keep them from getting a higher mount. The only submissions that don’t involve high mount are chokes, and to defend chokes, you bump. It was actually pretty cool to play with. I ended up with a guy that was around 220 and in the 6’3 range so being mounted wasn’t easy. Keeping a frame on their hips and incorporating that into the elbow escape was awesomely easy though.
Then we used the same idea of frames to escape the technical mount. That’s when you’re on your side and they’re sitting on your side rather than flat on your back. We created a similar frame on their hips, but rather than pushing on it, we used it to keep them in place and moved ourselves toward their knee to lighten the foot.
Using the frames to escape helped a lot with my understanding of how to keep mount. The key is to be low enough on their body that they can’t touch your hips. So, I was kinda getting this but I kept getting swept the other day. I asked about and he showed to hook the leg and sprawl on the side that he’s bumping from. But then I couldn’t figure out how to choke them from the top of the mount at the same time. He said to pretend I was a sky diver and all of my weight is in my torso, but one hand across thier neck and they won’t bump. That one arm across the neck is killer. He demonstrated it on me and the room actually fuzzed out (you know that about to pass out feeling). It’ll be great to try to use next time I roll.
We started going over a few details on finishing the Americana, but didn’t get to finish, so I went to the next class.
I asked about finishes from the ‘beatdown,’ it’s when you have both of their arms trapped and are laying across their body. So legs trap one arm, and arm/head traps the other. He said to go to americanas. We got a lot of awesome tips on the finish. To prevent the bump hook a leg and sprawl. Keep your head close to theirs to finish. Trap their arm between your bicep and forearm. If they defend, you can finish it still by immobilizing the shoulder by sitting on it! Overall, really cool stuff.
Cool, a bjj log. I’ve been thinking about learning this (my balance is so crappy I’m sure that if I tried to learn any other martial art I’d spend most of the time on the ground anyway). I’m going to enjoy reading through your log.
I just point them towards the ‘gentlemen’. At first I felt bad about it, but now I’m selfish.
