You can definitely see who came in with more skills, aggression and “gameness” vs who came in with simply more size. But to Paul’s credit, he also had a very solid chin.
But what I really appreciate is another solid goon technique here: make the little guy carry your load. Paul is pretty much looking to clinch the entire fight, mainly because it will stop Cal from hitting him so damn much. But you can also see how, every single time he gets it, he leans ALL his bodyweight into Cal. It’s such an awesome thing to do when you’re bigger and heavier, because it gives YOU a chance to breathe and makes the other guy have to work twice as hard.
And you can see how this eventually sets Paul up for success: he wears down Cal’s neck and core muscles so much that he can no longer keep an upright posture, and down comes the good night elbow strike from above, with the weight of a 300lb polar bear behind it.
I’d love to check something out, but there’s just not really much in area. To be exact, I think there’s one place. Supposed to be BJJ I think, and it’s quite new. I’ve only heard from one guy about it, and he didn’t seem to like it, but I can’t tell if it’s because he just didn’t like it or because the guy running it isn’t any good. I plan on checking it out, maybe this summer. I do wish there were a few options, maybe something established, in case it’s not that great.
I’d like to try boxing, but no boxing gyms here. I never wrestled in school but I think it’d be cool to have some type of wrestling “knowledge.” I’ve never heard of a wrestling gym being a thing - adults with no high school/college experience getting wrestling training? Does that exist anywhere?
I had heard of it and checked it out. All of those expensive tutorials aren’t for me. I do recall having a newly-minted blue belt (different school) in my basement for open mats who was all excited about his new Danaher DVD material he was eager to share. So instead of, I don’t know, listening to my coach teach he wanted to teach us all the new secret sauce.
It didn’t work at all and I easily tapped him out. The really amusing part is that when he was getting easily handled by my instructor he actually though he was “close” to tapping him out.
Different schools, different standards for belts for sure. Different training priorities, too.
This is a fundamental concept in BJJ for all sizes, but big guy pressure can just be so nasty. If you know how to hold mount while basically going limp and acting like a bag of bricks it can be totally grueling. That’s called “cooking them”. Never used that on the job, but it was there for me if I needed it.
Well, that would explain why all of your bouncing encounters were cake-walks!
It could be that, but “a buddy said the guys were dicks” kept me off of the mats for at least a few years before I went and found out for myself. Chances are you’re not getting world-class instruction out in the Dakotas, but you might be surprised. Maine lucked out big time with our local hardass factory, which is only located in Maine because his wife (a relatively big-name MMA pioneer) is a Mainer.
I assume ya’ll emphasized laying on the lungs and obscuring breathing points as well. I know that was a big emphasis. Get people uncomfortable so that they start making mistakes.
I used little dirty tricks in wrestling for a similar effect, and try to keep this on the topic of goonery in that regard. I would often bait moves that I could muscle out of purely as a means to demoralize and “punish” the other competitor. Specifically, the chicken wing
You THINK the advantage is being the guy applying the move, but I was a bad wrestler and a good lifter, so typically I had stronger arms than the dude applying the move. So I’d let me arm hang out, let them sink it in, grab my own arm like the kid in the photo, and basically try to break the dudes forearm across my own back.
I never succeeded in doing that (of course), but after 2 or 3 times doing it, dudes would quit going for the chicken wing, because they realized it f**king HURT. It gave me some freedom to maneuver in a match. Muscling out of armbars can be similar too, among other subs.
Nobody’s ever put in in terms of “laying on the lungs”, but that’s the same basic idea that’s been imparted to me. Make them carry as much of your weight as you can saddle them with when you’re in advantageous positions you can maintain. This can be miserable from top positions.
Smothers are encouraged. Smothers produce reactions. Smothers are good technique, in the right circumstances. Just use a free hand to stop them from breathing through their mouth with your palm and through their nose with your thumb and forefinger. Prioritize covering the mouth. The goal is not to kill them, but to make them react in a very stupid and panicked manner that will help you win the struggle.
I never used smothers one on the job because I didn’t need to and would never want to be filmed doing this to someone outside of training or necessity! It even got me a “what the fuck dude?” out of someone in training who had somehow trained for years without anyone trying to smother him. He was cool with it once the instructor explained that it was legit grappling.
Smothering is knocking on the front door first, in the right circumstances.
You call yourself a goon, but now you’re flirting with the realm of trained technique. Still, you’re explaining grappling as I’ve come to understand it, which involves a lot of playing off of your opponent’s bad reactions, which you can often get just by being stronger and/or bigger. I suppose you get a pass.
This requires some awareness to do safely, but a big strength edge definitely gives some advantages to armbar escapes against sloppy armbars. Fortunately for us goons, most armbars are sloppy armbars that give you space to muscle out, grit yourself out, and even smash yourself out of.
You’re stronger than I am, but even the weakest legitimate BJJ Black Belt can deadlift more than you can curl, and that’s really all an armbar is. A deadlift pitted against a curl, if you can get the mechanics right. Fortunately for us goons, not many can execute an armbar that cleanly.
Goon strength definitely gives you a lot of opportunities to muscle out of submissions in the moments that are present when black belts are absent, which is to say every unexpected fight you’re ever likely to be in.
I’m sure you also deal with individuals where you’re not quite sure WHERE their mouth has been, haha.
Oh absolutely. It’s not to say that strength is some sort of super power that will overcome master level technique, but more a unique variable to play that can work well against those unaccustomed to it. Solid technique is MEANT to overcome strength, but less than solid technique has room for play.
Old UFC’s are a lot more illustrative of how real fights go than any of the modern era-stuff, where nearly everyone has an overlapping, well-refined skillset and fights within a weight class. Other advantages spoken of back in the 90’s include being from Nebraska, having a nickname like “Earthquake”, and wrestling in high school.
Some of the guys at work watch Streetbeefs on their break. Most of the fights looked bad on a lot of levels and there are weight classes, but it still gives insight into what incomplete skillsets and different attributes pitted against one another can look like in a fight.
Here was one I saw earlier today that I thought was a great display of size and strength by both guys. Mammoth was the more skilled fighter but his conditioning was the major factor in this fight, which is another trainable attribute for everyone.
As you can see in a fight like this, conditioning effectively lets you have super-goon powers if the fight goes long enough for conditioning to be a factor. The gassed person is severely handicapped. Anyone who has trained to exhaustion understands that the brain says go but your body can’t do the thing that it can when you’re fresh.
Stee is a big, bad dude for sure. He can hit, he can get hit and he can stay focused on the fight. Stee may not be high-level striker and he may not be a great grappler but you can tell he’s used to being a wrecking ball with his size and strength. Notice how he just bullies the wall-pin and hammers away on a guy with an applicable nickname of “Mammoth”.
You can also tell he’s used to winning fast, but Mammoth had a say in how that went.
Finally, notice how this “MMA” fight stayed on the feet. Neither of those guys looked like easy take-downs in the first minute of the fight. Maybe a gi or street clothes changes that, but maybe it doesn’t. Time going by certainly did. Even though this one didn’t go to the ground, both of those guys would have been much, much easier to take down after the first minute, especially by the 2nd round.
Got an update for you @twojarslave.
Dad- What are doing in the morning?
Me- Group call with owners at 10.
Dad- Got a bull to tqke to sale barn. He’s already charged me twice yesterday.
Me- Gulp,okay
15 minutes of dancing in a 5 x 40ft chute - brains conquered brawn and he has a new set of women cows to dance with.
A little Friday funny to share with all of you combateers.
Honestly I see more psychosis recently from Fantasy, probably in the last 18 months. Lots of people use meth for sure, and as a by product are more volatile and violent but in terms of flat out psychosis not as much as you’d think.
Not a “fight” but a pretty fun video of MMA flyweight great Demetrius Johnson in the the absolute division of the IBJJF Masters BJJ tournament. Some HUGE opponents.
