I had an interesting conversation the other day with one of my instructors about being willing to try things while you're rolling. He was saying that one thing I might try is to deliberately allow myself to get in bad positions or submissions in order to practice my escapes. How does this pertain to creativity? If you are confident in your ability to escape bad situations or submissions, you'll be more willing to get creative and try new things.
I'm trying a new (new-to-me, anyway) training philosophy lately. What I have been doing for a while is, with people who are better than me, I go hard and try crazy things. Invariably, I tap. A lot. But I learn little things here and there. The new thing I'm trying is, with people who are a little lower than my skill level, to let them pass my guard and get mount or side control or whatever and start working from there.
Last night, I tried this out with a white belt girl who has trouble being aggressive. I told her I only wanted to work escapes and that I wanted her to attack me. It worked out really well for both of us. She enjoyed working her attack game and it was great for me to work escapes and sweeps. Woohoo!!
Things are really, really bad.
2 months ago
9 comments:
Good for you! for you both, really...
One philosophy is that with your equals you play your best game.. your "tournament" game. With your betters, you play more conservatively, and with your lessers you play more freely, trying out the newer stuff in your arsenal.
I can't ever remember what it is I'm supposed to be doing, so I just do my best all the time :) I don't think there's much difference between my not-so-good and my good anyway!
I love this...it's a great example of a symbiotic relationship between different skill levels.
Watch this for more!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fz-wKTZsds
Good thinking Allie. I did that (start every roll from mount bottom) for about 6 months a year or two ago and it did wonders for my survival and escapes....and actually made me more aware of what the make-it-or-break-it details of top submissions are because I was facing so many of them.
Great way to make the best of your time on the mat.
@Georgette: lol! That's so funny because my coach has always told me the exact opposite. But I'm with you-- my "A" game isn't all that different from my...other game. lol.
@Megan: It has been working really well. Another added benefit on my side is that I also have time to predict what a person can do from whatever position they have on me and have time to plan an escape for things I think they might try. Sometimes my escape ideas don't work, but it's forcing me to plan ahead, which is something my game is lacking.
@ Jen: Thanks! Really cool to see a high level BJJ training regimen. It's cool how he took 30 second breaks to simulate a stall. And I like what he said about his training partners, about not winning or losing, not being better or worse than them based off of how they rolled that day. Great way to look at it.
@Liam: I hope I can take away some of the same things from all of his. At the very least, it will teach me not to panic when someone passes my guard.
Always a good idea to treat the mat as your laboratory: after all, you're in class to learn. Strangely enough, the post under this one in my Google Reader was quite relevant. :)
Thanks, Slidey. I definitely agree with what he was saying about making sure you don't get lost in aimless experiments. I'm definitely a Type A personality, so I like to have something to "work on".
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