Tonight my judo/BJJ plans fell through with my nephews, so we had a friend over for some 3rd-of-July burger grilling. I had my mats out in the living room so we decided to horse around. My buddy has never had any martial arts training - he just works out a couple times a day religiously. His "style" (if you'd call it that) is brawler/wrestler. A real Tank Abbott, but really lean and in shape.
Los is strong as an ox, and can really crush you with his mere 168 pounds. Feels more like 230 when he's crushing you. Early on, I had a successful Leg Hook Takedown (that I've been watching on the Gracie Combatives DVDs), right into mount and pretty quickly got an Americana on him. For the next 4 or 5 rounds, Los would end up giving up his back. I'd rear mount and go for RNC after RNC, but I think the muscles in his neck kept getting between me and his arteries. I did pretty well maintaining rear mount though, and I was able to conserve my energy while he spent all of his trying to get out.
As the night went on, I got less and less successful, and had to tap more and more. Los figured out that keeping control of my arms pretty much neutralizes me. I've noticed this trend with Cody and Trey as well - they're much stronger than me, so they can clamp down on my arms and keep me from moving or getting any leverage. I was thinking "Why is it I have so many freakishly strong friends?", then it dawned on me: I may just be freakishly weak.
In any case, I need (at some point), to learn how to deal with much stronger opponents, because so far, even if they're "unskilled", I'm not able to prevail.
What did I observe tonight?
1) I actually saw my opponent gas out while I calmly conserved my energy. That was pretty neat.
2) I eventually need to learn to deal with opponents who use unorthodox methods and strategies.
3) I need to develop a little more strength of my own (and a LOT more technique)
4) Practical proficiency in this stuff is going to take time.
While arm strength will help, on a long list of things that are critical, I'd put it near the bottom. Keep working technique, focus on leverage, good hip movement and creating advantageous angles.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the input Steve!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I keep telling my wife "This stuff is supposed to work against much stronger people..."
I've only got about 10 months of Judo instruction so far...so I guess it's still hard not to try to muscle through things, even though I'm not really equipped for that.