Every now and then I just absolutely forget all that I've learned in the last 4.5 years, throw it out the window and give in to the urge to grapple with pure aggression. This past Sunday was a day of just that. Rather then focusing on movement and position, I thought I could bull my way through one of my instructors to eventually tap him. If you understand the nature of the BJJ belt ranking system and the skill level required to achieve each rank, you know how unlikely it is for a blue-belt to submit a black-belt. Unless maybe the black-belt has had several bottles of wine and is sporting a broken leg!
This primal desire to smash everything in sight is actually a common dynamic all BJJ practitioners deal with. It comes from the internal need to win all the time. This is one of the most fascinating components of BJJ in my opinion. Dealing with the victories and defeats on the mat challenge the very core of the practitioner. Chris Story calls it 'Soul Searching'.
So here's what I learned last week (this post is one week late!):
- Slow down! (discussed above)
- Ankle pick from open guard position
- Passing the guard using a knee joust
- Stuffing the under hook as I pass the guard
- Side control is about moving and adjusting
- Know when to abandon a position and move to the next while defending
- Slow down! (needed to be mentioned again)
