I've had more time in the evenings lately so I went to class 5 days straight. I'm still pretty sore. I was hoping to average 20 classes per month which is roughly 4x/week, but this month I'll have gone only 14 times or so with the holidays. Oh well.
Today's was an interesting session. I don't get to spar, so the highlight of the class is the positional sparring. I was assigned to a shorter thick young blue belt, and an older (maybe 50 years old) brown belt who had been doing BJJ for about 6 years. He said he usually can only make it 2x/week just on weekends. Anyways, when I was paired up with the young blue belt, I was so much bigger and stronger that I was actually able to grab his collar and nearly get a choke. Of course, I ended up doing something stupid like leaning over and then he'd roll me or trap and roll b/c I'm so top heavy. Still, he was more skilled than I was. It's just that as a blue belt he's still in the beginning stages of BJJ and my size/strength was a lot for him to get over, I had at least 6 inches 50 lbs on him at least.
When I did positional sparring with the older brown belt it was a totally different story. He was definitely weaker than me, but he held onto my collar and told me to pass guard. I couldn't do it. No matter what I did. I struggled, I tried to rip his arm off with two hands, I tried to push on his elbows, and the like. Really excellent technique. He said later on, I was using way too much strength, so he knew when to tighten up and when to relax and that he could have stayed on top of me for a long time while I was tired out trying to roll him or get his arms to do something. He taught me a few moves, mostly trying to chop the elbows in, and then using my other arm to grab the same arm and roll, or do something with it. I'm excited to try this next time.
BJJ is growing on me. In particular, I'm enjoying the positional sparring so that has been good. It's still not a great workout just yet without the full sparring, I see the guys after sparring classes and they are completely drenched in sweat. I'm sweaty, but it always depends on who I do the positional sparring with. If it's a lower level blue belt, like today, then it works out well b/c I can actually hang with him a bit and we can go for long periods of time. If it's a purple belt, unless he's way way smaller than me, I know I'm not going to get much of a workout since he'll either just submit me quickly or will spend the time teaching me which is great - but still not a workout.
I'm still 3 months from doing real sparring, but I think the GB system is good. I'm getting used to it and by the time I spar, I think I'll probably know what to do. Not sure yet. As a former wrestler, I can't help but try to get top mount or side mount, or even back. The whole putting someone in guard while on your back is something I'm not used to yet, and there are people who are really excellent at that. I'll keep going and see where this goes.
I'm most encouraged by the fact that there are people who are over 50, who are brown belts and one black belt who are quite skilled. Some of them started, like me, in their early 40's and can still spar with some of the younger guys. Of course the younger black belts would end up killing them simply b/c of superior speed, but the younger purple belts still don't have the technique to hang with an experienced older brown or black belt unless he has a huge size differential - at least in my opinion.
My biggest weakness (amongst many many weaknesses) in BJJ is that I can't multi task. The moment I try to go for a move, I totally am not thinking about defense and the other guy rolling me, passing my guard, or going for a leg tap or something like that. And, my 2nd weakness is that I use way too much strength. It's a better workout, but not good for BJJ. If one uses good technique, but spars regularly than it can be a good workout. However, one of the black belts who spars everyone, he's early 30's, he looks like he almost never breaks a sweat. He's so smooth and flexible, like a snake. It's cool watching him.
Today's was an interesting session. I don't get to spar, so the highlight of the class is the positional sparring. I was assigned to a shorter thick young blue belt, and an older (maybe 50 years old) brown belt who had been doing BJJ for about 6 years. He said he usually can only make it 2x/week just on weekends. Anyways, when I was paired up with the young blue belt, I was so much bigger and stronger that I was actually able to grab his collar and nearly get a choke. Of course, I ended up doing something stupid like leaning over and then he'd roll me or trap and roll b/c I'm so top heavy. Still, he was more skilled than I was. It's just that as a blue belt he's still in the beginning stages of BJJ and my size/strength was a lot for him to get over, I had at least 6 inches 50 lbs on him at least.
When I did positional sparring with the older brown belt it was a totally different story. He was definitely weaker than me, but he held onto my collar and told me to pass guard. I couldn't do it. No matter what I did. I struggled, I tried to rip his arm off with two hands, I tried to push on his elbows, and the like. Really excellent technique. He said later on, I was using way too much strength, so he knew when to tighten up and when to relax and that he could have stayed on top of me for a long time while I was tired out trying to roll him or get his arms to do something. He taught me a few moves, mostly trying to chop the elbows in, and then using my other arm to grab the same arm and roll, or do something with it. I'm excited to try this next time.
BJJ is growing on me. In particular, I'm enjoying the positional sparring so that has been good. It's still not a great workout just yet without the full sparring, I see the guys after sparring classes and they are completely drenched in sweat. I'm sweaty, but it always depends on who I do the positional sparring with. If it's a lower level blue belt, like today, then it works out well b/c I can actually hang with him a bit and we can go for long periods of time. If it's a purple belt, unless he's way way smaller than me, I know I'm not going to get much of a workout since he'll either just submit me quickly or will spend the time teaching me which is great - but still not a workout.
I'm still 3 months from doing real sparring, but I think the GB system is good. I'm getting used to it and by the time I spar, I think I'll probably know what to do. Not sure yet. As a former wrestler, I can't help but try to get top mount or side mount, or even back. The whole putting someone in guard while on your back is something I'm not used to yet, and there are people who are really excellent at that. I'll keep going and see where this goes.
I'm most encouraged by the fact that there are people who are over 50, who are brown belts and one black belt who are quite skilled. Some of them started, like me, in their early 40's and can still spar with some of the younger guys. Of course the younger black belts would end up killing them simply b/c of superior speed, but the younger purple belts still don't have the technique to hang with an experienced older brown or black belt unless he has a huge size differential - at least in my opinion.
My biggest weakness (amongst many many weaknesses) in BJJ is that I can't multi task. The moment I try to go for a move, I totally am not thinking about defense and the other guy rolling me, passing my guard, or going for a leg tap or something like that. And, my 2nd weakness is that I use way too much strength. It's a better workout, but not good for BJJ. If one uses good technique, but spars regularly than it can be a good workout. However, one of the black belts who spars everyone, he's early 30's, he looks like he almost never breaks a sweat. He's so smooth and flexible, like a snake. It's cool watching him.
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