I've been very sore from sparring daily. I don't think I can keep up this pace. I think I'll try not to spar every day, or just spar every other session. Or only spar just once. I want to spar more to learn more, but my body aches too much.
This past week, I finally got to spar with another white belt. He's a 4 stripe white belt, has been doing BJJ for about 2 years but coming just once or twice per week. He'd be a blue belt easily if he came more often, but sometimes he says he only comes 2x/month depending on how busy he is. We're about the same height, but I have at least 40 pounds on him. He's significantly better than me. I've been trying to learn how to spar lightly or to use less strength, since he's thinner than me and about my skill. (Actually, he's much much better.)
When I'm in his guard, it's hard for him to pass. I can't always break his guard, so I end up using an old wrestling move. I learn forward with him in my guard, and grab his head, and then get on both feet, then I pull his legs up. He's passed me a few times, but it's kind of unfair. Once I'm on top, if I'm in half guard I can get an Americana on him simply b/c of my strength and weight. Again, wrestlers are pretty good at head/top pressure, but I haven't wrestled competitively in 20 years and only in high school. Once he's in my guard however, I feel like I have the advantage. He's too light to do much. When he tries to break my guard by putting his elbow down, he often doesn't have much leverage. I'm strong enough to pull him down by the collar, and I put him in a triangle though I wasn't able to submit him. So I got him in an arm bar from the triangle, but still didn't have the angle right. He showed me how I needed to turn my body.
It was a great session. I can tell this guy would be excellent at BJJ if he had more time. He watches people and copies their moves, and he can explain each move step by step. I just go by instinct. I need to change this if I want to get better.
The strong 4 stripe blue belt that I spar with regularly, we rolled for 5 minutes. Everytime I roll with him, he submits me less. I found that I can get a lot of pressure on his head if I push forward and pin him down, of course I usually make a mistake and he submits me, but twice he tried an arm bar and I was able to get out by gripping my hands together and doing the walk around.
I suck at sparring, but I enjoy it. Most of the guys I spar with are upper belts, but I feel they're not taking it easy on me b/c I have a hard time relaxing so I don't go light + I'm usually bigger or stronger than them so my top pressure is strong, so they react and submit me. I have so much to learn. At least I know what I am, a middle aged fairly strong but inflexible white belt who has been training for almost 3 months. Every workout, BJJ intrigues me more. I'm still no obsessed about it like my friend, but I find myself liking the camaraderie and the workout. Most of all, I actually feel like I'm improving and enjoy thinking about the times I used to wrestle. It's not wrestling, but the feeling is like back when I was in high school. We'll see how far I go with this BJJ thing, for sure it's a sport I can do for a very very long time.
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