Once Leo Tolstoy wrote:
“I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible... except by getting off his back.”
When I first read that quote, I immediately thought: Hm… the guy was doing BJJ!?
Jokes aside, Friday evening’s class was good.
The warm-up was quite intense, with lots of bear crawls combined with push-ups and scissor sit-ups without interruption. After that, we worked in groups of three. One person started either in side control or mount. The person underneath had to escape, while the one on top tried to finish a submission. As soon as one exchange ended, the third person jumped in immediately, without a break. Every couple of minutes, the instructor gave a signal, and we switched positions, so another person started at the bottom.
It was a very good and useful exercise. Later, we did the same thing from back control.
At the end of the class, I had three rounds of free rolling, each about five or six minutes long. One of them was a white-belt who was much younger and far more athletic than I was. Honestly, all I did was try to avoid being submitted.
My last round was with a purple belt who was about 10 years younger than me. I always enjoy rolling with him because he does everything slowly and precisely. You can learn a lot from him.
This time, after the round, he explained something important to me. While he was controlling my leg in half guard, I was focused on trying to choke him or attack his arm. But I wasn’t paying enough attention to escaping the half guard itself. He told me that escaping and freeing the leg should be my first priority. As long as he controls my leg, he is controlling me.
A very good point to remember for the future.
I’m always very thankful for advice like that.
Add comment
Comments