Am I too "nice" on the mats?

you should roll hard and work your offense. I disagree about giving less experienced opponents superior position so you can work your defense. You develop bad habits wth doing this because simply, their attacks and offense aren't very good, they are beginners. You are basically working your defense against flawed attacks, causing bad habits. However, your attacks don't need them to be doing anything, just being a resisting body is good enough

When you roll with higher belts and more advanced guys, you sure as hell probably aren't going to be able to work your attacks very well. They will force you in bad positions and put you on the defense. Now it's the correct time to work out of bad spots, because you were put there by someone that was able to
 
freaky said:
You're doing it right. When going against a lower belt, it's best to train on your technique. People roll too hard in general imo.

Stop trying to outpower the other guy. Use technique, leverage, etc. If you lose position, then maybe it's your technique and not necessarily you not gripping hard enough. This way both of you are learning.

I hate it when rolling with someone super aggressive and explosive. Use the damn technique and stop trying to power yourself out of everything. I also love it when they gas themselves and cry about cardio. No, I don't have better cardio than you, I just don't waste my gas.
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Why shouldn't you use power in Jiu jitsu. Everything in Jiu jitsu is about power and strength. Sure technique is very important but you take guys with equal technical skill and one guy is a 250# beast ex wrestler and can deadlift 450# and the other guy is 200# ex wrestler but doesn't have the same power output. Guess who wins the majority of the matches?

As to TS. You should roll hard against whitebelts. Use them as cannon fodder. I'm not talking about just getting dominant position and holding them there. You need to work to getting a submission. Work on different positions. Transition to different positions. From side mount, knee on belly, full mount, to back mount. Then if you want move back to full mount then finish. If you can't easily transition from position to position you need to work on your transitions and make them tighter.
 
I actually kind of like it when white belts step up and go buck wild. Kind of like the church girl who gets a little freaky. Adds a little spice to the roll like a James Bond movie.
 
Man, some gyms are really different.

You didn't get promoted until you could submit every white belt, even if he is a decade or two younger. I definitely wouldn't play with them because if one of them tapped me they'd run and tell the coach.
 
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lechien said:
People don't change.
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I started with judo and every practice the coach was going over pins to perfect position and pressure. When I moved to bjj my typical strategy was to off-balance my opponent, pin and control. BJJ coach taught me energy control and that added constant drive and pressure to the game. I was exhausting my opponents and submitting them once they get tired. That would make a typical top player.

My BJJ coach did not like that, however. He would not consider tapping purple or brown belts as they get exhausted good jiu jitsu. We worked on guard passes during countless privates and I would no longer try hard to off-balance opponents. If they wanted to get guard I would just slice through and smash them.

We polished my defense and I stopped fighting frantically to get out of bad position. I did not have any "bad positions" anymore, only positions where I could not attack. We worked on escapes and I learned to create or wait for an opportunity. I was getting slower and slower.

Finally, his efforts to teach me guard play payed back. I started getting most of my submissions from the guard and got pretty good at that. I my guard gets passed I just re-guard and continue. My game now very relaxed and "slow". I turned into bottom player now. I still can go on top and apply all that nasty pressure, but I do not need it.

I realize that my story is not typical with privates every week, but people do change. It is true that once you get some skill set it is way easier to add something to that than to build a new one. I remember that any top technique I learned I could adopt and use right away while nothing would stay in my memory from bottom techniques. That was true until I developed some basic level where I could start adding things to it.

I think if you take one beginner and teach him pins until he "gets it" he will become top player. Take another and teach him guard attacks until he gets good at that then he will pull guards all the time. Changing that in the future will take going back to beginning and giving up the skills you have. Not many people like that.
 
Interesting.

I do not think your style of rolling has to do with your skills.

It has to do with your personality.

Some people would naturally be more passive and technical while others would be more aggressive and use strength.
Basically, I have seen people train from white to bb and they never change.

Their personal style does not change later on as they progress through the belts (learn more techniques).

In your case, do you think you have change your style of rolling?
 
Russky said:
I started with judo and every practice the coach was going over pins to perfect position and pressure. When I moved to bjj my typical strategy was to off-balance my opponent, pin and control. BJJ coach taught me energy control and that added constant drive and pressure to the game. I was exhausting my opponents and submitting them once they get tired. That would make a typical top player.

My BJJ coach did not like that, however. He would not consider tapping purple or brown belts as they get exhausted good jiu jitsu. We worked on guard passes during countless privates and I would no longer try hard to off-balance opponents. If they wanted to get guard I would just slice through and smash them.

We polished my defense and I stopped fighting frantically to get out of bad position. I did not have any "bad positions" anymore, only positions where I could not attack. We worked on escapes and I learned to create or wait for an opportunity. I was getting slower and slower.

Finally, his efforts to teach me guard play payed back. I started getting most of my submissions from the guard and got pretty good at that. I my guard gets passed I just re-guard and continue. My game now very relaxed and "slow". I turned into bottom player now. I still can go on top and apply all that nasty pressure, but I do not need it.

I realize that my story is not typical with privates every week, but people do change. It is true that once you get some skill set it is way easier to add something to that than to build a new one. I remember that any top technique I learned I could adopt and use right away while nothing would stay in my memory from bottom techniques. That was true until I developed some basic level where I could start adding things to it.

I think if you take one beginner and teach him pins until he "gets it" he will become top player. Take another and teach him guard attacks until he gets good at that then he will pull guards all the time. Changing that in the future will take going back to beginning and giving up the skills you have. Not many people like that.
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EndlessCritic said:
Against white belts your goal needs to be to challenge yourself. Put yourself in awful positions, and work on moves that aren't your money techniques.
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Absolutely this. I could easily smash every one of our white belts and nearly all of our blues, but that doesnt do me any good and is demoralizing to them... so instead Ill play in bad positions or let them pass just so they can work, and play around with stuff like my X guard entries/berimbolos.
 
Dirty Holt said:
I actually kind of like it when white belts step up and go buck wild. Kind of like the church girl who gets a little freaky. Adds a little spice to the roll like a James Bond movie.
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hah I hope I can forget this before AM class tomorrow.

Sorry I didn't read the entire thread, but seriously I find it demoralizing when people go super light with me and just work sub defense or something. I've had higher ranks roll just purely technical with low/no strength. Or let me pass IF I do everything correctly and that's cool.

But when people just wet noodle cause I'm a white belt I find it pretty demoralizing. Kind of takes the satisfaction out of landing a sweep if someone just flops over like it was a drill.

I don't know I think that JiuJitsu is just hard, and it's not for everyone. When I went to my current gym I got stomped by everyone pretty definitively. And my thought was "man, these guys are good, guess I'll have solid training partners and good coaches"

I've seen new guys get demoralized there first month rolling cause they are always getting beat and quit ,but I don't know man. Even if you went easy on them for the first 3 months, eventually they'll get a dose of reality.

Moral of the story, no matter what you do you'll offend somebody.
 
There is different to look at it and it depends on the individuals.

Some would go hard on beginners.
And some beginners love it and enjoy the fact that they are dominated.

But on the other hands, there are beginners that would not appreciate as much.

I mean they know that they are clue less and what is the point to get dominated rounds after rounds.

It would be the same as putting against the rope and give him a beating.

I mean "come on, we all know that he is a newbie that wants learn. ..not just a new punching bag".
 
Dirty Holt said:
I actually kind of like it when white belts step up and go buck wild. Kind of like the church girl who gets a little freaky. Adds a little spice to the roll like a James Bond movie.
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I get injured more often than not by whitebelts who are heavier than me, spazzing.





On topic, I am one of those guys who are aware of what's going on around me while rolling. Usually, I would adjust & move out of the way from other people who are also rolling or away from the border/glass wall. My partners usually thinks its fine to pass guard or advance position during this moments.
 
lol, if you want to be actually good at jiujitsu you need to roll hard.

It's like saying you are a good technical boxer but you can only spar light and are incapable of sparring hard.
 
Now that I have stopped competing full time Rambo style, I treat my partners a little differently.

I used to just pick one thing and just rep it out on these guys. I will still do that with good blue belts or purples, even some browns who are near my weight.

When I go against white belts or dudes who suck, I will just start moving and off balancing them a ton, making them be constantly reacting and never setting up. This helps both of us and its kind of fun for me. I will let them get good spots then work my subs out of bad positions. This also mentally keeps them sharp and is like a puzzle for me, which keeps me entertained and having fun.

If its a good brown, any black belt under 50, or an MMA guy ( I wont give them shit, no matter how crappy they are) I go full tilt and give them my A game. Sometimes thats a little more methodical and heavy top pressure, sometimes its Doc Holiday.
 
Blue belt here. Thanks for the advice. I've been going too nice on lower belts and probably haven't been improving my game as much as a result.
 
It's not until probably mid level purple belt that you should be concerned with letting people work or developing some new parts of your game. Assuming you're not already a high level athlete when you start, for the first 4-5 years of your training you need to take any opportunity you can to actually work on offense and develop your A game.

Just like you need to rep defenses and escapes hundreds of times to get good at them, you also need to rep subs, passes, transitions to mount, and back takes hundreds of times to get good at them.

If you let someone work just because you finally happen to be better than someone, you're wasting your opportunity to start practicing your offense.
 
Striderxdj said:
Absolutely this. I could easily smash every one of our white belts and nearly all of our blues, but that doesnt do me any good and is demoralizing to them... so instead Ill play in bad positions or let them pass just so they can work, and play around with stuff like my X guard entries/berimbolos.
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It does do you good, though. Whether it feels like it or not, you're getting practice being offense, even if it's completely one sided offense. And I don't agree that it's demoralizing. Were you demoralized when you got smashed daily as a white belt? It's part of the mental and physical training process.
 
loyalyolayal said:
I get injured more often than not by whitebelts who are heavier than me, spazzing.





On topic, I am one of those guys who are aware of what's going on around me while rolling. Usually, I would adjust & move out of the way from other people who are also rolling or away from the border/glass wall. My partners usually thinks its fine to pass guard or advance position during this moments.
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im the same way. ppl always take advantage lol esp near the wall. the other day i swept a guy into the wall so i stopped coming up and started moving towards to the centre of the mats and he jumped on top of me and tried to take my back..... lol i was just like ok, i guess im defending now
 
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