Thursday training with Dante. Because of the influx of new people yesterday and today, he focused on fundamentals together with sports-specific exercises. We then did double-leg takedowns transitioning to knee on chest. After that, an escape technique from it. Another one is controlling the legs from standing and moving on to knee on chest. Strung together, this makes for nice transition drilling.
During technique-sparring, Dante lines up the more experienced players to take on the newer ones, as he is wont to do, before swapping places. He states that under no circumstances should the lower belt/level practice a technique before a higher one. By letting the higher belt/level try the technique first, the higher belt effectively demonstrates the technique to the lower belt, which grants more opportunity to see the technique done correctly before trying it on himself. Makes sense. Elliott, Keith, Gerry, and the two Steves really helped me on getting my technique half-decent.
One thing that Dante said before the sparring sessions that made everyone chuckle, he said, "When your opponent is hell-bent on doing something, it's best to let them do it. It strokes their ego hopefully they'll won't be so hell-bent the next time."My sparring performance was marginally better than last Wednesday. I only gassed on the last match :( I really need to work on my cardio. On the last match, I was letting my training partner slap on his submissions, as I was too tired to move. I also need to work on my takedown techniques from kneeling and need to be more assertive. Either that, or I really need to get my bottom game better.
By the way, props to Peter, who helped me a lot during the technique-drilling earlier. Quite a friendly and helpful chap. He emphasised the need to get a deep collar hold during knee on chest, coupled with controlling the outside knee to be more effective in controlling your opponent. I've only seen him today, but judging on the reception he received with the regulars, it seems that he used to train regularly before and is a popular guy. Looking forward to train with him.
2 comments:
An interesting point about being more assertive. Over the last few months I always seemed to be very passive at the begining of a spar. I mistakenly thought there was no harm in letting my opponent make the first move as when they pulled guard I used to think thats not so bad at least I'm on top (big mistake)as I would get totally gassed trying to pass guard. The other thing that would happen is they would take side control or mount me and it would be a huge struggle trying to gain a dominant position. I made the conscious decision to be more proactive at the start and now tend to pull guard and sweep my opponent as soon as possible. This has been a very successful tactic so far and is the first step of developing my own style in BJJ. This tactic doesn't work as well against higher grades and more experienced people but is a much better starting point than being passive. And as Keith told me "postion before submission" is the best piece of advice I have had so far from anybody.
Well put, Elliott. I always seem to be at a loss at the start if the match with regards to techniques I need to employ to get positional dominance. I didn't want to use strength and just bull-charge my way into it because technique and a good base usually nullifies it, besides it being a dick move. You and Keith need to show me some moves, man.
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