The most common and repeated advice I give new students is to slow down. Learning to slow down is the key to learning how to have productive rolls, where you can experiment and problem solve in the moment, and have enough awareness of your experience to problem solve after the fact. At blue belt, you are good at this. I would not have given you a blue belt if you were not. Now it’s time to take on a different task. It’s time to turn it up.
Your rolling capacity requires different gears. A gear for learning, a gear for competing, a gear for fighting. Gears for different partners, positions, and even moments. Conceptually, this is a matter of ensuring you don’t have the Jiu Jitsu tools, but know how to use them in different scenarios. Physically, this takes conscious training.
Moments Of Discovery
Many people learn the need for a different gear the moment their environment changes. You visit another gym. You go to a competition. Maybe a squad of fellow Jiu Jitsu students from another gym stop in. Your most confident game is immediately challenged. The guard you love melts away and you are now pinned. Your passing game keeps finding feet and knees instead of chests. Do I suck?!
These are important moments, and I assure you, you don’t suck. There are typically two reasons why new environments and training partners make you feel immediately 75% less effective: 1. movement patterns, and 2. pace. Pace, is our topic of discussion here. When you are use to training at a certain pace and intensity, all of your timing is based on expectations of how people move. People you train with 3-5 times per week, week after week. All of a sudden, your new opponent is moving in a way that defies these established expectations.
The good news is, of all the things to fix in Jiu Jitsu, this is one of the easiest to adapt to. First, you need make this discover. Or trust your coach, whichever happens first. Once this discovery is made, the importance of pace, you need to start learning how to train at difference paces and intensities.
And Intensities
Training with intensity is not necessarily about speed, but could also be about resistance. Speed often leads to aggression, which often leads to higher levels of resistance, but this could also happen in fairly static scenarios. The most common discovery is attempting to finish a submission on a big strong opponent who is fully resisting for the first time. Wait a minute, this submission is suppose to be powerful? Yet, here you are using all your might to extend an arm or squeeze a choke, and it’s just not there. Working through this level or resistance doesn’t often happen in a light back and forth.
Tap, slap, bump and roll! That’s great, especially as a white belt, but at some point you need to learn to fight through the resistance.
The truth is, a submission isn’t over when you enter it. Its not over when you start to apply pressure. The path from the beginning to the end of a submission often requires a good amount of energy, navigating through the details of your positioning, and adjusting as your opponent fights for survival. You have to begin the process of fighting through this resistance to truly understand how to apply submissions and bring giants to their knees.
Turning It Up
Turning it up takes conscious effort. It also takes strategy in the training room. Your goal is not to go beat up the white belts, or find people 50 lbs lighter than you to smother into the mats. You need to find the right partner at the right time, and strategize accordingly. Here are some examples:
Find your equal, or someone 1-2 notches lightly better than you. Ask them to turn it up too. It’s possible they won’t want to, and that’s ok. You will find the partners that are willing to go hard and discover the ones that are not. Its important to define this pace and intensity up front. This is not a shock and awe strategy.
Seek size and strength. I know, rolling with that 240lb college wrestler is tough. He can curl your entire body with one arm. This is the arm that will challenge your arm bar. It will force you to fight through resistance and find the most effective means of controlling your opponent in a submission position.
Seek skill sets. Maybe you are in a room full of white belts today. Plenty of white belts have strong skill sets. They become easy rolls because they don’t have diverse skill sets. You can find the holes in their game and walk through them. Now, find the strengths in their game and walk into them. One partner might be good at guard. One might be good at passing. One might have devasting pressure. Set up your rounds and ask them to bring the heat.
Seek your moments. Jiu Jitsu is a game of start and stop. Explosion and relaxation. Explode past the legs, then slow down. Fight for the sweep, then slow down. The entire roll does not need to be turned up. Just focus on the defining moments that advance your positioning.
It’s important that both players understand the mission, and when communicated both players can grow from it. By doing this in the training room, you will be better prepared to adapt your pacing and intensity when it matters.
Turn It Down
Huh? The goal here is to learn how to read the pace of an exchange, and adjust your rolls accordingly. You want to be able to turn it up when it counts. To experiment with and understand the ways pacing changes the game, go in the other direction too. You need to learn to be effective at a full range of intensities, so you need to explore them all to develop your understanding of them. Your partners aren’t ready to turn it up? No sweat. Turn it down and see how effective your game is utilizing less physical traits.
This Is The Beginning
This all lends to a topic we will touch on later about timing and rhythm. Understanding how to play with your pacing is one of the prerequisite skills to playing with these more advanced concepts. You already mastered your first skill as a white belt, of slowing down and engaging in a thoughtful back and forth. Now, you need to turn it up, and discover the full range of your capacity.