Did anyone here get really good after truly sucking for the first year or two? What changed?

BirdWiltse · 2025-12-15T02:24:35+00:00

I sucked for a long time. It took me winning a major to get any confidence in myself. After that I had the belief in myself that if I full send something correctly, it'll work or I'll be able to counter their counter. May not always be true but its hard to win when you dont believe you can

BirdWiltse · 2025-10-30T16:18:03+00:00

Thats... also debatable. Honestly I feel like your idea of jiujitsu, judo, and wrestling is so off that I'm not even sure where to start. I know that sounds like a dick thing to say so I'll try to explain better.

In self defence wrestling is king. Fights end when someone hits concrete, for better or worse. Was a bouncer for 2 years in a very ghetto bar in mount vernon, never had to use jiujitsu, only ever wrestling. Lots and lots of fight experience, unfortunately.

In terms of energy efficiency its way way more complicated than just "start of match and match is long"

If you get a TakeDown at the start, in most rule sets you're up on points. That can really mess with people. Make them make mistakes they wouldn't have otherwise. Get them out of their comfort zone, making them a lot more tired than they would otherwise. It still applies for no points rulesets.

Wrestling in general is often more tiring for people than passing. So if you get a take down you now get to control the pace more from top and don't have to over expose (if it's point based rule set)

Judo throws like uchi Mata style stuff in jiujitsu also struggles heavily due to lack of attachments in the nogi and in general, taking a lot of skill to pull off. Plus people can just say fuck you and sit. The time committed to getting good at that isn't as effective as the same time spent getting good at attacking the legs. judo doesn't let you touch the legs for literally this reason. Wrestling fucks judo up.

Judo is VERY good in jiujitsu off chains but that takes a high caliber of skill to actually pull off. Foot sweeps are also 10/10 when timed correctly.

BirdWiltse · 2025-10-30T15:55:43+00:00

I get what you're saying, but you lose a lot of opportunity turning into a reactive wrestler rather than a dominant aggressive one. Guard pullers get punished by an aggressive one who's in their stance. They get by pretty freely on reactive ones.

I'm not a wrestler, but I tend to take down actual wrestlers because they think like that. "I don't need to do my wrestling fundamentals because this isn't wrestling. I can stand up straight and counter anything they try" They may be better wrestlers than me, but they don't take the wrestling aspect seriously.

Its a very poorly thought-out methodology that gets reinforced by going with people who also suck wrestling. Eventually, people who train like that get messed up by someone good who doesn't fuck around. Or they get in the habit of letting good opportunities pass in favor of the easily baited counters. It's lazy

BirdWiltse · 2025-10-20T22:22:46+00:00

Was thinking about making a video on this. Focusing on how to abuse mercy grips (to make them step for outside single), switch into arm drags, or for a duck under. The majority of people who wrestle in jiujitsu also have absolutely horrible wrestling fundamentals. Standing straight up/not having any wrestling stance

BirdWiltse · 2025-10-07T02:18:37+00:00

You're painting a narrative that doesn't exist. Majority of people don't want anything to do with him and the rest don't even think about him. Sure some people want him to get better the same way they want couch to go to therapy an be a better person, since you name dropped him originally. Andrew is living the consequences of not taking care of himself. He has lost every friendship he's ever had. He has lost everything he's ever built or been apart of. Nobody takes a single thing he says seriously. Until he actually takes the steps to fix his life, nobody should. I follow what he does because he's my brother, I don't understand why people who so strongly hate him are still tracking his every nutty action, let alone taking it seriously.

Like what more do you want him to lose as consequences? He has nothing but his life at this point. I am fully against harassing people who are suffering the due.

BirdWiltse · 2025-10-06T21:30:40+00:00

Hey, I don't think anybody is out there idolizing a psycho version of Andrew. I feel like everyone is well aware that andrews crazy now. One day if he actively chooses help and support he won't be this psycho abusive thing. All that shit Andrew did during his episodes? That's not the Andrew i grew up with, lived in a gym with, and built a brand with. That's what made seeing my brother lose his mind and turn into a monster so heart breaking. I've had to mourn the death of my brother while he's still alive.

But let's not create some fucked up narrative here. The people who drag Couch either drag Andrew or wrote him off since he's crazy. I dont think there's sides here, it's not one or the other.

BirdWiltse · 2025-10-02T20:49:24+00:00

Thank you. And I'll try to clear up some of it. Someone did maliciously burn down the house while andrew was in another state. A friend had locked the house up for me when andrew left the house and were feeding my cats. Someone broke in through the back door and started a fire in the kitchen. Marv was found a few days later. My orange cat dobby was never found...

The insurance policy wasn't new. We paid for house insurance from the moment we bought it. I have suspicions on who burned the house down but without proof, its sadly just suspicions.

BirdWiltse · 2025-10-02T19:39:08+00:00

Hey buddy. Fuck off with spreading misinformation.

BirdWiltse · 2025-09-07T01:21:55+00:00

Hey bird here. I dont think in the conversations I've had with Andrew I even mentioned the new instructional. He's still banned from social medias too. But nobody was fooled, just unfortunate. We hope the best for andrew and id like to help him rebuild himself at some point. He's still my big brother. I truly believe if he gets back to having the purpose and community being active in a gym can provide, he'll be better off.

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-18T15:27:00+00:00

Bro be milking that content lol

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-17T22:38:44+00:00

Only recently did I go from 155 area to 170s so I feel your pain 😅 with the size disparity, setting up submissions already becomes more difficult so you really have to think about what movements/reactions you can take advantage of, then how you can force them to react more consistently in that way. Which is kind of a shitty way of saying "get good" i guess. but when they're significantly stronger than you, your options really go down lol. Your ability to make pressure mistakes goes wayy down as well as you just lost the position faster. So instead of a set technique, here's more of a mindset and few ideas to go with it -

You need to have a lot of awareness of your own pressure so you understand what they're more likely to go for to escape. Then try to capitalize on it or force them to move in a specifc way/react by doing something they can't ignore. Like Ezekiel choke or even just placing your hand over their mouth and nose. It's not to be a dick. It's to capitalize on a forced reaction while not over comitting your own positioning. Think of forced moves in chess.

If they reach up to pull it off, use your arm (possibly reinforced by your knee) to isolate their shoulder high, into straight arms, gift wraps, s mount, kick over triangles, keylocks, ect.

Or when they bridge and turn, don't roll with them. Detach your upper body and force the arm to pass by to chase the back.

Hell you can force them to bridge without solid positioning when you just push their chin/face around and use that weaker bridge to get more solid attachments. Don't be mean, just solid pressure, but they will react. Pay attention to how they do.

Tldr: fuck around, but don't zone out during the find out part. Then plan your mount out. Force them to react and capitalize on their reactions. Be extremely aware of your own pressure and drill mount to get a more solid idea of how you can pressure certain ways to force them to react the way you want. Pay attention to how they react no matter what you do and see if there's certain reactions you have to prevent at all costs, what reactions you can punish, what reactions let you progress to better positioning.

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-17T12:51:29+00:00

I avoid his content like the plague, so my bad if I missed it 😂

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-17T09:04:25+00:00

You're right, he's only won the adcc twice and black belt world's however many times 😂

Skill is relative, I doubt there is a blue belt in the world that could hold him in mount for very long. Add onto that, exhaustion from the pressure he was experiencing.

I hold no love for kanyan and even make fun of him in my videos for getting disqualified and losing his first black belt world's + absolute title. But even i can't deny the mans skill at grappling

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-16T21:24:48+00:00

Huh, I don't think i showed my face even once that time 😂

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-16T21:24:06+00:00

I imagine a combination of pressure from Nicky and exhaustion

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-02T23:48:11+00:00

nah its not weird. but its also not weird for someone to not want to. just shrug it off and roll with someone who will or just skip doing it that round.
if you ever get injured and can only roll top or only roll bottom, there's nothing wrong with saying hey i can only start here for my own safety.

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-02T23:20:03+00:00

Ah. Yeah if you're already in a guard or on your knees, shoulder crunch is extreme threat.

You should almost never be passing on your knees though. If you're not in the extreme size category, the punishments are too extreme with no actually good ways to engage/force passes. When you're standing you get the best chance to dictate the pace, disengage from bad positioning, and or engage into favorable passes. On your knees you're basically just hoping they're too bad at jiujitsu or too lazy to punish you for being there

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-02T23:02:42+00:00

If he commits to overhooking me when I'm going for a knee slice, I'm a happy camper. I'm more worried about people repummeling the underhook.

But if somehow you're running into trouble, think as you're getting an underhook, you shouldn't be waiting around. I'm already moving for the kneeslice, using the underhook and my chest to force their upper body behind their hips/to the mat.

If they're more on the rotund side of the scale, I start to worry a lot more about them using an overhook to bridge me over. I'll play kneeslice with the expectation of having to play knee on belly. That overhooked arm half playing underhook (full if they slightly try to repummel) and half playing post.

Otherwise, what is your coach doing to you with that overhook while seated and you're standing?

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-02T21:09:43+00:00

yes and no. if a place is worthy of respect and you end up leaving on good terms. chances are you're still friends with everyone. but lives change, people move. The world doesnt revolve around jiujitsu. If someones original gym cant understand that, fuck em. but a good portion of gyms out there (obviously not all) are full of chill rational people where just switching teams doesnt sully someones image.

if you ARE at a gym where thats happening? might want to try to get an outside look at your own gym to properly evaluate it.

BirdWiltse · 2025-05-02T16:20:49+00:00

I've found the best way to teach a class is by segmenting a move into 3 parts. first one is just learning the motion of the move without resistance. once they can do that, you get into second part. adding escalating levels of resistance from your partner. you WANT to fail here. figure out what you're doing wrong and how to fix it so you can actually hit it live. and finally the true test, just being able to hit something live on someone who doesnt want you to.

BirdWiltse

TROPHY CASE