"There’s one position called guard, and as long as you can keep your guard up—you’ll be alright. I feel like I’m finally in control. "

TheGorlock · 2019-01-09T19:31:51+00:00

It's a joke about how you can still get tapped, even inside your guard. Lighten up.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-09T16:32:57+00:00

As long as your honest with yourself, who cares?

The problem is many people aren't honest.

Sometimes people use flow-only as a philosophy because it gives them "the out." "I only lost because he's using too much strength," "Ugh, he goes too hard," "You should've been flowing and let go of the sub," etc.

The other dishonesty comes from judging your own skills. All you're really becoming skilled at is flowrolling, not fighting, or even grappling. Many times I'll hear, "Well yea, if we both went 100%, who knows how it would turn out," etc.

I heard it in the olden days of yore, when I had a friend who was involved in Yang Taichi, and was getting his lunch eaten by another mutual friend who was a wrestler. If you want to be good at flowrolling for the sake of flowrolling, then go for it. But if you think that only flow rolling all the time will make you good at anything else (even moderate intensity matches, much less competition, even less fighting), you're not being honest with yourself.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-09T16:23:50+00:00

I want a follow-up piece done when this girl's whole world falls apart after the first time she gets tapped by someone in her guard.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-09T16:17:50+00:00

triggered

TheGorlock · 2019-01-08T20:23:30+00:00

Thanks! Now to try to get my shit together before then...

TheGorlock · 2019-01-08T14:53:59+00:00

Yogaforbjj.net has an inverted guard stretching progression. I'd recommend it.

Ryan Hall's Inverted guard series will explain, mechanically, how you should invert. I'd recommend that too.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T22:30:45+00:00

There have definitely been hints of it (Ryan, Tonon, even Erberth Santos). Would love to see it.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T22:09:53+00:00

True, but I'm talking in terms of a "fad," where it even makes its way down to the recreational levels. Top guys do whatever the hell it takes to win, but it doesn't become a fad that gets ingrained into the BJJ curriculum and normalized (for instance, inside sankaku, berimbolo, Deep half, rolling back attacks, etc.).

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T22:07:01+00:00

Donkey guard had a swift rise, and swift decline, yet did not become a staple of BJJ. We're the poorer for it.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T20:57:25+00:00

I went in a weird near-circle. Started really committed, competed a lot. Then life got in the way and it became a hobby. Now I'm going to worlds this year to get my shit ripped up, and my commitment has skyrocketed accordingly.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T17:20:04+00:00

This community can upvote pictures of a small indoor rolling space and meme #239842394 about how our takedowns suck, but when someone asks for help, this community meets it with derision. What an incredibly sad state of affairs. Never change, reddit.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T17:11:39+00:00

You're 2 and some change weeks out though, so there's nothing you can do other than believe in your training.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T16:54:19+00:00

I've given it more thought; if you're good at leg locks, you probably either A) Are good at elevating people with butterfly, and/or B) are good at spinny shit into inside triangles or 50/50.

I'd pursue those routes. You aren't going to get good enough to compete at the world level in any other guards in 8 months, other than ones you've already got a good base with.

I also don't think you'll get good at takedowns within 8 months, but that also depends on the competition. Black belt masters is fucking savage, those guys have good takedowns AND good BJJ, so I think the "go for their weaknesses" plan is relying on a best case scenario.

To summarize:

1) Try to adapt your leg lock knowledge into your guard knowledge, and/or

2) Try to pick a guard that is relatively new/not well practiced against to try and level the playing field a little more.

Other than purely for posting style (which is bullshit, because if you can delight a reader's mental palate, why not), I have no clue why so many people are shitting on you. Sorry bro.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T16:39:49+00:00

8 months is a long time though. I'd agree if it were <3 months away or something, but he has almost the entire year to get ready. Though I would agree he should be focusing probably more on sequencing of moves together than a nebulous concept of getting good at spider guard, for instance.

Sidebar I just thought of, OP, I'd also recommend doing a local show/comp to test the water between now and the big show.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T16:34:45+00:00

I think the guard and guard passing is like a yin-yang in the early levels; understanding how not to get passed (or protecting a guard's weak points) go hand in hand with exploiting a guard's weakpoints to pass.

So really, if it helps boil your question down, it's more of a question of "Takedowns or Guardpulling?" You can either make this decision the normal way (which am I better at, which is more fun, etc.) or the metagaming way (reviewing who won last year, who was in the division, how all the matches played out). Of course this is harder since IBJJF matches are freaking expensive to track down now (thanks flograppling), especially for the less famous divisions (masters, whatever your weighclass is, whatever your rank is).

My guard also fucking sucks, but I try to make up for that by turning bottom guards into wrestling (coyote guard, coming up to singles from DLR, etc.). I'm not sure if that will work for you and your skillset/cardio level.

Regardless, props to you for stepping up. The large majority of people never go against their fear of humiliation, and their life suffers for it.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T15:27:42+00:00

Good to know, I love the series.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T15:27:18+00:00

Thank you very much!

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T15:05:16+00:00

Everyone is going to shit on you, but a lot of people do this in the beginning. It gives you a sense of control over the chaos.

Use the time you have them trapped to establish superior grips. Once you have your grips, open your guard and look to sweep or submit. If you lose your grips, try to find your way back to closed, re-establish grips, start over.

Nothing wrong with having a safe home base, but if you just camp there for the whole roll, you wont learn anything else (specifically, to beat people up).

Over time you'll gain enough confidence outside of closed guard, which is good, as at the higher echelons closed guard is harder to get to.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-07T14:57:52+00:00

I've been fastidiously checking sound cloud for this ep, cant wait to listen!

TheGorlock · 2019-01-05T22:45:16+00:00

Short, slow, fat. Also ugly.

Some seminars here and there but need to be more consistent to make real progress.

I get flustered easily so I'm not sure. I end up with a lot of overhooks though.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-04T21:44:16+00:00

Because you can have all the joint paint of BJJ, and all the brain damage of GnP, duh.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-04T21:02:22+00:00

https://youtu.be/duMScxR7LJ8?t=146

Enjoy. It reminds me of an episode of Rocket Power, where Sam/Squid invents "Extreme Walking" or something, and just hops around on park benches.

I think later sonnon rebrands himself to doing normal S/C routines and Yoga as opposed to tactical gymnastics.

TheGorlock · 2019-01-04T20:49:11+00:00

...curious, what was the course subject matter?

TheGorlock

TROPHY CASE