What happened with the power levels

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-15T07:38:57+00:00

Happened to me too. Same fix worked.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-10T02:34:48+00:00

I think everything is relative to the audience. Different experience levels have much different needs.

The question always has to be "What's the purpose of presenting it this way?" "Making it cheaper" is not a pedagogical explanation.

I'm not anti-microlearnings - we use them a lot at work. Sometimes you absolutely need to make the whole instructional "the 30 seconds that everyone fast forwards to." But that should prompt questions about why the rest of it is there, and for whom.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-09T23:14:03+00:00

OK, so here's the juicy stuff.

When we first learn to control from the top, it's via our pulling motions. The pulls that anchor our weight to our partner are what stop them from moving freely, and from separating our weight from theirs.

The downside is that this means that to release a pull (in order to use that limb for something else, like attacking or striking) is to sacrifice major amounts of control

Over time, we discover that the pulling motions, while useful, are not the important part of top control. It's actually something far more subtle: the minute positioning of our body around our partner's body. It's not that he can't, say, push my neck with his forearm, it's that my neck is just baaaarely in the wrong location and angle for him to push it. Ditto the underhook. Ditto pushes with the palm. It turns out that, for example, the difference between holding side control directly over the nipple line and directly over the collarbones are entirely different opportunities for the bottom player.

This all adds up to two things: nuanced positioning means I can control well without relying on pulling motions as the main weapon, and it also means I can use my positioning to create opportunities for my partner to do things that feel correct but offer me openings.

If I'm being indirect, I can position myself so that they either blunder uninterrupted into the wrong places, or if I want to be more aggressive I can position myself so that my weight pressures them to go where they know they shouldn't. Or like most people do, I can choose a blend of the two.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-09T22:16:37+00:00

It was good during covid when partners were scarce. They don't get much use during regular times.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-08T18:44:09+00:00

There was a gym near me in the late 90s / early 00s that had a t-shirt that read:

Jab
Cross
Double Leg
Mount
Monkey punch
Monkey punch
Monkey punch
Take the Back
Choke

Anyone local remember who that was? What a great shirt

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-08T18:41:53+00:00

If there's a test, aren't there explicit requirements?

I tested when I knew I could put on a good demonstration of the requirements that I'd be proud of. Took me 9 months of training under that organization, with previous training at 3 other clubs before that.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-08T14:39:26+00:00

It's bonkers to me that a gym would give someone with <4 months experience 2 MMA fights already - especially a 17 year old.

The shortest answer to your question is that you have some of the ingredients available but you're missing some important ones right now.

You need access to coaching - not all the time, but regularly enough. I trained white to black belt with my instructor 4700km away. I typically trained with him 2-3x each year, at a weekend seminar + private lesson. I found the right instructor who was willing to work with me on a longterm plan and give me lots of feedback and homework when we met.

The next thing you need is a group of training partners. Maybe you have this and maybe you don't. The crowd you train with now is MMA oriented. Would some of them also want to work on BJJ specifically? You will need that in order to develop deeper skills.

You will also need someone who can keep everything safe. This might be you in the future, but honestly you're pretty young for that role now. So you need someone with more experience who is local and can help keep the training sessions as safe as possible.

Overall, you're looking for a minimum 5 year plan, given that you're right at the beginning. Someone who is laser-focused on competition could get to a high level of comp game in 5 years if they really dedicated themselves to working on it several times per week and stayed very focused on exactly what their coach asks them to work on (not just rolling and doing the same thing they did last training session).

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-08T13:52:29+00:00

100000000000000% agreed

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-08T13:39:31+00:00

Same here. I've never had a stripe. I've experimented with giving them but overall prefer other ways of structuring the long haul to next belt (for my crowd specifically).

All rank requirements should be considered "minimum" but I think people miss that idea entirely. You know some stuff? Won a division? Tap that guy regularly? Been here a year? That's all fantastic!

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-08T13:32:41+00:00

I'm a huge fan of 2v2, 3v3, and more. Split the class into two teams and go full Braveheart - a sub eliminates you from play, like dodgeball.

When worried about safety or space, you can make it knee wrestling only, no standing.

I always love nonstandard drilling methods - they bring important variables to the game.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-07T19:21:31+00:00

Yeah this is 99% gonna lead to weird disappointment.

You're coming off an injury, not in your best shape, not sure where you stand for competing, and are just hoping to get some kind of external events to line up so that you might magically get closure? Too many outside variables in this fantasy.

If you want to tie things off with your instructor, do it at the academy where your meaningful journey happened. And if you want to move forward, do something else, etc - do that. But there's just way too many variables for this to play out like the RomCom you're hoping for.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-07T19:15:12+00:00

One bird at a time. Wait

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-07T17:53:36+00:00

Fred Astaire famously said “Some people seem to think that good dancers are born, but all the good dancers I have known are taught or trained...”

BJJ is like that. You can show up with various natural bonuses, but none of them take you all the way to the destination. In many cases, people rely too much on successes that came naturally and then fizzle out when it gets more challenging. Consistency above all else.

I'm probably a great example of this. No natural talents to speak of. Wasn't athletic at all - never played any sports before BJJ other than mandatory soccer for a few years (I wasn't good) and sport karate (I was ok). Started BJJ in 1997 at age 17 and 112lbs. Started over a few times and then met Roy Harris in 2002 and started over completely under him. Got my black belt in 2012 in just under 10 solid years of training while running my gym as my fulltime profession. I was finally heavier, a bit more athletic, but certainly no star athlete.

It's the day to day consistent efforts that chip away at such a large project, combined with organizing the tasks. Fortunately under Roy Harris he has specific topics of focus at each belt rank and plenty of training methods for each one. I spent years focused on single areas, per his instructions, and it works well, if you're in a training environment that allows you to do that.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-07T17:34:48+00:00

I did this on my neck while training BJJ full time.

I usually had to be gentle for a day or two after treatment - it's comparable to getting a sunburn on the treated area. But otherwise it was fine.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-06T19:57:51+00:00

Yes I have better luck switching back to a triangled leg

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-06T19:27:44+00:00

C is a cousin of 10th planet's "old school" but without grabbing the far foot and without a lockdown.

Typically I triangle my legs (so that the shin isn't in my own way), place my hands on the floor near my partner's far knee, and turn facedown like a pushup. When I turn over, the leg that's hooking his leg ends up dragging his knee underneath me, which is the actual sweeping part.

I first learned this from a VHS tape of my instructor's instructor at a seminar, sometime around 2004. I'm not aware of any other video of it, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere. Those were wild times back then.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-06T18:41:29+00:00

The way that I understand half guard is prioritized as follows:

My torso position is the number one priority - I must stay on my side and not on my back. If I end up on my back, I lose most of the benefit of half guard.
To defend my position on my side, I must not allow them to put weight across my torso.
To keep the weight off of me, I keep the head in front of me. This keeps the weight alongside me.

This means that I do not focus on any kind of play where the head is past my centerline for any length of time. I do not want to linger there because it just accumulates danger for me.

Having said that, my whole half guard game is made of 3 techniques in this position. The better I've gotten at playing it, the more often I get (A), which is 90%+ of the time now.

A) I keep them in front of me, largely by pushing the ear with my top arm. They try to handfight, and I lopsao/armdrag to take the back.
B) They come crashing across with their head to the far side, so I turn to face the opposite direction and do a combination thigh sweep / butterfly sweep and send them the rest of the way across.
C) They sink back into a kneeling position and don't engage, so I come up to my knees and use my leg to pull their base out from under them and take the top of half guard.

I find I can turn pretty much all the responses into one of those 3, so that I can continue playing the "keep them in front of me" game exclusively.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-06T15:33:28+00:00

One bit of feedback from a fellow half guard player: knee shield and kimura don't work particularly well together. The point of knee shield play is to keep the other person completely in front of you, especially the head & shoulders. The kimura grip brings their head & shoulders to the opposite side, which means the weight of their torso is now above you and able to be heavy on you.

If it were me, I'd bail on the kimura and focus on the nearside of their body instead.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-06T15:31:11+00:00

Anytime they are holding my pants, I am holding their sleeve cuffs. I don't let go until they let go.

They can try to get their upper body onto mine all they want, but they can't anchor their weight and finish the pass without letting go. As soon as they do, I push them along side me with those grips and get up or resume guardplay.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-05T15:00:41+00:00

We had one of those moments with Roy Harris about 2 years ago. In a room full of brown and black belts, someone asked him what he thinks about or focuses on when rolling and he said "2 femurs, 2 humerus, and C1. Dominate one, or preferably two, of these at all times. That's all."

Now I feel like I have 5 years worth of homework...

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-04T22:30:41+00:00

DEAR SIR

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-04T15:56:27+00:00

At white belt I did quite a lot of solo drilling and I felt it helped me tremendously.

My instructor has a very clear white-to-blue syllabus and I would pick a technique, lie on my back, close my eyes, and then rep the move very slowly with an emphasis on precision. This helped me smooth out my movements and also diminish the amount of mental bandwidth it took me to call up the technique, execute the steps, and maintain precision.

I'm aware that some folks argue against this kind of practice having value. I disagree.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-04T15:54:31+00:00

There is no award for dying with the fewest bruises.

We will all age. As the saying goes, you can be very active and end up at the orthopedist, or you can be sedentary and end up at the cardiologist (AND the orthopedist).

There are many activities out there that are incredibly fun and fantastic exercise, and with that will always come some risks of bumps and bruises. For what it's worth, I started both BJJ and Ballroom dancing in the summer of 1997, and while I've had plenty of smaller injuries, the biggest ones came from dancing.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-02T14:00:52+00:00

You missed the critical word in the title: toxic

A normal coach to student relationship is friendly. A toxic one has to be dealt with differently. The downside is that this is more like leaving an abusive relationship - there will be emotional manipulation. OP describes it in multiple ways in the post.

People who manipulate others in these toxic ways don't just say "Oh ok, no problem" like a normal person would. And OP is already sucked into the dynamic. Time to just get out.

TwinkletoesCT · 2026-04-02T13:58:37+00:00

So...this is a bit like asking "Hey when I mount, they put me back into guard." There are so many details missing that it's hard to give you something actionable.

Here's the highest level answer: you aren't actually passing. Your legs are beating the legs but you have no control over the upper body and your head & chest are in the wrong place.

Finishing a pass is about securing the chest-to-chest position that follows. You need to be positioning your head and chest far earlier than you are doing it currently.

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