How important is Strength in Grappling/Bjj/...?
Some people say: "I find that when I roll with some of our blue belts I try to muscle my way through them or out of grips ect, is this a normal approach from newcomers? I feel like complete idiot for doing it but can;t do anything else if you find yourself in a position and you have no clue of how to get out of it using correct technique.
I hope this is something that I would get rid of as time goes on... "
The first thing that i want to say to anyone who have this problem: You have to focus on technique. You HAVE to. Technique and flow are all important, it's what will open your game up. Anything else will be detrimental to your development. Believe me, I was caught up in the powering aspect of grappling for years before finally "getting" it when I got involved in BJJ.
Of course you're going to get passed, and beat, by other guys. Keep working, keep flowing, drill new techniques. Guys shouldn't be crushing you during normal rolling for doing that.
Strength is an advantage. Of course. But reserve it for self defese or competition. Good BJJ in those situations only occurs after comlete understanding of technique is achived through countless reps and relaxed flow. Then, combine that with your natural attributes and you have something. But unrestriced use of strength during developmental rolling will only slow down your progress.
Technique is not natural so it is what we need to practice the most. Using strength to power through when you dont have good technique is a common pitfall. On the opposite side, I have let lots of armbars and triangles go because I wasn't putting some strength into finishing them.
I would get to the submission, expect them to tap because I don't want to hurt the person, not press the submission and they would escape. As a rule of thumb, I now give everyone a chance to tap when I have them extended on an armbar.
They have 1 to 2 seconds to tap before I really press the submission. I always use technique to get a submission sunk, but I will put some power behind them to make them tap if they refuse when it is obvious they need to. Playing around with a armbar that is sunk on stubborn person is a recipe for bruised balls.
Finally, strength is a big X factor.. if all else is equal the stronger guy has an advantage.. but the one with more skill will usually win.
This is why I hate competitions is this concept. The point of jiujitsu is minimal effort with maximum results. Yes strength plays a small part and yes it can be used to win but it's not the point of the sport. To answer your question, you should use only a necessary ammount of strength and rely on more technique. If you are a white belt and become technical as a white belt it will make learning more advanced technique much easier.
"The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle"
"To conquer without risk is to triumph without pride"
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personally, I find the best use of strength to be deployed only during escapes and submissions. other than that I am very relaxed and rely on a technical defense and a technical setup for attacks. I am in much better shape now than when i started and ironically, the more I train, the less and less I use my physical gifts. In the beginning I was weak and i decided to focus on technique only and I progressed quickly relying on technique. now, If I have to, I can back my game up with physical strength and cardio. I don't mind tapping out because I know that I learn every time I have to. In that sense I rarely ever try to muscle anything these days.
"If you show up for a decade, eventually you will quit sucking" - Forrest Griffin on Training Jiu Jitsu
I agree with using strength minimally. When I roll with a guy obvisously trying to muscle me I wait till they get tired and then show them that technique will outlast their muscle.
Don't wish for it to be easier. Wish for you to be better.
Hehe, I adore your ideology. If a guy tries to out-muscle me I will out-muscle and out technique them and submit them a couple of times until they get the point. If they don't get the point I will enjoy the hard sparringYesterday for instance a guy was going freaking crazy on my ass, so I was going hard against him and submitting him as much as possible, it got even worse when he got frustrated. So after we sparred I asked him what he tought of the round. So he was complaining about not beeing able to do this and that, so I asked him why he thinks he gets submitted so easily - he didn't know. So I explained to him a lot of things he did wrong and told him to relax to make it more fun to spar for himself.
For me it's cool if people want to go full force with me as I love sparring hard. I take it as a sign of accepting the "rules" of the round. But I do prefare to spar lighter as then I have the possibility to improve my technique and timing instead of mainly working on my pressure. But I do believe pressure is one of the most important aspects of jiu-jitsu, so you gotta train both.
Strength plus technique... You need to have solid technique.. and you also need to be strong. Both is better than just one of either.
At my school there is a girl who is tiny -- I doubt she tops 100 lbs even in her kimono. But she's a purple belt with good technique and I love rolling with her. Although she's got better technique than I do, our skills are pretty close so I could easily use my size and strength to squash her. But of course I'd feel like a total douche for doing so. Therefore, it's the perfect opportunity to avoid using any strength and focus just on technique. Sure, she often taps me out, but I learn a lot sparring with her. Plus I get a lot of opportunities to roll with her since a lot of the guys avoid her since they're embarrased to tap to a small girl.
I think having both is ideal, but if not, techinque is much more needed when rolling... In a fight, you also need to be strong, because you`ll be fighting someone with your same level more o less.
I currently weigh 190 pounds, i`m 6ft tall.... and i am working on losing like 15 pounds so i get faster and more technical.
being technical and flowing can be hard for a few white belts since they don't have enough techniques to flow roll so they use strength as a equalizer which it really isn't
I would really love to have strength and good technique, but what some people fail to realize is that the two compliment each other and can take years of trial and error to arrive at a perfect formula.
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