The Road to BJJ Black Belt

So I began working the closed guard like I said I would and well lets just say frustration is setting is coming on strong.

For about 3 months now I have been playing a flow style game. Which I believe we all should aspire to do be able to do at will. Now I am going to explain what I mean by a flow style game so people will understand what I mean by it and not confuse it with a defensive style game. Experienced practitioners will say "duh, that's what your suppose to do." while some people will need to have it explained.


What I do is attack my partners weak spots and when I run into resistance I will move into the next technique. By attack I mean sweeps, positional changes, AND submissions. Trying to stay a step ahead of my partner and have him focusing on stopping techniques and then catching them when they leave an opening.

For example I am in the mount trying to secure a cross collar choke. As a defense my partner traps my arm and attempts a bridge and roll. Instead of stopping the positional change a alter the choke and work it from my guard. If that gets defended I switch to say a pendulum sweep and regain top position and attack with an arm bar or just retain mount depending again on my partners resistance. I simply feel like I'm flowing from technique to technique.

This is were I felt I was developing a lot of my BJJ "skills". So when I decided to work on just playing my guard I started forcing techniques. I would start attempting a flower sweep and if it failed I would go back and do it again. Never taking advantage of my partners reactions just trying to perfect a technique that I feel I need to work on. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't need to work on the technique any more I know the technique.

The thing I should be focusing on is WHEN to do the technique. Just because I want to do a move doesn't mean its the move that should be done. The secret to a good technique is not just the mechanics its the timing and application. Equating it to Judo I would say that you need to throw someone where they want to be thrown not were you want them to be thrown. Again this makes perfect sense to me if you follow cool if not come back in a couple months of training and go, "I got it now".

It has taken me a couple of weeks to write this and I have been at a lost of words to explain the efforts and mindset I have on the mat. In this time period I have seem to injured my knee again. My next blog may be asking your thoughts on micro fracture surgery.