You don’t learn when you are fighting, bringing in all sorts of tension and emotion. You learn when you are having fun, training in a smooth and gentle way. You need to work on improving your technique until you are comfortable in any situation. Eventually, you will develop a subconscious understanding of the techniques and they become reflexes. Only after you have done all this you are ready to take your natural abilities “off the shelf” and add them back into your game. Now the effectiveness of the technique will be at least ten times better.
This is a longer video, but worth considering. A lot of people talk about “light rolls” or “flow rolling” but they are poorly defined and it’s a skill in itself and it’s not widely taught.
I spent some time talking in a recent class about the value of deliberate practice. The idea is important to me as I’ve always felt that Jiu Jitsu classes could be improved by a more thoughtful class structure. Ben Askren once shared his perspective as a wrestler on JRE:
We know, without a shadow of a doubt (that) just saying ‘go for five minutes’ is not the most effective way to train someone.
If I’m coaching at my academy, and we were drilling the front headlock, we don’t just say ‘OK, now go five-minute goes’ because how many tries are they gonna get at going at the front headlock position? Maybe one, maybe two, but essentially most people, if you say ‘go for five minutes’, they’re not disciplined enough to make themselves do new skills. They revert to whatever they do best. And then they just do it over and over and over again.
If I want a kid to be good at a front headlock – which if you’re gonna wrestle at a high level, you need a good front headlock – I’m gonna put him in there 50 times in that practice. He’s gonna get it over and over and over, and maybe the next day, it’s single-legs, and maybe the next day it’s double-legs. And maybe some days, you say ‘hey, go for ten minutes, go wrestle.’
But saying ‘go for five minutes’ every single day is very much not the most effective way to do it, and it’s so insanely frustrating for me to have that happen at almost every jiu-jitsu school in the planet.
Ben Askren
In the following video, Chewjitsu addresses the comments and shares the dilemma about this problem. Essentially, rolling more fun than focused practice. He tries, as I do, to find a balance between the two. He also used the music analogy. I actually dug this video up after that class. I didn’t mean to parrot his ideas, it’s convenient parallel thinking.
Also, I’ve previously linked to the full podcast, but if you want a more digestible portion. Here’s John Danaher’s thoughts on “drilling”:
I think getting your brain in the right mode to learn is as important as any technique that we’ll work on. I’m guilty of all of the bad habits myself, but I’m trying to be conscious about what I’m doing to make better use of my precious limited mat time.
It’s one of the most basic sweeps that everyone learns. Even if you don’t prefer to use it, you at least need to know that every white belt is going to try to use it against you.
We’ve also been playing with triangles lately. Why not combine the two?
We’ve previously worked this one from mount, but it’s also valuable to know from closed guard. I appreciate that it’s a pretty low-risk maneuver. Failed attempts at triangles or armbars can result in easier guard passes for the top guy. There’s less exposure in attempting this collar choke. Also, the threat of the collar choke can set up the other submissions when the top guy defends his neck. My finishing skills need work. Apparently, I’m not alone in that. Many of the videos on this submission acknowledge that many people move away from it after not finding success. However, even with the lack of choke finishes, I’ve caught many arms by first attacking with the collar grips.
This is a classic drill that ties three common submissions from guard. Defenses for one of the moves generally open up opportunities for another. Being able to switch back and forth between them will significantly increase your success with submissions.
From guard, the arm bar, omoplata, and triangle choke all play nicely off of each other. Frequently, the defense of one will open opportunities for the others. We’ve done a little bit with arm bars and omoplatas, so it’s time to add triangles into the mix.
My approach will be based on Ryan Hall’s Triangle DVD series. His approach is different than traditional triangle instruction, but he makes a solid case for the mechanical advantages of his version. The video below covers the finishing sequence:
Legs too short?
Danaher shows how to cut an angle to remove your opponent’s shoulder from the triangle. The trapped shoulder what is blocking the legs from locking correctly. His movement emphasizes trapping the arm not the shoulder.
In the next video, option 1, switch to omoplata is honestly my standard solution. I don’t finish triangles often, but I hit omoplatas a lot. “Look at the triangle as a position” is consistent with what Danaher and Hall say about it, but might not be specific enough to be useful. “Say ‘to heck with form’ and use your meaty thighs to power through” isn’t necessarily what I hoped for either. I include the video since it illustrates a common dilemma. It’s not just you.
Lachlan Giles has an approach pretty similar to Ryan Hall’s but he suggests a different locking position with the leg. I appreciate the explanation about not pushing the opponent’s head away while turning to find the angle.