On the Mat Day 423: Rolling Economically

Since my back is still on the mend I decided to roll for a couple of rounds after working through the cross collar chokes we were taught. My goal was to not exacerbate my injury and roll technically and economically as much as possible. For this reason, I rolled with two heavier stronger white belts. Both of them outweigh me by about 7 kg or so. Here is what I did:

1. Use the mechanical structure of my body to block their attempts to pass my guard. This was instead of using muscle as I used to do. In sitting guard I had a hand in the collar with my arm straight to block either direction they would pass and then work armdrags to try to divert their energy. This can be extremely tiring for them but not for me.

2. Keep scooting and shrimping away while blocking their closest arm so they could never get the cross face on me. I do this by typing up their sleeve and keeping a straight arm so they have to disengage or just stay there doing nothing.

3. When my guard was passed I would stay on my side, elbows in tight, allowing them nothing to grab onto. I would also post my leg behind me when on my side to stop getting flattened out. I also posted my hand far behind me when sitting to stop getting flattened out.

4. I reacted instead of acting. I simply waited for them to make mistakes and took advantage of it. Like say, they passed and tried to mount but gave too much space so I would shrimp and escape. I find that if I am in a bad position, if I work hard to get out of it (acting) I end up tiring myself out. However, if I wait for opportunities (reacting), I escape easily with very minimal effort on my part. I think this is the core fundamental for economic rolling especially if you are going against someone with better attributes than you, be it strength, flexibility, balance, and youth. I need to be like a sly fox, waiting, patient, keep a watchful eye on the opponent then make my move instead of always trying to force a move on him. It is always better to work with what they give you instead of trying to dominate them. K-sensei is very good at this.

5. I tried some entanglement ideas. This is where you are sparring with a more athletic or stronger guy, you get under them and destroy their base by entanglement such as using x-guard or dela Riva guard and deep half-guard which are offensive guards, or spider guard and spiral guard which are defensive guards. Entangling this type of opponent really makes it hard for them to use their strength. I could not do this too well however because it needed back strength and involves inverting at times.

I am getting interested in rolling versus bigger stronger guys now. Working out ways I can go up against them and roll efficiently.