Tiring out athletes

Being a wet blanket mainly. As you said, you can usually pass their guard and get into side control or mount. If we're very tense and matching their energy because it's hard not to then it's very easy for a strong person to bench press you off...incidentally this is the worst thing to do in BJJ and should be swiftly punished with armbars. So first I'd focus on armbars when people gift you them with bench pressing. But also just go floppy and limp, suffocate them with your noodly body, dead weight like this is very hard to bench press and 'just stand up bro' mentality, especially when coupled with angles. So if they start bench pressing you, you would angle your torso down so that their hand slips off. Pretend you're a towel and you're waterboarding that mofo.

That said, I've been playing around with Craig Jones New Philosophy on Pinning recently and even against good BJJ players it's incredibly tiring to fight against. It's essentially a system focused on leg pinning inspired by folkstyle wrestling. You don't really feel trapped until you try to move and then it's horrific when you do. You struggle immensely to wiggle your legs free and then all the top player has to do is surf your legs to keep constant tiring pinning pressure. This is coupled with things like the Turk and spiral rides to force your opponent face down and flat. Where they're yours for the taking.

Thanks for the advice Pred500! I'll make a big effort to look for armbars. And work on the wet blanket effect as much as I can, sounds like that could be quite fun actually lol.

As for Craig's pinning stuff, I have seen some of this quote recently and had a bit of a go as it reminded me of how khabib used to leg mount people which is something I have been doing since seeing him do it. I've had modest success so far but am improving with that I think. Main issue I have is they basically stiff arm onto my knees and push down so they gain their knee line back, my usual response is just to keep trying to pull their arms up when they do that.

Pred500, post: 63877, member: 33377

Being a wet blanket mainly. As you said, you can usually pass their guard and get into side control or mount. If we're very tense and matching their energy because it's hard not to then it's very easy for a strong person to bench press you off...incidentally this is the worst thing to do in BJJ and should be swiftly punished with armbars. So first I'd focus on armbars when people gift you them with bench pressing. But also just go floppy and limp, suffocate them with your noodly body, dead weight like this is very hard to bench press and 'just stand up bro' mentality, especially when coupled with angles. So if they start bench pressing you, you would angle your torso down so that their hand slips off. Pretend you're a towel and you're waterboarding that mofo.

That said, I've been playing around with Craig Jones New Philosophy on Pinning recently and even against good BJJ players it's incredibly tiring to fight against. It's essentially a system focused on leg pinning inspired by folkstyle wrestling. You don't really feel trapped until you try to move and then it's horrific when you do. You struggle immensely to wiggle your legs free and then all the top player has to do is surf your legs to keep constant tiring pinning pressure. This is coupled with things like the Turk and spiral rides to force your opponent face down and flat. Where they're yours for the taking.

My tactics with a very strong and athletic opponent is to say to him that lets take it easy and focus on technique. And restart very often when one of us makes a bad move. I also ask to drill a spesific situation…just passing the guard or escaping side control or what relates to the current lesson.

crossover, post: 63896, member: 10990

My tactics with a very strong and athletic opponent is to say to him that lets take it easy and focus on technique. And restart very often when one of us makes a bad move. I also ask to drill a spesific situation…just passing the guard or escaping side control or what relates to the current lesson.

Be really hard to submit and have a strong reversal/escape game. I don't get a lot of submissions but when I do it's usually later in the match

@@pleavindring, Technique wins in this situation. It's very hard to "tire out" and athletic person if you do not have the conditioning to match. If you can get on top and control them using pressure and making yourself heavy can accomplish the "tire out" affect a lot more.

Jason_Scully, post: 63926, member: 1

@@pleavindring, Technique wins in this situation. It's very hard to "tire out" and athletic person if you do not have the conditioning to match. If you can get on top and control them using pressure and making yourself heavy can accomplish the "tire out" affect a lot more.

pleavindring, post: 63854, member: 29842

Hi all,

What are your "go-to" strategies for dealing with very athletic new grapplers? (say 0-18 months training)
I am not athletically gifted, approx 5 ft 8" and 170lbs with no particular physical attributes. Have been training regularly/consistently for 5 years. I still find though if say a 6 ft 200lb+ guy comes in that is strong and athletic, I really struggle to deal with them. I can usually get a takedown and pass their guard fine but then once I am in side control/mount they just pretty much bench press me off them or "just stand up" unless I go very hard. By the end of the round they are usually somewhat tired but not terrible and I am pretty exhausted from it.

What do you guys do who are more experienced but perhaps not that physically gifted when youre up against these guys? When I watch the brown/black belts at our club they seem to be able to just exhaust the athletic guys and pretty easily keep top control then work for a sub once theyre tired. If only I could do that haha. I genuinely would have more success with a guy my size whos been training 5 years than a jacked athlete thats been training 5 months.

Art123, post: 63999, member: 36751

Hi, I have been somewhat successful against Bigger/Stronger Opponents' attempted side control escapes by countering with a different side control position. This is best learned by slow drilling: partner begins escape you determine what position (north/south, knee on belly, kesa gatame, four corner, 100kg, etc.) to move to. In my opinion grapplers often insist on being stagnant in their initial side control pin rather than "flowing." Tuff questions to ask ourselves is how technically sound is each one of these pins for us. Yes, bigger/Stronger/Opponents' will probably eventually escape if you don't make them pay with a submission at some point. But let's at least frustrate them and tire them out.

From the bottom I'd use a distance guard like collar sleeve to keep their weight off me. If I end up in half or closed it's hard to get stuff working and easier to get squashed.

From the top I'd hope to be quicker and use their escape attempts to shift positions like Art123 suggests.

crossover, post: 63896, member: 10990

My tactics with a very strong and athletic opponent is to say to him that lets take it easy and focus on technique. And restart very often when one of us makes a bad move. I also ask to drill a spesific situation…just passing the guard or escaping side control or what relates to the current lesson.

Personally I have a lot of gas in the tank and I find the few times I do get tired are when an opponent is able to get me into a compromised situation and keep me there defending hard for a long time. I think getting to a dominant position with minimal effort is key then you should be able to exert less as they gas out trying to escape like hell

As our gym has new members, many are new athletic and overly aggressive. I have found that my injuries occurred most frequently with these individuals. I try to be as defensive initially to feel them out as I don't want to injure or be injured.

DougPleysier, post: 64316, member: 21069

As our gym has new members, many are new athletic and overly aggressive. I have found that my injuries occurred most frequently with these individuals. I try to be as defensive initially to feel them out as I don't want to injure or be injured.