Ast last night's BJJ / Grappling session I had the pleasure of rolling with one of our female fighters. The girl is an SBGi purple belt and a highly ranked competitor in a number of disciplines so no easy cookie (and a full-time scientist. Possible future interview idea!). We were mostly working guard passing. We worked together for about 40 minutes and I said to her "your guard passing is awesome!". She replied " Thanks! Would have been better if I'd actually passed you guard"*. That's when it hit me how unique our perception of the roll is, but only always.
The way I saw it, I was working my butt off trying to sweep or submit someone who was approximately 40-50 pounds lighter than me and failing miserably. I could barely manage to keep her in my guards (yeah! Plural! I threw everything at her including 2 Jedi squirrels I had in my gi jacket!)
She, however, saw it completely differently. She saw it as her not passing**. It made me think about all the times I've left the gym and gone home disappointed that I couldn't submit/ pass/ sweep...etc someone, not thinking much about how hard the other player must have worked to do the same to me and how I must've done something right to have thwarted all or at least most of their attempts. The world is suddenly a happier place.
It’s easy to forget how hard we work sometimes on the BJJ / Grappling mats, especially so when we’re being choked and armbarred left right and centre. We sometimes over-criticise our progress and performance and overlook how much we may have improved. We (of course by we I mean I) moan that so and so always manages to pass our guard or perhaps submit us, maybe not noticing that it’s now taking them twice as long to do so. The end result may seem the same, but it’s not. We are getting a little better, but only always.
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*She may have said that tongue-in-cheek, but the point is still there.
**At least that’s what I conclude from her comment.
The way I saw it, I was working my butt off trying to sweep or submit someone who was approximately 40-50 pounds lighter than me and failing miserably. I could barely manage to keep her in my guards (yeah! Plural! I threw everything at her including 2 Jedi squirrels I had in my gi jacket!)
She, however, saw it completely differently. She saw it as her not passing**. It made me think about all the times I've left the gym and gone home disappointed that I couldn't submit/ pass/ sweep...etc someone, not thinking much about how hard the other player must have worked to do the same to me and how I must've done something right to have thwarted all or at least most of their attempts. The world is suddenly a happier place.
It’s easy to forget how hard we work sometimes on the BJJ / Grappling mats, especially so when we’re being choked and armbarred left right and centre. We sometimes over-criticise our progress and performance and overlook how much we may have improved. We (of course by we I mean I) moan that so and so always manages to pass our guard or perhaps submit us, maybe not noticing that it’s now taking them twice as long to do so. The end result may seem the same, but it’s not. We are getting a little better, but only always.
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*She may have said that tongue-in-cheek, but the point is still there.
**At least that’s what I conclude from her comment.
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Drop me a line on parttimegrappler@ymail.com or explore some of the recommended past articles on the right...
Drop me a line on parttimegrappler@ymail.com or explore some of the recommended past articles on the right...
2 comments:
Wow...you wrote this just about the first day of real class for me...and it's so true. I think we get caught up on what we're working on and forget what we're actually doing well. Great post...may deserve re-hashing...
Thank you for the kind words Megan. You are absolutly right, it's so easy to forget that by walking thru that door, we are on a one way ticket to getting better.
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