http://therdapmaexperiment.blogspot.com/

For some time now I have wanted to shoot some video of our group rolling. I did not know if the crew would be interested the idea or willing to participate. I was clear with him the the video would go online and why. One,the video would serve as a baseline record of of practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Prairie Martial Arts. As you know PMA is involved in an experiment to see what level of grappling skill we can develop in the art by using Roy Dean's "Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt Requirements" dvd. If we establish a baseline we will be able to measure our progress (or be measured). The second reason is that there is a lot of talk about "leaving the ego at the door" in BJJ. Of course other arts have similar traditions. One way I believe we can practice that is by being willing to be seen as we are. I have put it this way in the past with students. "Before you can be great you must be good. Before you can be good you must be bad. Before you can be bad you have to suck". Do what you do. Put it out there. Anyone can look at it. Anyone can comment. It is a good lesson in humility. So if someone looks at the video and comments "You guys suck"... I can reply "Yep, but by next year, God willing, I'll be bad"

Hey Oldman, nice video

The first thing I noticed was how high you were in your transitions- when you pass the guard, and early on you attempt mount a couple of times- you leave a lot of space and don't really have control of the other guy. You are hoping that the speed of the transition will make up for the lack of control. It will not work with a more experienced grappler who will use the space to escape.

On the same note, later on there are a few submissions attempted, but again there is often a lot of space left, and sometimes you are sacrificing your position for a submission- I think there your partner attempted a strangle from half guard, which is a) impossible to finish and b) allows his opponent to reverse him. Another example is when your opponent takes your back, he never properly secures his position, and so inevitably ends up in guard. Lastly, when you try an arm bar from mount, you are again too high in the transition and you leave masses of space- relying on speed rather than technique.

Both of you are very flat backed in guard. In order to pull of arm bars and the like you have to be very mobile on your back, which is very difficult when it is flat. What tends to happen is your arm bar attempt becomes a guard pass for the other guy.

But heck, we were all like that when we started(and I'm still often guilty of it). I have two pieces of advice for you in how to specifically improve your weak points:

1) Practice lots and lots of shrimping drills. These may seem a bit silly, but they are excellent at teaching mobility off your back and creating space in inferior positions. I have a judo instructor who always makes us practice lots of shrimping at the beginning of class, and it very quickly improves your bottom game. It helps in all of your sweeps and submissions, because they all require mobility and control.

2) Try rolling while just focusing on position, rather than submissions. Rather than trying to get a submission from the top, try and pass the guard, then go right around your opponent's body maintaining top control- it will really help you learn to transition tightly, without leaving any space. We often do an "around the world" drill, with one guy going from scarf hold, to various side controls, to north south position, and round the other side into mount, finishing where you started. Try it at first with no resistance, then with 50%, then all out. It shows you pretty quickly where you are leaving space. The aim is to go nice and slowly, maintaining control the whole way round while advancing position.

Lastly, that was a loooong roll! I would be just as dead as you were at the end of that.

Nice job, Mark. You did a lot of good passes and reversals, although I agree with Supremor that some of transitions were leaving too much space. I am guilty of the same thing all the time, though! My instructor always tells me to "sit on the guy's body" when doing armbars, and they work much better that way. I also find that threatening kimura/guillotine combos from the bottom keeps the top guy on the defensive, and sets up reversals, too.

You seem to be getting good results from your training, so keep it up. Big props for putting it up there for us!

Guys,
Thanks for the feedback. D and I watched the vid right after my wife shot it for us. The first thing I did was compliment D for some of the good things he managed to incorporate. The second thing I commented on was that I allowed to much space particularly when attemping the armbar. I plan to do the same with my other guys in the future as time allows. All you other FA folks feel free to add comments too.