Originally Posted by
brianhunter
Well the number one way to figure out if strength matters is if there are weight divisions in competition. In BJJ competition there are, so strength is a factor. If it wasn’t then the divisions wouldn’t exist.
Rolling with strong people is definitely more difficult. You have to be that much more technical in what you do to compensate. A stronger person is more able to punish you for sloppy technique than a weaker opponent. The opposite is true as well, if you are stronger than the person you are rolling with then you will get away with more mistakes.
There is a not trivial risk of injury when doing BJJ. You have to give a lot of trust to the person you are rolling with, trust that they will not deliberately hurt you, or hurt you because they were being careless. Injuries will inevitably happen, probably to a knee, shoulder, or the neck. So a inexperienced and strong person can be a huge risk to your own body. This may be where a lot of the dislike towards ‘strength’ comes from. However that’s applying strength in an ignorant fashion, applying strength is an intelligent fashion is desirable. However inexperienced people might not be able to really make that call. You will probably find people roll with strong beginners in a very careful and conservative fashion.
BJJ is a highly technical sport, and technique is king. Strength is a benefit where you’re knowledge and experience closely matches the other person, but as that gap widens it is less of an advantage. Any scrawny person can choke you unconscious if they are taught how to once they have your arms around your neck after all.
It’s a balance, and time is a limiting factor. If two similar people rolled after two years of BJJ, and they both done three BJJ sessions a week, but one of them also done an additional two strength sessions a week, then I don’t think it would be controversial to say that the one doing the additional strength training would probably win. However if those same two people faced off, and instead of the one doing no strength training and only three BJJ session a week instead done five BJJ sessions a week (so they both train five sessions in total), then I couldn’t tell you who would win. Maybe someone else could, but I can’t.
In competition though you will be matched by skill level as well as weight, so fuck it, get hench, as they say.