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Thread: Andrew Lewis: Train BJJ By Getting Strong

  1. #1
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    Default Andrew Lewis: Train BJJ By Getting Strong

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  2. #2
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    Anyone who doesn't think that sheer physical strength is an incredible asset in BJJ is disingenuous or stupid. As someone who took this up at 59 (62 now) and with less than average technique due mainly to declining neuroplasticity (brain flexibility); I can last longer against many advanced blue belts and some purple belts because of above average strength for my size and age. I'm difficult to submit and have worked some submissions in others because of strength.

    This is not me being self-congratulatory. As anyone in the BJJ game knows, when after a roll someone says "Wow I didn't know you were so strong!"...that's not a compliment! On the other hand, I'm hopeful that I'm a little harder to kill because of it.

    Just for reference though, there's a female purple belt who's actually world-class for her rank that always seeks me out to roll with. She's slightly smaller than me and taps me out on average every 60 to 90 seconds through solid technique. But she looks for me because she wants to challenge herself with someone physically stronger than average. She's smart though. She strength trains too (deadlifts and squats).

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    Quote Originally Posted by JFord View Post
    This is not me being self-congratulatory. As anyone in the BJJ game knows, when after a roll someone says "Wow I didn't know you were so strong!"...that's not a compliment!
    I cannot for the life of me fathom that kind of thinking. Which is not aimed at you, per se, rather at the mind set of the environment you train in.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling View Post

    JFord: "This is not me being self-congratulatory. As anyone in the BJJ game knows, when after a roll someone says "Wow I didn't know you were so strong!"...that's not a compliment!"

    I cannot for the life of me fathom that kind of thinking. Which is not aimed at you, per se, rather at the mind set of the environment you train in.
    It being an insult is dependent on the tone and timing. I've tapped white belts and they've immediately slapped the ground and said "man you are JUST so strong." as if to say "if you were not so strong, I would have won". I sometimes respond with "yeah, it's not that I've been training for then years. It's just my strength." I usually let whitebelts slide with this, because they don't know any better, but it's egregious for a colored belt to say about another colored belt.

    It's a backhanded compliment because they are attributed your success to your strength not your technique.

    This mindset comes from years of BJJ espousing "this is how small, weak people can fight larger people". It's why Rickson Gracie went to Japan to do the serious MMA fights (Vale Tudo), and Royce Gracie (much smaller and weaker) starred in the UFC when it first started. UFC 1 was an advertisement for Gracie Jiu Jitsu. The problem is that this has swung the pendulum too far to the point where BJJ players sometimes admonish others for wanting to be stronger.


    By contrast, I've had people tell me "you have very good pressure" or "you're very strong" outside the context of me just having tapped them, and I've taken it as a compliment.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling View Post
    I cannot for the life of me fathom that kind of thinking. Which is not aimed at you, per se, rather at the mind set of the environment you train in.
    To remark that someone is strong is at best a backhanded compliment. Meaning they are proficient thru physical strength and not because their technique is strong (efficient and skillful).
    Seen plenty of times someone make that remark and then back peddle to clarify they meant strong technique.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling View Post
    I cannot for the life of me fathom that kind of thinking. Which is not aimed at you, per se, rather at the mind set of the environment you train in.
    Sorry Mark, I was being cute, not trying to be offensive. I was only suggesting that it's kind of a backhanded compliment in jiu-jitsu circles in general. Yes I've been complimented by people much better in jiu-jitsu than me for being strong. but there's the implicit suggestion in such a compliment that maybe I need to tighten up my technique. Isn't it the same where you train (or trained up until COVID-10)?

    There are experienced 15-year-old boys that are way smaller than me that submit me without effort. The feeling of being submitted by them is one of being effortlessly and smoothly controlled. There's little or no sense of being manhandled. I have a friend who's a brown belt who whenever he rolls with me, he plays with me and gives me positions so I can practice different things. If I don't understand the bait he's offering me, he freezes and tells me to think which is awesome for learning. One time I told him I thought my sidemount control was getting pretty good and I told him to really try to escape.

    "Really?" he asked me. "Yeah." In about five seconds I was mounted and looking up at him and the ceiling. There was zero sense of being muscled into his control. Smooth as silk. We've all been there right? And we've also (at least I have) been muscled into a submission or an escape from someone I was marginally better than but who was much stronger. It feels very different...and not as impressive right?

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    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewLewis View Post
    It being an insult is dependent on the tone and timing. I've tapped white belts and they've immediately slapped the ground and said "man you are JUST so strong." as if to say "if you were not so strong, I would have won". I sometimes respond with "yeah, it's not that I've been training for then years. It's just my strength.”
    Yeah that’s a very uneducated thing for a white belt to say to someone who’s been training for ten years. Sarcasm is sometimes the best approach (against someone with enough self-awareness to know when he’s being teased)!

    Did his next submission happen a bit...quicker?

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    I’ve heard it both ways, but most of my teammates know that strength is a skill also.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JFord View Post
    Sorry Mark, I was being cute, not trying to be offensive.
    Oh, not to worry. I didn't think it was at all offensive. More along the lines of the allergy so much of martial arts has to strength and strength training in general.

    To others who so graciously answered I thank you for the insight. If I understand your responses, the mindset comes less from the allergy I mentioned above than favoring technique and skill over the ability to produce and resist force, or the application of strength. I suspect that most, if not all, who responded see the two factors of skill and strength as complementary to each other rather than opposed to each other.

    As I came up as a white belt and especially as a blue belt in the style of Jujitsu I practice I was constantly getting scolded for "resisting" a technique. I wasn't consciously trying to resist, as it happened, I just couldn't help tightening or locking up when an arm bar takedown was being executed on me. I got warned I was going to get hurt that way because then the other guy would just use more force to overcome my "resistance" and the controls we all tried to keep within the envelope of safety would break down and so would a joint, bone, or ligament. Of course I had the same problem trying to relax when a chiropractor was trying to adjust me. I'd lock up on the table too.

    I'm just kind of a tense guy when someone puts hands on me.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JFord View Post
    Did his next submission happen a bit...quicker?
    No. I have a policy that for every time I tap someone, I let them tap me. This lets them work skills they're not good at. New people learn in time. It's not malice - it's just ignorance. The ones who are malicious don't last long.
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