I had a roll the other night, and while my opponent was desperately trying to sink in a head and arm choke, I got to thinking…
My first thought was, “here we go again.” I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this individual before. He’s honestly grown to be my least favorite person at the gym. Not just because he keeps trying to get shitty chokes on me, but it’s a deeper, all-round person, kind of dislike. Like, when I see him in the gym, whether when it’s lining up for class, or in the weight room where he’s blasting the world worst music, I can’t help but here Stu Price’s voice saying: “You’re… such a bad person! Like, all the way through to your core!” (For those that don’t know, this is Stu from the movie The Hangover)
And it has become more and more clear that our motivations are completely different. I have to assume his motivation is to compensate for something else in his life. My motivation I covered pretty in depth in “My Reason” back in July of last year.
Even in a more specific motivation, our motivations in rolls are different. I like the idea that Jiu-Jitsu is the yielding art. That you can use that yielding to one’s strength to identify and exploit your opponent’s weakness. I like the chess match that happens during a roll. I’m all about how Jiu-Jitsu is a human puzzle to solve. So, I like to try to be more creative in my rolls. I like to see if I can bait something, or escape from somewhere. As far as submissions, if I happen to find them, great, I will take them. But I’m not out to seek and destroy. For me, personally, a 5-minute round where I felt like I had control and kept my opponent on his heels, or toes, is far more rewarding than them tapping. His approach is different.
During our role, I noticed coach eyeballing our roll. He walked past and coached each of us at least once. At one point, we stood back up to reset and coach made a comment about how since we promoted at the same time, we were rivals.
Immediately I shook my head no. I thought, and luckily it didn’t come out, that we weren’t rivals, because we’re not chasing the same thing. It’s like saying Chick-fila and Taco Bell are rivals. Yes, they are both in the quick service/fast-food industry, but they are vastly different and take completely different approaches. It’s like comparing H&K and Palmetto State Armory. Yes, they both manufacture firearms, but their market and approach are completely different. Yes, we both practice Jiu-Jitsu, but we’re clearly not after the same goal.
What really throws me, is that I don’t think this guy has competed. I mean, I’ve never heard him mention it, and I’m sure it would have been all over his social media. Why this is so confusing is that his approach to rolling is very much a competitive feel.
Now, you should know, either by previous posts, or by me telling you now, I’m not a Jiu-Jitsu competition expert. I’ve competed once at this point, and you can read my thoughts in this blog. But from what I felt then, and have seen watching other matches, that’s how he rolls.
Anyways, back to my train of thought while he was trying to choke me. He had me in a head and arm triangle, and he kept trying to adjust himself and shove my head around to sink the choke. I would defend bit, then he’d adjust and get rid of my defense, but for some reason, the choke was never there. I spent the time trying to find the opening. If his strength was to get a half-assed choking position and squeeze forever, his weakness had to be space and frustration- I’d just have to wait for one that I could exploit. While doing this, I thought back to seeing coach watching us and wonder what his thoughts were.
Now, I was having a pretty rough day to begin with. I didn’t sleep well the night before, one of my kids woke me up around 4 and kept me up. I had an early work thing I had to be up and out the door for and then various household happenings that had to be taken care of before heading to the gym to train. I still worked out before class, because my excuses were weak, and there I was in class. I’ve found that I lose a lot of motivation when I roll this one guy, because I know how he’s going to approach it, and I know that I just can’t muster up enough of a shit to give. So, even on a good day, my rolls with him are half-hearted at best.
I had mentally prepared my statement. If coach were to come up and talk to me about that roll specifically, I’d drop all those excuses and stick with facts. That this person is my least favorite person in the gym, I have never enjoyed rolling or working with him, so I go into with no motivation and reserve my give a damn for pretty much any other person.
And it was just about then in my thought process, he tried to re-adjust for the ten thousandth time and I found some space to get out of yet another failed shitty choke on his part.
#rantover
Thanks for reading.
Thinking Through Jiu-Jitsu 