Weight differences in ground fighting

The weight differences in the fight on the ground and if you have struggled “with a big fish” you know what I am talking about, and how weight differences in the fight matter especially if it is a real fighter and not just a “fat guy”.

Weight matters, you can’t pretend anything or believe the fairy tales of fighting in movies, if not so there wouldn’t be this strong attention in competitions for weight categories.

But how do you struggle with a “bigger fish”?

The higher thealtatechnique, the more and more it becomes apparent because the athlete knows how to take advantage of the “weight and balance” of his body to the maximum to put as they say in the jargon “pressure“, so those who are below have the impression of having something very heavy on them.

If you do the technique correctly your opponent receives pressure as if he were struggling with a much heavier person.

If only size mattered, the elephant would be the king of the savannah.

In the fight in general and in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu when applying pressure you have to be sometimes like:

• a surfboard (contract your muscles and apply concentrated pressure in a specific area of your opponent’s body, so you still have your limbs free to move to attack or defend yourself)
• the wave of the sea (relax your muscles as if you were relaxing on the beach to increase contact and using minimal effort and exert a diffuse pressure that distributes your weight evenly on the opponent).

A fight expert switches naturally and spontaneously from one “mode” to another in order to bring its finalization.

To do this there are at least 6 things you need to pay attention to:

1 – Take advantage of gravity,it’s free, so your opponent has to feel your weight all the time.

2 – Keep all the weight on your opponent and lean on the tatami the tightness necessary to maintain the balance and your position. The weight difference here matters.

3 – Stay in touch. You have to be like a chewing gum stuck to jeans, you never have to lose contact and absolutely you do not have to lose it during the transition phases the weight moves but must always be on your opponent, if you lose contact you have taken the weight, even just for a moment that your opponent exploits to get out.

4 – The head, hips and shoulders. The exit thrusts start from there so focus the increased pressure on the hips and shoulders to effectively immobilize the opponent.

• Check the head — You have to make sure that the column is offline, so > it has to be curved, and you have to do this based on the type of position, there are several techniques.
• Check your hips — > You have to close it with your thighs, knee and/or arm, again depending on your location, there are several techniques.
• Check your shoulders — > You have to make sure that the opponent’s elbows are far from his body, again depending on the location there are several techniques.
  

Ps. Describing this in words is not easy!!

5 – The more you grab, the less you can attack or use your limbs to “enlarge” your base. Although grabbing can help you keep your opponent locked however it has the disadvantage of limiting your attack movements and diminishes the ability to do “base” and while you are grabbing your opponent you risk being tipped or relieved.

6 – Learn to perceive from the contact what your opponent will do. To set his defense or exit that is preparing your opponent will make a movement, anticipate it. If you move the weight to the wrong side it will turn you over or lift you creating the space to get out or insert its hands or legs.

Watch out for these points

If you pay attention to these points that can be considered invisible jiu jitsu, then all those things that you do not see but feel will apply a lot of pressure.

Ps. To learn The Invisible Jiu Jitsu there is only one way, to suffer them by an expert. When you can’t move be very careful what’s going on and your opponent’s position and where and how his body is on you and how he carries the weight, “listen” to your opponent because you’re learning an important lesson, and this will be useful to you to learn how to apply this invisible aspects that allows you to control the opponent without the use of too much force , something very important, because it is about learning to manage energies to make them explode when you create or appear the opportunity to finalize.

So I don’t have to use my muscles?

Yes, but you have to use them as little as possible and only the necessary.

Because?

1 – If you are with strained and stiff muscles it is difficult to perceive the movements of the opponent and before you can move you need to relax your muscles in order to change position and constantly move the balance to compensate for your opponent’s exit and defense attempts.

2 – Muscle strength must be applied with explosive intensity when applying a technique and sufficient for the purpose, or the right should be used to maintain the necessary muscle tension to hold the position but parts of the body that are not employed in muscle exertion should be relaxed.

3 – If you always keep your muscles in tension you consume a lot of energy, you need to learn to use only the necessary strength if you want to fight for long sessions effectively.

Two exercises you need to do to learn and improve your ability to carry weight:

This training strategy is you need to develop the ability to maintain control of the opponent both when immobilized and when on the move.

Consider that it’s critical to move from one approach to another all the time.

This approach you have to train on all positions (mount, guard, side control, etc.)

1. With static training companion: You have to be able to keep your training partner in that position, he will try to push, get out, etc. and you have to keep him stuck in the chosen position. This exercise you need in reality to maintain the reach after after to be able to apply a lever or a suffocation you have to allow a slight movement to your opponent as a small glimmer of light, to escape expose a limb or neck to your attack but to do this you have to allow a small movement and this happens leaving a window that is actually a trap.

1. With on-the-go training partners: In this exercise your partner is more experienced so being more experienced, so the control can not be of position but of positions, it can no longer be just one of a result means maintaining the position of advantage in the various transitions until the time of grasping, perceiving an error and finalizing the opponent. This exercise should be done in fluency so it is not a force game, important.

One important thing you need to understand is that one thing to avoid is to stay in static positions, even more noticeable when there is a weight difference.

You have to try to get out of a disadvantaged position requires energy, but it doesn’t make sense if you stay “tight embraced” without attacking or defending yourself, it’s not a good strategy to learn or a good way to train.

Learning to carry weight is something important if you want to learn and improve your fight and also better manage the weight difference between you and your opponent!.

Stay Tuned!

Street Fight Mentality & Fight Sport

Andrea