How important is speed in Jiu Jitsu

pheonix5

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Once two players have good technique down,how important is speed?It seems to me that the guy who can transition faster will have the advantage.
 
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Once two players have good technique down,how important is speed?It seems to me that the guy who can transition faster will have the advantage.

technique is speed in my opinion. The better your technique, the quicker your body is trained to adjust/react in every scramble.

Once your body is conditioned to react a certain way, you will be faster to all positions.
 
i think speed is quite important. a lot of the things i can accomplish is solely on speed and a grasp of a technique, not so much a mastery of it. but i think it has to do with a person's style as well. the big ole boys aren't as swift as us featherweights.
 
That's where I'm coming from,you obviously have to have good technique first,but once two competitors have good technique how important does speed play a factor.
 
i think speed is quite important. a lot of the things i can accomplish is solely on speed and a grasp of a technique, not so much a mastery of it. but i think it has to do with a person's style as well. the big ole boys aren't as swift as us featherweights.

I think Buchecha and Rodolfo would have something to say about that!
 
I'm bigish, 6'3, 200 and oldish, 31 and I never feel out-paced by anyone based on their size and physical "speed".

I DO get beaten to the punch by people with better technique. If they're a step ahead, they're a step ahead. They can be slow as they want, but they're ahead with setups, grips, etc. That can feel like they're physically faster, but unless we're talking takedowns, it's not. Technique is a two part thing; mental capacity to know what to to and physical capacity to do it.

Point is, 'speed' on the ground is not all relative. And in most cases not at all important.
 
i think you have to play with your strengths.

if you are light and athletic, you should definitely use some speed. Just look at the mendes bros, cobrinha, leo vieira.

if you are heavier... older... or really strong, you can play the smash game and make people super miserable. Look at roger gracie, saulo etc
 
I'm bigish, 6'3, 200 and oldish, 31 and I never feel out-paced by anyone based on their size and physical "speed".

I DO get beaten to the punch by people with better technique. If they're a step ahead, they're a step ahead. They can be slow as they want, but they're ahead with setups, grips, etc. That can feel like they're physically faster, but unless we're talking takedowns, it's not. Technique is a two part thing; mental capacity to know what to to and physical capacity to do it.

Point is, 'speed' on the ground is not all relative. And in most cases not at all important.

IMHO, the word you're looking for is timing and/or transitions. If you have extreme sensitivity to how your opponent is going to move/react your timing/transitions keeps you ahead of them - that will tire out your opponent because they're always playing catch up. It maybe seem like speed but it's timing/transitions.
 
i think mental speed is more important than physical speed
 
IMHO, the word you're looking for is timing and/or transitions. If you have extreme sensitivity to how your opponent is going to move/react your timing/transitions keeps you ahead of them - that will tire out your opponent because they're always playing catch up. It maybe seem like speed but it's timing/transitions.

Lol. That's what I said..
 
technique is speed in my opinion. The better your technique, the quicker your body is trained to adjust/react in every scramble.

Once your body is conditioned to react a certain way, you will be faster to all positions.

I agree. look at caio, hes practiced so much he uses all his techniques not only to a crisp, but with speed
 
In my opinion, ridiculously good technique comes with that feeling for timing that very experienced guys have.

Strength and speed are tools to implement your timing and technique.
 
i think you have to play with your strengths.

if you are light and athletic, you should definitely use some speed. Just look at the mendes bros, cobrinha, leo vieira.

if you are heavier... older... or really strong, you can play the smash game and make people super miserable. Look at roger gracie, saulo etc

Totally agree with this. So many high-level BJJers all say to "make the jiujitsu work for you" and pick techniques that are suitable for your body type. Not strong? Then don't do techniques that rely on you being stronger than your opponent. Not flexible? Ditto. Not fast? Same thing. So being fast can help but is not at all essential.

IMHO, the word you're looking for is timing and/or transitions. If you have extreme sensitivity to how your opponent is going to move/react your timing/transitions keeps you ahead of them - that will tire out your opponent because they're always playing catch up. It maybe seem like speed but it's timing/transitions.

But I totally agree with this. No matter what style of game you play, you need to be able to both stay one step ahead of your opponent and flow from one move to another. I play that slow, crushing game and even in that timing is everything.
 
It's important but I think it's less important than in, say, wrestling, because in jiu-jitsu being tight is SOOOOOOO important and speed always tends to sacrifice a little bit of tightness. Especially in higher levels where you really can't pass guard without being tight but you can without being fast. But speed is still really nice.
 
So a lot of this is actually timing.
 
IMHO, the word you're looking for is timing and/or transitions. If you have extreme sensitivity to how your opponent is going to move/react your timing/transitions keeps you ahead of them - that will tire out your opponent because they're always playing catch up. It maybe seem like speed but it's timing/transitions.

This is a good way of putting it. Speed from point A to point B is useful, but more important is reaction time, the ability to understand the situation as it's changing and adapt to it. If it takes you 5 seconds to realize that a guy has switched direction and react to it, you're probably already thrown/passed/subbed. If I can see your defense and go to the next move/angle faster than you can keep up, I'll get you eventually.
 
technique is speed in my opinion. The better your technique, the quicker your body is trained to adjust/react in every scramble.

Once your body is conditioned to react a certain way, you will be faster to all positions.

I agree with technique being speed....remember when you just started and had no technique..you were uncoordinated and in time your technique developed and speed improved
 
Timing. No such thing as speed in jiu jitsu. Everything is timing.
 
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