Great post. And I appreciate your insight.
Thanks!
I'm at work so I can't type out a proper response just yet but the last few sentences that I bolded from that last paragraph are what I really needed to hear. There are situations/positions that I find myself in often and I think I really do need to obsess on them. I guess it makes sense to work hard on the weakest part of your game.
Yeah, my advice is don't worry about learning every technique your instructor throws at you. (Do write it down after class though, when you get home). Treat it like a buffet, you don't have to consume everything that's laid out for you. I think instructors tend to throw more techniques out there for a few reasons:
- diversity in the class - more variety of attacks means more learning as you learn to defend against favorites of different people
- attacks are flashy, newbies like subs for some reason, maybe this keeps membership dues coming in
- If everyone in the class knew defense first, the class might end up being one big Arona-esque positional stalemate
But who cares, that's the instructor's concern, not yours. And if you get good and start winning competitions, you will be an asset to your club.
If you want to get better, you need to be utilizing the time you are rolling to practice solid technique and not making it up on the fly. This means first recognizing which positions you find yourself in most so that you are studying the techniques you will practice the most in class. As someone else here said, talk to the ass kickers in your class, pick their brains. When you get caught time and time again by someone, ask how they do it, and how they would counter that technique. Youtube. Instructionals. Books. All the resources at your disposal.
This is not just about escapes and survival, though they should be a first step. e.g. I'm pretty good at retaining closed guard and getting the collar grip, but had trouble finishing the cross choke. (e.g. I was finding myself in this position a lot.) It's a really technical technique, with a lot of detail that makes a difference between you destroying your forearms or getting a nice tap. I've spent months working on that in the guard, asking different people, getting advice. There are several details that make the difference between routinely pulling it off in class, and not.
Don't be afraid of asking to start out in a particular position, either. Most people won't, but who cares. If I get refused, who cares?
If your club has a syllabus, there will probably be other students who are mastering each part of it, advancing up the stripe rankings. Let them. FWIW, I'm still technically a white belt but it has been a year since my previous instructor said it was about time to get my blue. If I wanted it, I could probably get it in a very short time. I've been rolling for nearly 3 years, all up. I do well in competitions.
The best people I've rolled with seem to be the least concerned about what color their belt is. Look at George Sotiropoulos, for example. He was a purple belt and instructing class at the time, and is one of the few Australians who has been to ADCC. Other people who have been to ADCC and are only purple. Why? Because they only want to get really stinking good, and for them competition results >>>>>> belt, and class syllabus. And I'd rather get compliments from those sorts of people than any bit of cloth around my waist.
I guess it depends on what you want, but there is only so much time to train and you have to make a decision on what you should focus on. Good luck. If you want permission from some random guy on the internet as to what you can focus on during class, you have my permission. (I don't mean when you are practicing a technique, but in free rolling. If your instructor says work this guard pass or sub, work that guard pass or sub.)
