Critique my BJJ match (video)

[redaxe]

Good job. You seemed 2-3 steps ahead of your opponent the whole time; he just seemed too preoccupied with "staying in the game" (vs imposing his game on you). As for the choke, to be completely honest it did not look you secured the position at all (which you already stated). I think had you had a hook in and gone for a more conventional bow-&-arrow, he would have tap'd (i.e. @ :55 there was just too much space between you 2).

Also, when you were in his half-guard your cross-face could be improved. Had your elbow been on the floor (vs pointing to the ceiling) you would have significantly increased the pressure in your cross-face (by being able to pull his lat and drive your shoulder into his face, driving it sideways). This would greatly immobilize him, preventing him from recovering guard like he did.

Also, (just my preference here), but you should try standing up to break/pass. I couldn't imagine breaking guard without standing. Just thinking aloud!

And like Balto said, posture posture posture...drive your hips through, keep your back straight and upright... etc etc.

In any case, you looked good but at the same time your opponent was not doing a good job at really turning the pressure on and imposing his game on you. You had opportunities to end the match, but so did he. Also in my honest opinion his guard looked weak (maybe he was tired), so you should have knee-sliced much much sooner. I would suggest doubling up on your passes (combo them up together). I saw a bunch of opportunities for x-pass, knee slice, bullfighter, and stack.

So to reiterate: well done, just work on your posture (at all times really), your passing (threaten multiple passes), and your control (immobilizing your opponent completely).

-Arun

My opponent actually does have a pretty good guard, I had never rolled with him before that match but I have a couple times since. He was good with the sleeve grips and breaking my posture in open guard and he did almost sweep me. But you're right that he was tired. And I think he was coming off a loss in his previous match so he might have been at a psychological disadvantage.

Knee slice is always the first pass I go for once I get my grips but maybe I should look for other passes like the bullfighter and x-pass more often. You're right that I need to chain the passes better.

I do need to work on my standing guard breaks but I feel like it uses up a lot of energy to lift my opponent up. Also I have really long thighs so it's hard to get the knee in. So normally I break closed guard from the knees and then I stand up to pass.

Good tips, thanks a lot for taking the time.

 

[Balto]

I've seen it called both ways. One ref explained it to me like this. He was in top position, there was a submission attempt, then he was still on top after the submission attempt. So there was no position change.

The gray area is, was there a moment that Redaxe was not considered to be in top position.

I argued the same point as you, on behalf of a teammate but it did no good.

A lot of refs make horrible calls in tournaments. Just because refs call it a certain way doesn't make it right. In fact, unfortunately at many smaller tournaments, refs have no real understanding of the rules at all.

I'm very confident that was a takedown, but a certified ref can come in here and weigh in just to be sure.

 

[platfox]

A lot of refs make horrible calls in tournaments. Just because refs call it a certain way doesn't make it right. In fact, unfortunately at many smaller tournaments, refs have no real understanding of the rules at all.

I'm very confident that was a takedown, but a certified ref can come in here and weigh in just to be sure.

When I was a whitebelt and had 8 months experience I was at a local tournament as a spectator/cheerleader for a teammate and the promoters asked me to ref a match. Lol, I said hell no, and volunteered as the score keeper. A blue belt wound up reffing.

 

[ItsArun]

Knee slice is always the first pass I go for once I get my grips but maybe I should look for other passes like the bullfighter and x-pass more often. You're right that I need to chain the passes better.

I've been spending the past few months almost exclusively on chaining passes and I can tell you right now that the x-pass & knee slice work really well off eachother, as do the bullfighter & stack (all 4 work well off eachother really).

I do need to work on my standing guard breaks but I feel like it uses up a lot of energy to lift my opponent up. Also I have really long thighs so it's hard to get the knee in. So normally I break closed guard from the knees and then I stand up to pass.

For sure for sure, but just so you know for standing breaks you shouldn't be lifting your opponent up at all (that is his decision to sit up), and getting the knee inside is something I hardly do from standing. There are hours of footage of Roger standing to break using the exact same process: sleeve control, posture (hips through), other arm straightens out (like a post) to push the knee down (thus breaking the guard). It's almost impossible to maintain closed guard on someone that's standing fully postured with their hips through (threatening a sweep implies opening the guard).

If you feel that you have to lift your opponent when standing it probably means that you're carrying his weight from the get-go, which probably means that he's broken your posture before you stood up.

 

[redaxe]

Generally not too bad. Anyway, how do you find training in the US different from training with Hee Sung Lee (have I got his name right?).

Yeah that's his name. Gracie Barra Seattle is much bigger and more organized than Korea BJJ Academy. Also the guys are much bigger as I'm sure you can imagine. Against the guys I trained with in Korea I could pretty much work on whatever guard or position I wanted to during rolling because I outweighed almost everyone. The guys were real technical and had great guards but when you're bigger you just kind of get to decide the position.

In America I have to deal with a lot more smashing. We have some guys with crazy shoulder pressure. It's forcing me to get better at escapes and half guard. Having heavier opponents is also forcing me to time my sweeps better.

Training in Korea was great, and in some ways it was more fun because we just drilled one technique and then rolled a bunch. At GB we do a lot more conditioning, drills, and position-specific training, which is less fun but I think I'm learning faster.

 

[Balto]

When I was a whitebelt and had 8 months experience I was at a local tournament as a spectator/cheerleader for a teammate and the promoters asked me to ref a match. Lol, I said hell no, and volunteered as the score keeper. A blue belt wound up reffing.

I've also reffed without proper training and probably did a bad job.

I know a lot more about the rules now, but still I would not want to ref without going through a certification course first. There are just a lot of little points that need to be clarified for consistency before you can ref well.

 

[3dsmax]

it's like watching myself at times
a few things that i know are bad (i'm also guilty of these at times but getting better)
1. your posture in open guard - you gotta be in almost squatting position not bent over like this. anybody decent with de la riva will take you up and over every time
2. control his feet with your hands if you are not sure how to pass at that exact moment. i find controlling his feet and making sure he is not hooking anything buys time to think and decide what to do.
3. you gave him a lot of time when he caught you in a triangle; again this guy let you get away with this but somebody who's a bit better you'll be tapping - posture right away

I use the same de la Riva sweep to the back except my grips are different; I think you end up doing the right thing eventually but I'll say it anyway - my right hand grabs his right sleeve and my left hand goes on the belt or pants as soon as i can. The right hand prevents him from turning into me. The left hand controls the distance that I'm comfortable with in order to put the right leg behind his knee and take him over.

Both of you looked very tired and that's usually andrenaline dump related and not a cardio issue. If you can relax more than your opponent, you win almost every time if the match goes longer than 2 minutes.

 

[ozyabbas]

Yeah that's his name. Gracie Barra Seattle is much bigger and more organized than Korea BJJ Academy. Also the guys are much bigger as I'm sure you can imagine. Against the guys I trained with in Korea I could pretty much work on whatever guard or position I wanted to during rolling because I outweighed almost everyone. The guys were real technical and had great guards but when you're bigger you just kind of get to decide the position.

In America I have to deal with a lot more smashing. We have some guys with crazy shoulder pressure. It's forcing me to get better at escapes and half guard. Having heavier opponents is also forcing me to time my sweeps better.

Training in Korea was great, and in some ways it was more fun because we just drilled one technique and then rolled a bunch. At GB we do a lot more conditioning, drills, and position-specific training, which is less fun but I think I'm learning faster.

I had a similar experience when I left the John Frankl gyms when I went back to England. It is more technical in Korea (although the one in Busan emphasised strength and speed), they spar in a similar way to the Japanese.

I found their guard harder to pass than in England, especially the purple belts. Stacking very rarely works on Koreans because of their crazy flexibility and they have much more mobile hips. The smaller guys were very slippery so it was incredibly difficult to keep them pinned or to finish a pass.

England and Korea present different BJJ experiences but I feel better to having experienced a number of gyms in different countries.

 

[HEAVY GRAPPLER]

You and i are about the same level - so my advice is probably only worth so much...

I thought the guard work at the beginning was really nice. I always forget about the classic DLR back take and wind up hanging out in the guard too long. Nice to see you pull it off even after he pointed his knee out.

At 1:00, when you try to dive across with the bow and arrow - I thought you could try
this:

YouTube - PENAO: Forward Roll Against the Turtle (three finishes)

I don't know how common that technique is, but my former instructor Penao was a big proponent of this choke and had a whole series from it.

 

[GSparky]

I had two blue belt matches, and I won both on points, and then I lost my third match to a purple belt via armbar. This is my second blue belt match.

Can you upload your other blue belt match & your puple belt match. I'm no BJJ expert by any means but it is way easier to learn from a loss then a win.

 

[redaxe]

Can you upload your other blue belt match & your puple belt match. I'm no BJJ expert by any means but it is way easier to learn from a loss then a win.

Thanks for the interest. I have the other blue belt match but it's less interesting than this one. He pulls guard I pass to half guard, he sweeps me, I get closed guard and sweep him back, and then I hold him in side control until the time runs out. The camera angle is bad so you mostly just see my ass, and the ref walks in front of the camera and blocks the view to have a conversation with other people, lol.

I don't think anyone filmed my purple belt match. He pulls guard, I knee slide pass, I hold him there for a while trying to set up a kimura, then he gets his half guard back, then as I'm trying to pass half guard he gets his full guard back, then he gets an overhook on my arm that I can't get out of. He uses it to set up a triangle choke, which I defend, then he armbars me instead.

 

[redaxe]

You and i are about the same level - so my advice is probably only worth so much...

I thought the guard work at the beginning was really nice. I always forget about the classic DLR back take and wind up hanging out in the guard too long. Nice to see you pull it off even after he pointed his knee out.

At 1:00, when you try to dive across with the bow and arrow - I thought you could try
this:

YouTube - PENAO: Forward Roll Against the Turtle (three finishes)

I don't know how common that technique is, but my former instructor Penao was a big proponent of this choke and had a whole series from it.

NICE, thanks for the video. I definitely should have done that--kicked my leg through to get a hook in and made him roll with me. Not having any hooks in was definitely the biggest problem with my choke.