What's your honest reaction to drilling or sparring with a woman?

[beat...people...up?]

-If she's experienced and capable?
-If she's less experienced but not a total spaz?
-If she's smaller than you?
-If she's a total newb spaz?


Anecdotes welcome. I'm curious.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

As a smaller person I prefer women over the mostly huge people who I try my best to avoid

 

[Robocok]

I don't like it. I'm too big for them. Feel weird about using much effort or force.

 

[berimBOWLoh]

my goal against experienced women is to gas them out. just keep moving and moving and moving. i often gas in the process but its a good challenge. i dont really grind or hold positions. i try speed passes, inverted guards and attacks etc. i dont give them anything but i dont muscle out of anything either. i get caught sometimes. shit happens, they are good.

 

[Adjaar]

I hate to say it, but I find it one of the most unenjoyable things. I've mostly faced inexperienced, and even trying to go my lightest I always feel like I'm crushing them.

Ive rolled with a few blue belts that didnt change too much, still felt like they were more fragile.

The only exception is one purple belt I know, she is military and tough, and I feel like I'm rolling with any guy ive ever rolled with and it makes me happy to have one good experience with a woman.

The two clubs I train at are quite small, so I dont have the greatest number of female training partners

 

[mattemate]

There are some good, competitive women on my team. A black belt, three purples. They're legit. I don't go full strength, and it can get you into trouble.

 

[Forceof1]

I try to play a very fluid game with the women at our gym. There are none higher than blue, but a few of them are very tough / strong. Usually I have them working on something, so I'll hit that move on them over and over so they get a feel for how it should work or how it can happen from different positions.

With new women, I make sure they are comfortable with the positions and proximity.

There is one purple belt woman in the area who is a wholly terror. strong fast with excellent technique. I have to full on, legit defend her triangles as she can throw them from everywhere. Still don't crush though.

 

[Quebec Nick]

No shoulder pressure, only technical passing, no explosion or torquing on submissions (guillotine, kimura...) I do a lot of guard playing, I sweep them like dudes. If I need to escape something I go technical, with basically no strenght involve. Sometimes I get tapped by girls because of that.

I think it helped me to get more technical and I need less strenght against bigger people because I actually do the right thing instead of just muscle it

It helps me to get the best of those rolls, it's that or me and the girl have a useless and unsatisfactory 6 minutes roll.

To be honest, I roll with girls about once or twice a week wich is about 5% of my rounds in a week, if it was about 20% I would get pissed.

It's pretty much the same rules with guys 30 or 40 pounds smaller than me.

Being 185LBS, I hate it when the 220 + guys are in full smash mode against me.

 

[Calibur]

If I can avoid it, I will. Nothing personal. I just don’t want to go through the guess work of figuring out what they can handle and what they can’t.

At least if a 135 lb dude don’t like my cross face I can just say “man up” and continue at whatever pace guilt free.

 

[nefti]

I flow more with smaller guys or women especially so if they are lower belts. Me smashing a 135lb man or a girl does nothing for me. I get nothing out of the roll IMHO. Now of I can match them movement for movement, that's productive IMHO. It forces me to be more fluid, to move better and transition better.

 

[jack36767]

Play fluid, focus on being super professional

 

[Dogstarman]

I always work my guard and if I sweep, I reset to guard. I try and use as little power as I can.

 

[nefti]

I always work my guard and if I sweep, I reset to guard. I try and use as little power as I can.

Work on taking the back

 

[jr jr]

I roll with a few girls regularly. I treat them different at different times (just like a blue belt) sometimes I allow them to pass if they use good technique and work an offensive progression. Sometimes I pass and use an offensive progression on them if they defend correctly I move through the progression. I have even smashed at times (gasp). It all depends. I have rarely rolled with a girl that was over baby purple. When I have it is not much different than rolling with a 120 lb man.

 

[mattemate]

At least if a 135 lb dude don’t like my cross face I can just say “man up” and continue at whatever pace guilt free.

That is SO sexist. I'm feeling #triggered

 

[Evenflow80]

Honestly, I see it as a light roll in between the harder rolls with the guys. Like a break. I never even try to submit them, mostly practice positions and stuff like that.

Funny enough, my very first roll ever almost 2 years ago was against a blue belt female. She kept choking me out and arm barring me and I was super embarrassed. Now I have to go super easy on her when we roll. She's a nice person but has a lot of pride and gets defensive if even the biggest guy ragdolls her.

 

[Foppa21]

It's another person to train with. I'm a smaller person and generally below average strength wise so it's a rarity that I'll outstrength someone in general.

I just apply my usual training principle. Go at about the same intensity as the my training partner and just do whatever they're doing +1. So just enough where I can to maintain control

 

[QingTian]

Not sure about all the macho attitudes here. You can always train your B or C game, and keep things playful. Training with women made me progress in different ways, especially watching experienced women do things differently since they are smaller.

Plus the boob bonus. Yeah sometimes I like it, so what.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Going to have to disagree with the majority here. Every girl I've rolled with has been a serious training partner. I don't hold back.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

I generally try to avoid rolling with women at my gym because the heaviest one of them is only about 140lbs. I don't use strength against them and we can have good rolls, but it just doesn't feel the same when your opponent can't apply any significant pressure.

Being 185LBS, I hate it when the 220 + guys are in full smash mode against me.

+1
I hate this. I'm 175ish and pretty fast. After they get frustrated with my movement, it's immediately to smash mode. I try to avoid rolling with big guys of similar skill level to me for that reason. If they're better than me, they use technique and we can have good rolls. If they're similar, I find myself sore as fuck after fending off neck crank attempts for an hour.