Drilling on your weak side

[Nick Paul]

Watching a recent MTS, I remember Eddie saying something like "drill your strong side until you have it perfected, then teach yourself the other side." But I've heard others say that you're cutting your arsenal in half if you're only good with one side. When it comes to triangles, armbars, kimuras etc. I feel pretty comfortable attacking both sides, but what about the more advanced positions? I find that my reaction is a lot slower to my opponents reactions the more I bias one side. What would be a good policy for drilling each side? Always split the reps 50/50? 80/20? I've tried to take the approach that I'll drill my strong side when I'm the one initiating the position (rubber guard, the truck, leg locks) and I'll try to be more even when it's a result of my opponent initiating (having a good lockdown on either leg, side control escapes, that kind of thing). Just curious on how everyone else splits their reps. Thanks fellas

[Greg W]

Drilling strong side only is OK on things that are your choice. Some things are not your choice, strong and weak should be worked evenly. ie. lockdown bottom, you should be good both ways 'cause its not your choice on which foot you might be given. Some things, like Eddie showed, are your choice and you can just adjust your side as needed.

[john harris & sons]

If the Gracies are correct about the gi making your nogi better. Then drilling your weak side should make your strong side stronger. Lol

[Anthony Peck]

Pretty much everything (except escapes) is 100% one side for me. Most of those techniques are "strong side", but I have a few specific things on my "weak" side, but mostly the number one thing on a "weak" side is a transition back to my strong side.

[Arman Fathi]

For the most part, my passing goes to one side though naturally I feel I have to be ready to adjust and go the other way, or at least threaten it. Pattern recognition and muscle memory are all aspects of an elite grappler. It just seems to me that things start to open up both ways even if I drill one way. Leg drags, for example. I remember going to Ralphs up in SF and the whole week, all they did were leg drags to one side. Over, and over, and over. That'd be the whole class until the live rolls. It wasn't until later on though that I actually started seeing them in live training. It didn't matter what side they were on. I was pulling them off, and the success rates weren't any different. People tend to play rubber guard one way, albeit more because of comfort and flexibility. Even still, there are guys that are masters at it on only one side that can waste people. From my experience, it's better to master one side than to be so-so at both. What's important is to mentally believe in the technique, and to believe it will work. If you're pulling it off like clockwork on one side and your confidence is sky high, what's to stop you from pulling it off the other way when it's presented?

Besides, it's too much stress always thinking about allocating reps to both sides. Marcelo is a big advocate of mastering one side, as is Eddie. From my perspective, I just wanna get the technique down. I wanna learn what makes it work and what makes it not work. There are a lot of 'moves' that are really just principles that should be ingrained. Like sliding your hooks in and taking the back. Even if it's not the smoothest transition, what's important is that you're looking to get your hooks in, strong side or weak side. When I'm rolling, I'm not thinking "oh crap, this is my weak side", I'm thinking "SLIDE THE HOOKS IN". If it comes out pretty, beautiful. If not, at least it was the right action I was attempting and I can reevaluate the scenario.

[Pan]

I can't remember the episode but I'm sure I heard on JRE that there's some evidence to suggest weak-side drilling actually helps your strong side form too. It's worth thinking about.