Rolling with eyes closed

[Slick Rick]

Roll with your eyes closed to understand muscle movement by touch. Notice when the opponent starts to move, certain groups of tendons/muscles begin to tense up. You notice an attempt or pass is about to occur. All (wing Chung/sticky hands) type ish, but translates well to jiu jitsu.
Besides, you never know when you'll be caught defending yourself in a dark alley, with limited to no visibility.

[Chris Odell (Datsusara)]

i sort of half close them most of the time. after getting used to looking up to keep posture i realized most of my jits is done by feel anyway so it's like training with the blast shield down.

[Harry Evans]

I close my eyes almost 90% of the time, and open them occasionally to see a limb I can't feel, or to read the other guy's eyes to see his planned attacks (I was a pro poker player for a long time -it helps). I find that I am far more sensitive and aware of subtle movements. You will be surprised how much you can sense without seeing. And I find that I am quicker to respond to shifts in weight, because my eyes don't deceive me into thinking he is or is not moving a certain way.

On bottom, I get a few less subs like this (I need my eyes to be exact enough with final adjustments to finish a sub), but I get WAY more sweeps. On top I am just flat out better, both with weight allocation and pass timing, two things I have a hard time with.

[Anton S]

i literally started doing bjj a month ago, and after the 2nd class, i felt more comfortable rolling with my eyes closed. I could actually feel every twitch and twist the hips and legs would make and could adjust. Looked on youtube for any vids about rolling with your eyes closed and found nothing. I think it definetly helps.

[Brad Davis]

I have just recently started training and have found it helps calm me down. I am a bigger guy and noticed alot of times I am just trying to over power the person I am rolling with. I have started closing my eyes and just trying to go with the flow more and it seems to help. With my eyes closed I feel all the little changes I think I miss when I am trying to focus on looking and just trying to bully my way out of something.

[Mario Lopez Alvarez]

There were a couple blind people at a judo school I used to train at. They did ground work as well. It was interesting rolling with them. Not wanting to hurt them, but at the same time not wanting to get choked out by the blind dude.

Very zen

[Tony "The Goods" Garcia]

I had a brown belt guy that was the assistant instructor at Rickson Gracie school I went to. He couldn't see the color orange because of some eye injury. Anyways I was a solid 3 stripe blue. I thought If I wore an orange gi this dude would see a floating head and I could take him. That guy choked the living shit outta me! Found out he only had less than 10% percent vision. Yeah, I was an idiot.

[PJ Sisco]

My father is a blind Jiu jitsu player... He even did a demo at an mma event where he grappled with a sighted man nearly twice his size and he dominated! I get in a lot of reps with my eyes closed because after long rolls I just naturally close my eyes now... And I had been closing my eyes when I rolled with my father just so I could explain techniques to him better... Nathan is totally right... I think that maybe sight is a large chunk of information your brain has to process and without that input... Your brain can focus a lot better on the techniques and fluid movement... Just my theory

[David Rosado]

I had a brown belt guy that was the assistant instructor at Rickson Gracie school I went to. He couldn't see the color orange because of some eye injury. Anyways I was a solid 3 stripe blue. I thought If I wore an orange gi this dude would see a floating head and I could take him. That guy choked the living shit outta me! Found out he only had less than 10% percent vision. Yeah, I was an idiot.

LOL this can't be true. hahahah.

My father is a blind Jiu jitsu player... He even did a demo at an mma event where he grappled with a sighted man nearly twice his size and he dominated! I get in a lot of reps with my eyes closed because after long rolls I just naturally close my eyes now... And I had been closing my eyes when I rolled with my father just so I could explain techniques to him better... Nathan is totally right... I think that maybe sight is a large chunk of information your brain has to process and without that input... Your brain can focus a lot better on the techniques and fluid movement... Just my theory

interesting theory.



Yesterday I forgot my contacts and rolled damn near blind. I mean, I could see colors but everything was a blur. And I actually had a pretty good roll. I feel like i felt everything just a little better since I had to rely more on what I felt than what I saw. There might be something to this. But I'm not sure if I can ever roll with my eyes closed.

[Greg W]

Highly recomended. I have been doing it since almost day one and see huge benifits. Try this: get really, really tired via rolling, running, etc. Then roll with the most experienced trusted person you can with your eyes closed. You'll have to tap a bunch, but wow what a learning experience. love the "blast shield down" comment!!!