Becoming a more technical "Big" man

[David Stager]

I'm not a huge guy. I walk around at 187 lbs. But that still puts me at a considerable size advantage against 70% of the guys I roll against, and I can count on one hand the number of guys in my class who have a significant size advantage over me.

I find myself envying the little guys sometimes.

When little guys hit a sweep or a submission, they most likely pulled it off with polished technique because out-muscling an opponent just isn't in their vocabulary. For bigger guys like me, however, there is always a question when I am controlling someone I outweigh by 20 lbs: Am I keeping myself honest, or did I just bully this guy/girl a little?

So lately I've been trying to find ways to make my size advantage less of a factor. I try to imagine I'm weaker, or that I'm trying really hard to conserve energy (which, to be honest, I should be doing regardless of the opponent's size). That got me thinking, maybe I should show up to class 20-30 min. early and tire myself out with a tough warm up.

Any advice from my fellow big men? Perspective from smaller guys/girls?

[10th Planet Riverside, Ca]

I'm not a huge guy. I walk around at 187 lbs. But that still puts me at a considerable size advantage against 70% of the guys I roll against, and I can count on one hand the number of guys in my class who have a significant size advantage over me.

I find myself envying the little guys sometimes.

When little guys hit a sweep or a submission, they most likely pulled it off with polished technique because out-muscling an opponent just isn't in their vocabulary. For bigger guys like me, however, there is always a question when I am controlling someone I outweigh by 20 lbs: Am I keeping myself honest, or did I just bully this guy/girl a little?

So lately I've been trying to find ways to make my size advantage less of a factor. I try to imagine I'm weaker, or that I'm trying really hard to conserve energy (which, to be honest, I should be doing regardless of the opponent's size). That got me thinking, maybe I should show up to class 20-30 min. early and tire myself out with a tough warm up.

Any advice from my fellow big men? Perspective from smaller guys/girls?

I'm heavier than you. The answer to your question is to do grappling drills.
Drill a move, position, and technique until you don't have to think about it.
Until you can execute techniques without
thinking about it, like you tie your shoelaces or even breathe.
You’ve been doing both of those activities for so long that you’re
no longer aware of the fact that you do them without thought,
especially the breathing part! Drill single submissions but even more
important is to drill submission in a chain. From the guard for example
do the Cross body arm bar to the triangle, to back to the other side
CBA to. Hip bump to kimura to guillotine to CBA etc. etc.
Do the postion flow drill. Do the same thing with leglocks. I do
Do passing the guard drills. Do submission drills from every position.

Think of the drills as having fun not as a boring task you have to do.
Put on some music. Get the adrenalin flowing. Drill until every thing
is just reflexive without having to think about it.

One time I was training in Malibu and a top grappler challenged me to grapple
right at the end of the class when I was almost ready to walk out the door. I told
him next time we would roll but he insisted that we roll even after I had told
him no many times. So finally I said ok. We rolled and I just did all my submission
drills I had been working on. Didn't even have to think. I had a 30 submissions
drill that I had been working on for months. 30 subs divided into 5 combos.
I was just as surprised as him when I tapped him out.

J.T. Torres as two discs on drilling grappling techniques. One is called
single subs and the other is combo subs for drills. Tell your training partner
to move here move there do this do that. This is without your partner giving
you any resistance especially at first. After awhile he can give you 50% resistance.
Every night should not be ADCC world championship night. 50% of your training
should be drilling.

[Mitchell C]

I would say to try and find someone who is bigger than you.
But that's probably the obvious answer.

[Slick Rick]

Do try to exhaust the crap out of yourself with cardio and weights before hand. Then on the mat you'll have no strength to explode. If you have the urge to explode, exhaust yourself even further. You'll become more technical in no time, because when you're strength is gone, all you have is technique.

[Brian Debes]

As the smallest weakest guy in the gym, and also the coach, I have an interesting perspective here. I would say, just by the way you have written this, that you are or will soon be one of the more technical guys at your division. This is because you seem to be over the “I can muscle him so why wouldn’t I?” Mindset. So I would say, just because you are aware of this, you don’t have a lot to worry about.

If you want additional advise, when I roll with (on those rare actions) someone weaker than me, I SOMETIMES (doesn’t me all the time) change my rolling speed so it is as if the person (usually 90 pound female or something is a super heavyweight muscling ME around. That means I let them force my arms and stuff places the same way a super heavyweight would be able to. This doesn’t mean I’m not trying to win, it means I’m trying to win under very difficult parameters. And for those of you that say “you can’t do that”… well I can roll that way with a heavyweight because I have no choice. This is the same thing without the injury risk. You will lose a lot this way, but if you shed your ego this might help you with your “problem”.
Hope this helps and is not just “me specific” or something. Just a suggestion.

[Brian Debes]

Do try to exhaust the crap out of yourself with cardio and weights before hand. Then on the mat you'll have no strength to explode. If you have the urge to explode, exhaust yourself even further. You'll become more technical in no time, because when you're strength is gone, all you have is technique.

I do love this as well

[David Stager]

The answer to your question is to do grappling drills...Tell your training partner
to move here move there do this do that. This is without your partner giving you any resistance especially at first. After awhile he can give you 50% resistance. Every night should not be ADCC world championship night. 50% of your training should be drilling.

I completely agree, and I would add that not only should your partner be giving you very little resistance at first, you should also be slowly and methodically applying the moves you are drilling. Travis Magalit pointed this out to me when he saw me asking for more resistance during a drill. He said that making things more "realistic" while drilling does not help, and in fact hurts, your technique. Since then I have slowed things down considerably, and I have noticed the difference.

I would say to try and find someone who is bigger than you. But that's probably the obvious answer.

Sound advice, and I do try to follow it when I can, but statistically speaking it's inevitable that I will roll with a much smaller (ie someone who I outweigh by 20+ lbs.) person at least once per practice.

Do try to exhaust the crap out of yourself with cardio and weights before hand. Then on the mat you'll have no strength to explode. If you have the urge to explode, exhaust yourself even further. You'll become more technical in no time, because when you're strength is gone, all you have is technique.

I will definitely start doing this. I just need to bring an extra shirt because I sweat a lot, and I don't want my smaller training partners to accuse me of waterboarding them in class.

As the smallest weakest guy in the gym, and also the coach, I have an interesting perspective here. I would say, just by the way you have written this, that you are or will soon be one of the more technical guys at your division. This is because you seem to be over the “I can muscle him so why wouldn’t I?” Mindset. So I would say, just because you are aware of this, you don’t have a lot to worry about.

If you want additional advise, when I roll with (on those rare actions) someone weaker than me, I SOMETIMES (doesn’t me all the time) change my rolling speed so it is as if the person (usually 90 pound female or something is a super heavyweight muscling ME around. That means I let them force my arms and stuff places the same way a super heavyweight would be able to. This doesn’t mean I’m not trying to win, it means I’m trying to win under very difficult parameters. And for those of you that say “you can’t do that”… well I can roll that way with a heavyweight because I have no choice. This is the same thing without the injury risk. You will lose a lot this way, but if you shed your ego this might help you with your “problem”.
Hope this helps and is not just “me specific” or something. Just a suggestion.

I really think heavier guys are doing themselves a disservice when they are satisfied with out-muscling a smaller opponent. Whenever I hear about a small guy like Marcelo Garcia tearing it up at a competition, I think to myself, "What would it look like if we could take his technique and put it into the body of a big guy?"

As for pretending like my opponent is a super heavyweight, I have some difficulty doing this because a) their bodies are still tiny compared to super heavyweights, and b) I sometimes equate imagining them overpowering me with giving up positions (eg getting passed way more easily than I should be).