How do you deal with someone who uses nothing but strength

[Jack LaBarge]

I'm almost always the smallest guy on the mats, typically i'm 135-140 lbs and I certainly know how frustrating a big guy can be especially if they put their strength on you. To jump on what a few others have noted, try not to get too frustrated with it. Getting smashed is part of the journey and pretty soon the big guy will probably realize that using strength over technique will end up getting himself smashed . My answer for really biggies early on and still is at times was the butterfly guard. My goal for a long time was to learn how to keep a big guy off me, once I knew I could get a big guy off me then I expanded my game. Good luck bro

Marcelo agrees with Mike!

[Jeremy Gould]

Let that ego go. Don't get frustrated! This guy is doing you a massive favor by showing you exactly where you stand in your journey.

I couldn't agree more Dylan.

[Daniel Valdez]

I try to get to positions that require grappling strength and work it in rolling to make myself stronger, and it also tightens my technique. Positions like, high guard, rubber guard, holding back, holding mount, arm triangles...etc. If it is happening in class than this is a good thing. Use it to make yourself better some how some way. Whether it is increasing stamina, strength, trickery, combos, and or technique. I don't suggest just using one technique like, just leg locks. It only increases leg locks, you have partners that can make your entire game better.......
be happy.

[Brandon Mccaghren]

Let that ego go. Don't get frustrated! This guy is doing you a massive favor by showing you exactly where you stand in your journey.

That's about right. You're a white belt and he's bigger and stronger than you. There are no magic tricks. Just reps.

Here's what I used to do (and still do pretty regularly):

1. Let all your opponents start in side control during free roll.
2. Every time you escape, you restart from the bottom of side control.
3. Every time you find yourself holding your breath or muscling through technique, punish yourself with 10 push-ups when class is over. You're gonna have racked up a ton of push-ups by the end of the night. Maybe 200 or more.
4. Get home and study how the masters move their bodies from the bottom position and get a feel for what's possible. Watch Marcelo, Rickson, Royler, Ribeiro, Maia, Ryron, Telles. All move differently, but use the same ideas. Uncover those ideas and devote your game to them.
5. Do this every night for a month and watch where your game goes.

Being stuck on the bottom is the best thing that could ever happen to your Jiu jitsu.

[Andy Bader]

Don't stay flat on your back and get smashed. Use framing so you can keep breathing normally (when he's squashing you). Butterfly guard is great for offbalancing the big guy. I also use my feet on his hips and thigh area to push and disrupt his base. Don't stay flat and stall in half guard for a long time. His size advantage will wear you down if you stay flat. Try to curl up like a shrimp and keep on moving and framing. Leglocks also...

[ern]

When I started jiu jitsu, I was physically bigger than a lot of the guys at the gym, but not all of them. I had to roll with guys that were 25-55 pounds heavier than me and I was about 220 at the time. I learned that I had to out quick the 275 guy, be patient with the heavily musceled 250 lb guy, and be very careful where I put my legs with the sambo trained guy. The 250 lb guy who had experience on me ground on the side of my jaw so hard one practice that I couldn't talk for about 2 days. Now I tell guys to grind on it, it really doesn't hurt any more. The 275 lb guy covered my face with his belly in side control and I had to tap cause I could't breathe. Now I know to move my head more. I learned alot from getting my ass kicked. My instructor, who I had 40 lbs on, would triangle me and arm bar me while talking to other people in the gym, choking me out 7-8 times in 3 minutes. these ass kickings were great lessons learned, and I have improved from them because I was motivated to not get my ass kicked like that again.

I would suggest you do what smaller guys do to me all the time, out quick me. What I mean is that I am a little bigger and a little slower, so they are always cutting corners on me faster than I can react. As someone else said, they go into positions that I have a hard time working against, like deep half. smaller guys find ways to get places that bigger guys just don't seem to do. Use his strength based efforts against him by setting him up for sweeps and rolls, bait him with an arm, then sweep. Maybe you don't get the sweep or roll the first 5-9 times you try it, but by 10 you will.

I roll with guys I have close to 100 lbs on. I let them take my back, sink their hooks in, and I only defend the RNC, no position improvement - work on shruggin shoulders, establishing grips, hand check defense, and technique only escape. I let them take mount, to work on defense. I learn alot from smaller guys too, to move faster, to be precise with movement, to close small holes in my guard game that they can slip out of (bigger guys wouldn't).

every ass kicking I can walk away from is something else I learn from.

It is fantastic experience to get a minor achievement on someone who has dominated you. They might not even know you did something you are happy about. small victories matter as much as tapping someone out - they keep you in a positive perspective.

I'm done rambling. Good luck, hard work wll take care of almost everything else.