What do you do when rolling?

[Josh Wilson]

My butterfly guard is getting a lot better now to the point where, with the guys i train with (all white belts), i rarely can't get some sort of sweep or hip bump my way to the top. I do realise however that this means my full guard is not that strong and neither is my bottom game in general. When rolling will you guys make a conscious effort to get in certain situations so that you can work on a part of you're game?

[Isaac Atley]

i started jiu jitsu focussing on my bottum game, so for me i still need to get those sweeps up so i have the ability to decide where the fight goes, im getting better at it but thats what im always working on these days. half guard to dog fight or electric chair. etc

[Josh Bodmon]

Definitely. My instructor (Stew Landry) always taught me to check my ego at the door and do my best to expose myself and put myself in bad positions to get use to being uncomfortable and diversify my game. If you're good at something, there's nothing wrong with getting better at those positions or transitions, but if you're superior in certain positions, you should try to improve in other areas. I personally make it a point to try and work on something specific every roll. If your bottom game and closed guard need work, drill attacks from your closed guard and bottom game and try to work those specifically into your rolls. Nothing wrong with getting tapped out in the gym, its your lab where you do your experiments and learn what works and doesn't work (Stew quote)

[Greg W]

Yes, I drill while rolling. I feel strongly that it is the best way to get a realistic scenario to perform the rep in. I always try and put myself into the position to try and rep the things we are learning in class. Right now we are working spiral, DLR and 'bolos. So I don't try to hard to break posture when they land in guard. I let them use Technique to open my guard (I never let them get away with sloppy technique) and either stand or combat stance. I then try out my spiral, DLR. If I'm sucessfull I take there back and steer them toward letting me mount. Once on mount, I give them a good technical upa and roll so they are back in my closed guard again and I repeat. To me being able to sucessfully manipulate the roll in this fashion to my learning benifit is as good as a sub. Really this is how I judge if a person is at my level or better than me. Not if I can sub them or not in training, but if I can munipulate the roll toward my goal or not.

[Brian Tupper]

I started using the concepts in the book "zen jiu jitsu". I pick a focus area and work it for 30 days. I drill it at home on a grappling dummy, then I put myself in those positions while rolling. For instance, I am working on half guard right now (since I got stuck under some dude in my last tournament, secured the lockdown but didn't do anything productive). I first drilled jaws of life at home until it became second nature, then went to class and got in bottom half with an over-under so I could work the jaws of life. Doing these things live after having drilled at home gave me some perspective on adjustments that needed to be made, timing, etc. Next I worked the whip-up, old school, plan B, electric chair, stoner control, vaporizer.....etc. It gave me a path, but it also allowed me to find new ways to "pull" half guard. I will do something I really like for 30 days (twister side control), and then the next 30 days I will work something I know I suck at (bottom half...until now that is lol). It made all the difference in my game in my opinion.


http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Jiu-Jitsu-...=zen+jiu+jitsu

[Joseph Hachey]

Haven't you heard? December is x-guard month! At least, it is for me anyway

[Brandon Mccaghren]

When rolling will you guys make a conscious effort to get in certain situations so that you can work on a part of you're game?

Absolutely. In fact, I would say you need quite a bit of that type of training. It's really fun to free roll and it's very beneficial, as well; you learn a lot about the "gray areas" and how the positions link together. However, in my opinion, you need have plenty of rolling time dedicated to situation rolling. What I will often do is just start the free roll from a certain position. If I'm working on side control escapes, I let the guy begin in side control and the roll goes to the tap from there. That way I know that regardless of whatever happens, I get some real world experience from the bottom of side control. You can do this with any position.

I also think it's important to have situational live drilling. In this case, we start with me in bottom side control. If I move up the positional hierarchy, we restart. If you move up the positional hierarchy, we restart.

[Brent Smith]

My butterfly guard is getting a lot better now to the point where, with the guys i train with (all white belts), i rarely can't get some sort of sweep or hip bump my way to the top. I do realise however that this means my full guard is not that strong and neither is my bottom game in general. When rolling will you guys make a conscious effort to get in certain situations so that you can work on a part of you're game?

I do. I set a time frame for a certain position I want to work on and I will pass up submission opportunities until I get to that position. Right now I'm working on the truck and I usually set a time limit of 1 month until I move on but I think with the truck I'm going to work it for at least 6 months. I also do a lot of studying and I'm studying Ryan Hall's new Inverted Guard DVD. Only been studying that one for a few days but its already seeped into my game. Pretty awesome.

Absolutely. In fact, I would say you need quite a bit of that type of training. It's really fun to free roll and it's very beneficial, as well; you learn a lot about the "gray areas" and how the positions link together. However, in my opinion, you need have plenty of rolling time dedicated to situation rolling. What I will often do is just start the free roll from a certain position. If I'm working on side control escapes, I let the guy begin in side control and the roll goes to the tap from there. That way I know that regardless of whatever happens, I get some real world experience from the bottom of side control. You can do this with any position.

I also think it's important to have situational live drilling. In this case, we start with me in bottom side control. If I move up the positional hierarchy, we restart. If you move up the positional hierarchy, we restart.

I was working on my side control escapes for my last project. I didn't start in side control but what I would do is put up a shitty guard and concede the pass, get in my safety position (top arm across my gut like a have a belly ache, and bottom arm trexed to stop the cross face and on my side) and work from there. It really got my basics down.

[john botello]

When rolling I do one day offense, one day defense everyday of the training week. I never want to have a worse case scenario if I can help it.

[David Rosado]

When rolling will you guys make a conscious effort to get in certain situations so that you can work on a part of you're game?

I'm totally inconsistent right now, so right now my focus is to just keep what have. So I'm always looking repeating the hell out of all the series I've learned from Zog, and looking for entries into the truck. I know where I'm weak, but I currently don't have the luxury of working on that. I'm not putting enough time on the mats. So every time I roll, I am basically just using what I have to keep it in my muscle memory. Needless to say, my leg lock game is still sharp for a whitey.