Rolling with eyes closed

Have you guys ever tried this out. a couple of important things are having enough mat space that you dont have to worry about smashing into anybody and also having a training partner you can trust. start of at a chill pace from butterfly, half guard or gaurd but before you know it you are nearly rolling live. i have never done a sensory deprivation chamber but i could imagine what it is like just from rolling with my eyes closed. after a while you forget that your eyes are closed and you can feel the moves better than you ever have before. there is even a crazy sense of timelessness that comes with it. the craziest part is when you finally open your eyes and it is almost like a distraction. all the colors and position of the room totally trip you out because if you get into it you forget about everything. try it out. let me know what you think.

Pedro Sauer taught this as a way to feel your opps movements. I like it alot too!

i close my eyes a lot rolling.

I love it. I've had guys get mad, think I'm taking them lightly.

I think its all about having a rolling partner who is not egotistical or a douche bag and understands that your not going 100% and you are concentrating more on the technique of things and finding openings. Luckily, I have a great training partner who I trust and find that this kind of rolling is very benificial in feeling the small little movements and shifts in body wieght that may get overlooked with eyes open.

ya i did this before at the place i used to train....our professor told us about getting used go it being beneficial to feeling your body and opponents when your vision might be handicapped (especially those of us that wear glasses/contacts)....so one thing we'd do is to dim the lights so you can see just enought if u need to when rotating, but focus on rolling with your eyes closed...the analogy besides your vision handicapped is if you are attacked in a dark ally or something as well..makes a lot of sense to me actually....also when you take away your eyes as a means of focus/distraction as stated above.

be water my friend

First NAGA I went to I saw a guy jump guard and start working from the bottom trying to break the top guy down. The guy on top was strong and trying to stack... So the guy on bottom closed his eyes and took a deep breath to settle down and the Ref stops the match and said he went out.... Guy on top who was stuck in the others guard got the win for doing absolutely nothing.... It was one of the worst ref calls ever.

I roll with my eyes closed all the time I find I can focus alot better and am less distracted

Just don't close your eyes when being choked, you will go to sleep quicker!

It is something I started when I found out there was blind Judo players and a high level black belt told me that a lot of times they are better because they can feel the opponents movements faster than someone can see them.
I love doing it. I did however stop telling my training partners I was doing it because I think some of them took it the wrong way. I say try it.

Have known about the blind practicing Judo since the 1970's. Grappling is the ideal
sport for the blind. I've been practicing grappling with my eyes closed since the 90's.
For grappling demo's we would cover our eyes with a black blind fold cloth. I have a cool video
of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Joe Camacho doing a no-gi grappling demo with his eyes covered
with a black blind fold. He was doing a regular grappling demo and I suggested he put the
blind fold on. He did all the ground grappling techniques with the blind fold that he had done with
his eyes open.

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I sometimes roll with my eyes closed, usually in the bottom position. But even more often i drill with my eyes closed. You guys should definitely try that as well.

Used to do it all the time in Roc. Not so much here. I think some of that comes down to trusting and knowing your training partners well. When you've got a good roll going and you're both just flowing it's great to close your eyes and just go with it. Especially if you have some quality herbal supplement on board.

Been doing this for a while. Was just talking to Omar about it. I think its a much better way to train your body to feel movement. I tend to react faster to threats when my eyes are closed. Also it helps my breathing and calmness.

Gerald sometimes has us do matches and turns off the lights in the gym..its funny to see they way the start then where they end up when the lights are on.

I do roll with my eyes closed a lot, first because I wear contacts and lost so many during rolling lol and also it helps me pay more attention to my opponent's reaction. I pay attention to their breathing patterns, how tense they become... Those are the tell tell signs of what's bound to happen

all great stuff guys. cool stuff about the blind judo.

I roll with my eyes closed when someone wears shorts and their nuts are showing through the leg hole.

I almost always roll with my eyes shut. its actual become a bad habit because i have had my cornerman in mma fights yell at me to open my eyes during a fight lol. so as in all things use in moderation

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.

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. :)

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 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.

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LOL this can't be true. hahahah.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 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

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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.

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!!!

Unfortunately a true story David lol. I was a cocky player back then. I don't mind letting other people learn from my ignorance. I thought I was king blue belt and was humbled quite quickly. Funniest thing was seeing me in an orange gi at 300 plus pounds. Can you say the great pumpkin charlie brown rofl :-)

LMAO Tony, you are one hell of a character my man. Like a living cartoon. That's hilarious.