Being 'one dimensional' in sparring

[bobby rivers]

I wanna roll this guy.

[Slick Rick]

He's found a way to impose his will on his opponents. Generalists in jiu jitsu will throw moves at you. Specialists generate a sequence of moves to get you to their familiar zone, and they go to work.

[Aaron Gustaveson]

Why are you letting this guy keep hitting the same moves on you? Is he that good? Cant you learn some defenses and counters. Maybe dont let him pull guard?

My coach will hit moves on me repeatedly to try to get me to figure how avoiding/escaping them. This is a challenge you can learn from, wish i could come try to figure him out. Guy sounds good, you might be able to become immune to these specific attacks by talking advantage of his limited repertoire.

[Pan]

We've drilled ankle lock defense but he's drilled the attack more than most similar belts have drilled the defense so he still finds success. I've tried pulling guard on him but his go-to-move in lesbian scissoring (it's a gi class) and ankle lock so it doesn't really solve the problem. I'm not bothered about getting tapped by him - he's better than me- but I thought the same as Brent Smith. It must be boring. It gets you to 10k reps faster though and it's working for him in class and in comps. And we all get to practise ankle lock and armbar defense all the time so we're benefiting in some way. It's not the route for me though. Not yet anyway.

[Aaron Gustaveson]

not saying you be bothered getting tapped by him (i would be) but just as he is getting his reps in you can be getting your reps in on defence of the tactics he uses. Unless hes very strong you should be able to develop the ability to shut down his go to moves. Standing passes?

so hes doing the straight ankle lock? like this,

[Ryan Brick]

In Ryan Halls choke dvd he talks about how he sucked at position bjj in general and was a low belt in many things but when he would attack 50-50 guard there isnt anyone that would know more than him because no matter how you turned he was able to transition to something. You couldnt present him with a situation where he didnt have an answer. This allowed him to defeat people who could be considered better than him.

I think if this guy is only hitting the exact same set up everytime and going for the finish right away he is hurting his overall game in the long run by not expanding or atleast leaning the options that can come off his subs

For me its like i cant afford to train like that, because then my students would only get good at my 2 subs. I wouldnt know anything else well enough to teach and produce someone who is good at it.

[Aaron Gustaveson]

sorry for the giant pic. How's your leg lock defense in general? I would honestly try asking him "how do i stop that" and see if he'll just tell you what gives him trouble, if hes going for them all the time then he knows the roadblocks along the way. Or maybe you can have both your feet amputated? Whatever it takes.

type "straight ankle lock counter" into youtube.

[Pan]

Thanks again for all the input. this is a fairly typical example of him rolling in class or competition. There are lots more videos of him on the same youtube channel:



I'm not asking for ways to beat him or anything and I do ask him how he got me, but with me it's usually dumb stuff I'm doing i.e. letting him control my ankle or arm for too long. My leg lock defense is poor and he exploits it, as he should (assuming he just wants to win and get another rep of the setup and finish - or maybe he wants to show me how vulnerable I am.) I'll keep drilling it and be glad I get tested on it so often.

I think if this guy is only hitting the exact same set up everytime and going for the finish right away he is hurting his overall game in the long run by not expanding or atleast leaning the options that can come off his subs

I agree with this and it's what made me ask you guys about it. I'm sure it's awesome for his development of those two finishes and the paths there, but the rest of his progression must be suffering. Do you try to avoid doing the things you're already good at to work on new stuff? Do you polish the killer weapons? Bits of both?

[Josh Yelverton]

Personally, I think what he's doing is pretty smart. Not only should you have a core game of tried and true moves to rely on, but focusing on particular techniques allows you to progress with them more quickly in my opinion. Marcelo even said that when he started out, he did nothing but the triangle in rolling (to the point where some of his training partners thought that the triangle was all he knew). Then he moved on to other things. He took that same focus and applied it to the RNC, the guillotine, the barat choke, etc. You can actually look at some of his rolls, and he'll usually be using one sub depending on when the roll took place. For example, there's videos of him tapping Damien Maia and Ben Askren with just the guillotine.

[Ryan Brick]

I think it's good to try everything, keep an open mind, but i also think it's good to specialize in something.
That's one difference between white, bleu, purple, brown and black belts.
When you start up, you wanna learn and master everything. In time you will specialize in certain paths and get really good at that.
When people roll with you, they know what you're up to, but aren't able to stop it anyway. David Avellan has the kimura he can hit from any position. Just watch Eddie's twister highlight, those guys knew what was coming.
What's your opinion on this? :
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I dont like your revised version of that picture, I think you did it because you wanted to be a knife not a spoon