Friday, May 13, 2011

Rules I don't need no stinking rules

Yesterday's class was in preparation for the tournament coming up Saturday.  It was very interesting.  I'm sure all of the rules have their purpose most of them for safety so I do see their value in the competition setting.

Basically you score points for getting to and holding top positions like knee on stomach and mount.  Sidemount does not give any points but if you pass guard into side mount you get 3 points.  All of these require keeping the position for 3 seconds.  You can also reverse from bottom in guard or half guard to get 2 points.  If you give a good try at a reversal but don't make it you get an "advantage" which doesn't count for anything unless you are tied at the end of the match.

Then we discussed the several different illegal moves.  Because of the dangers of some of the techniques white belts can do less than blue belts; blue belts can do less than purple and above.  Mostly  centered around ankle locks and spinal locks.  No gi rules allowed for more of these techniques than gi.

While it is interesting it's also kind of off putting.  The stringent rules were why I didn't like Taekwondo tournaments.  Granted this is a completely different thing.  I'm still going to try to compete and see how I like it and give it a chance.  I'll make a goal that I cannot stop competing until I've at least won one match in a Jiu-Jitsu tournament.


After that there was open mat time where I rolled with 3 fellow Jiu-Jitsuists.  Each one had a different style.  One was very aggressive and strong but a little spastic.  Another was pretty new but had some Judo experience, he was also very strong but doesn't seem to know enough submissions yet to finish.  The last guy I rolled with was a blue belt, Ken.  He was very passive and let me try several things and almost gave me the sense that I could win then after I try and fail a bunch of things and I'm tired he finally submits me.  Beaten not only physically but also mentally.  I've had this happen to me before with higher ranks so it's no surprise.

Lately I've been thinking about personal style and how each person does Jiu-Jitsu at different ranks and with different body types or attributes.  How they figure out how to make it work for themselves through sparring and testing it.  I'm interested to see how my style will change as I figure things out.

2 comments:

  1. That is exactly what happens almost every time I roll with Ken.

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  2. Thanks Gina, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I don't know what's worse being beaten quickly by strength or beaten psychologically over a longer span of time.

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