Brack - glad your surgery went well. Hopefully you can get all healed up and back on the mats soon enough. I've had a couple surgeries and my doctors always underestimated the physicality of BJJ, so I always listened to a couple buddies (orthopedic surgeons and long time Judo/BJJ training partners) who advised me to stay out longer than my surgeon just to be safe.

Shay and Oakland, Congrats on your purple belt and on the stripes on purple. Getting close to brown belt with those four stripes!

I rolled last night after not doing much rolling recently. Had one hilarious roll with a poor high school kid (and fairly new white belt) who appeared to have brought either his sister and her friends, or perhaps a girlfriend and friends to watch him train. Made sure to let him show off some of what he's learning and at the end he said 'thank you sir'. The sir part hurt because it just reinforced that I'm getting old haha.

Thanks! I'm definitely going to take it easy and slowly work my way back. Hopefully this will slow me down and help me focus more on technique.

Last night in class I was rolling and felt a pop in my knee. I was able to continue going, it wasn't really pain that I felt but I've had some pain since then. I sent a request through my medical provider to see an orthopedist. There's no swelling, I can still walk but at 43 I'd like to have a professional opinion since my knees weren't great to begin with. Neither of my knees have felt strong since last year so if nothing else I can talk to a doctor about my issues to see what they think.

Offensively I'm still struggling but I do get the occasional win vs the younger guys in my class. Since I know I don't have their mobility or strength in most matches I've just been focusing on defending and tiring them out. I feel a little accomplished each time I can hear how frustrated they are with the old man in their class. Controlling my breathing and not panicking are paying dividends. Even if I end up tapping there's some satisfaction having someone 20 years my junior completely gassed by the end.

Fingers crossed my knee is nothing serious.

I hope your knee is ok. Always good to have a professional check it out if there's pain.

So you mentioned that you're struggling on the offensive aspect of BJJ and also the issue in dealing with younger/faster training partners. Just curious, do you have a 'strategy' or general approach to your rolling?

I realize you're still new/learning so if your answer is 'trying to survive', I definitely understand. But sometimes just having a plan and backup plan (even if basic) helps a great deal.

Focusing on defense is fine, but that can also lead to a very reactive approach in which your opponent ends up dictating the pace, position, etc. and that approach will always favor the offensive opponent (as they are always a step ahead) and playing their game vs yours.

Before I sparred/rolled I always let the person know what my injuries are (bad shoulder, hip, and knees) and almost all of the time they have respected those areas. I have had a few younger kids that felt like they needed to prove something go too hard but I call them out on it. The older you get the more you think about injuries since your career can be affected by it.

In any martial arts I was taught to do the basics very well and work on perfecting a few moves. There are so many moves and sequences you can do in BJJ that trying to learn all takes years and after a while it takes the martial part to an art.

Knee is feeling a lot better today, the ortho's office called this morning and I told them I want to wait before trying to schedule anything. I would normally go to class tonight but I might take it easy instead, I'm headed out of town this weekend with the family and we'll be gone for over a week so I won't be able to roll anyway. Vacation timing is good for staying off it and giving it time to heal.

I'm not completely aimless working on offense, just more methodical than the younger guys. Paying attention to their body position and weight distribution to see if they have an opening for a sweep if I've got them in guard. I am patient when I'm in guard because one of the things the young guys are predictable with is their lack of patience. I'm also significantly improved in being able to keep pressure on them once I've been able to pass their guard. If I have a strategy it's trying to make them uncomfortable so they'll try to get out and expose their back, I've had some success with that. I know that's not 3D chess in terms of strategy but it's better than nothing and has gotten me some surprise victories out there.

Most of the guys in my group, even the younger ones, roll in a manner that works for me. There's just a couple of the really young guys that try to rely on overwhelming speed and strength, they're the ones I'm more cautious of. I have no issue tapping when I have concerns about them taking something too far. They're the opposite, I've had a couple of them get borderline choked out unconscious with me and others because they were refusing to tap.

Glad it's feeling better, hopefully rest and vacation will get ya back to 100%.

Yeah, that all makes sense re your approach. And I'm not thinking of a move by move approach, but more a general approach based on your 'game' and dealing with the opponents attributes.

I roll all over the mats belt wise and size wise, and am almost always the oldest and smallest (52, 5'11" and 175 lbs). And having the mindset of 'I have a plan and am going to impose it on my opponent' has helped me build a more proactive game rather than reactive (which is where I used to be).

bchil03 said:

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Hey guys! Just found this thread, thanks to @Sweep.
I roll here in Aggieland at BVMMA with Bubba Bush. It's been an amazing place to train. Looking forward to following this thread and learning from you guys!

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Welcome!

David Nuño said:

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I want in this discussion,

Thanks @Bchill03 ....

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What belt are you David? Welcome to the chat!

I've been out this week since I sprained my thumb. Felt two very distinct pops(in and out) but luckily didn't have a break.

Ouch! Sprained my thumb last year doing some takedown drills. Took 6 weeks to completely recover.
Hope yours isn't as bad as mine was!!

Blood sport is a classic!

Thunderdome for sure. Are we going to do round robin, everyone has to roll with everyone?

Sounds like we'll need Bloodsport mats & Scoreboard set up inside a Thunderdome built in Reed Arena.

bchil03 said:

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Blood sport is a classic!

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Good to watch with the guys but based on 100% BS. I even read that fraud's book back in the late 90s.

Oh great, next thing you're going to try and tell me that Roadhouse isn't accurate. Don't ruin it for me!

As far as a BJJ-thread get together, if we go with a friendly round robin I'll go with anyone. If we go Bloodsport rules I'll only go with people who are smaller, older and preferably brand new to BJJ.

Aren't you a Purple or Brown belt now?

I will fight you all at reed

Laruso is one of them 50/50 practitioners .

Wow, that's amazing! I'm just a blue.

Definitely sharing this with my training group chat lol.

That's awesome! Roadhouse is one of my all-time favorite movies and it's cool to hear that one of the worst guys in the movie is a really nice guy in real life (which of course makes sense as it's 'acting', but man....he really made Jimmy Reno a legit bad dude!!).

Given the fighting style in the movie and his age, I'd guess some branch of Karate or TKD. Maybe even some Capoeira stuff. Whatever it is, he was really fun to watch in those fight scenes with Dalton, and he certainly delivered one of the more memorable lines in the movie!