Rag Doll

I had a real hard lesson the other night, I dropped in to the Tuesday Intermediate class which is normall pretty heavy with blue belts and I got smashed by a guy who had at least 30lbs of muscle on me. I have to admit I took it pretty hard. I was definitely kicking rocks the whole way home replaying how easily he was getting advantages. The guy was obviously more committed to it than I was, and it showed- not just in how he used his strength to crush me, but also in the way he frustrated my attempts to play him into my strengths. I got a few good escapes from armbars he attempted, but than I needed to capitalize on position, and just didn't. So basically I just got beat up for 10 minutes to finish out the class.

It totally sucks to go out like that.

Over the last 2 days the frustration I experienced has helped me start mentally formatting a game to deal with the situation- because it could happen again, but next time I want to be better prepared. honestly, I have done more deep thinking on Jiu Jitsu over the last two days than I had in the preceding 2 weeks.

My feelings about the guy who "did this to me". He is just there to train. It was all clean work- although his shoulder pressure felt a little too enthusiastic at times. At one point I tapped because he was basically about to dislocate my jaw... He is just there working his game. What should i have expected? for him to let me win?

I don't have a grudge afterwards- in fact I'd like to roll again and try out my "big guy game plan" i have been formulating- you gotta do that man. If you want to progress, you have to challenge yourself.

If you avoid the people who can beat you, whether it is by strength, or by technique then you will never learn to beat them.

I don't know about you guys, but given time to absorb the lesson, I actually got quite a lot out of getting rag dolled like that. I wish the same for all of you.