There and Back

“Why do a takedown when you can pull guard?”

– a lazy grappler

As we were drilling a cool sweep in class recently, I think I heard my head instructor say to a couple of white belts, that sweeping is the fastest way to the mount. It got me thinking, maybe I’m doing this bjj thing wrong (wrong for my age and body type).

I’ll be 39 this year. I’m in decent shape, don’t drink or smoke. And can recover fairly well. But I can’t keep up or out wrestle the younger people at my jiu jitsu gym. Ain’t gonna happen. No matter how much I try and finish a single or double leg takedown. Even a failed attempt at a single leg takedown, and I’m exhausted.

Time for a new approach.

The Lazy Man’s Guide to Grappling

“If you’re going to get beat anyway then
realize that this is an opportunity to take it easy”

You know how they say, destroy your ego, well in the case of getting beat in a bjj round, if you’re going to lose a position or get submitted, take the L. Your ego won’t be hurt. Your ego will be so strong it doesn’t even care if your guard gets passed because you’ve survived and didn’t get hurt.

“A grappling school is a learning
environment and if you grapple long enough you will be able to hand
out more whippings than there will be grapplers to accept them.”

Our time will come, my fellow older blue belt. But that time won’t come if we get injured. And we’ll get injured if we keep rolling like an 18 year old college wrestler.

“Once you have them clamped down then you can
begin to rest and start thinking about what you want for dinner
after practice. Depending upon experience they will be moving a
little or a lot in order to break free, but it will be a lot less
than you because you have established position. For them, not only
have they not established a favorable position, they are operating
from a deficit.”

Position before submission. Don’t rush. Establish control before attacking. I constantly need to remind myself of those. If you go slow you can go fast (that sounds like some old school martial arts wisdom, it’s not mine I definitely heard it somewhere though).

“To throw my grappling buddies off when I am
on top, I sometimes act as if I am going after a choke or I will
pull their gi out of their belt and pretend I am working on a new
type of submission. In reality I am just buying time, as most
people will try to defend by trying to remove my hand or keep me
from tugging on their gi. I often have no idea what I am doing but
I gain precious rest while pretending I possess awesome skills”

There isn’t much time to rest and take it easy while grappling, so why not make time? I also often don’t really know what I want to do from any given position, either on top or bottom. “Fake it ‘til to make it” is a good strategy for the aspiring lazy grappler.

“As a lazy grappler I don’t have the energy
or motivation to spend two minutes trying to get you down. I need
you down yesterday […]

My mission is to, as quickly as possible, do one of the
following: overwrap both of my opponent’s arms (one will suffice
too), apply a bear hug or get a Greco Roman grip. Once I lock up an
opponent I like to apply an inside or outside leg trip

Bear hug and trip. That sounds low effort and low risk. I like the sound of that!

If you want to last long, save energy, and stay cool calm and collected, while rolling jiu jitsu, I highly recommend becoming a lazy grappler.

I’ve noticed some weird bjj training phenomena that has made my bjj game get better. Becoming a lazy grappler is one of them.

Don’t take it too seriously, have fun, and don’t get injured. Don’t use too much energy, low-effort techniques are your friends, and move slow to prevent yourself from getting hurt.

Now doesn’t that sound like a good plan for BJJ longevity!

Check out The Lazy Man’s Guide to Grappling by Bakari Akil II PhD here https://www.amazon.ca/Lazy-Mans-Guide-Grappling-ebook/dp/B0045U9SA4