Near the end of last year, the head instructor and owner the GB gym I go to, has used me as the Uke (AKA the demonstration dummy that the techniques are shown on in the middle of the mat so everyone can see what they’re learning that class) for almost every class I’ve been in since then. I’ve been wondering why he keeps picking me.
What is an Uke in BJJ?
The technical definition for Uke is…
“When learning new moves, partners will take turns practicing on each other. The “uke” is the student who is allowing a partner to practice a technique on them. It is the uke’s job to be cooperative and not provide too much resistance, so their partner can successfully practice and learn the technique. However, a good uke is not a limp noodle!”
I haven’t got any special powers from being the demonstration dummy. Although I’ve been able to not show how much pain I’m in when my coach is done showing the move. Gotta stay strong in front of those white belts!
When I first started BJJ, as a fresh white belt, I thought it was the highest honor and coolest spot to be in. I admired and looked up to the Ukes. I thought, there must be something special about them, they must know the technique perfectly if they are being used to teach it!
After being the Uke dozens of time now, I can say for certain that that isn’t the case (at least for me). Often times after being smashed by the instructor, I can’t remember what the technique was that I was part of. I wonder if there are any new members who think the same things about me when I’m the demonstration dummy, that I used to think of the Ukes when I first started.
PSA: be nice on your Ukes, they have feelings too!
Here are some of the top replies that people shared about why they pick certain people to be the Uke:
“Same size as me, contrasting gi color, and skilled enough to give correct responses. Unless it’s, like, escapes or something where a bigger person is more compelling.”
“order of importance: -Least wet person -smells of cinnamon and fresh baked bread -makes me look better”
“I’m never picked. Too sweaty”
“It depends. Often it’s the ones that bend the most. I usually go for lighter people so I can explain it in detail without much effort, especially if it’s dynamic.”
“Not necessarily belt level. Sometimes it has to do with body type best to demonstrate the technique. Some people just make better ukes than others though regardless of the belt. They listen, anticipate, and respond correctly for the demonstration.”
“Someone who I know is going to give me realistic/appropriate reactions to the technique I’m demoing. Nothing worse than trying to show how to prevent a common counter and the uke is going ham on shit that no one would ever do ever.”
“I choose someone more or less my size (I’m short) but prefer a higher grade (purple or above) – mainly because they know how to react as I talk through a technique and secondly I do not have to show them the same thing again after demonstrating it.”
“Whoever is my social anxiety blanket at the time…”
“My prof uses the guy least likely to go unconscious.”
“Good, not heavy, someone I like as a person.”
So basically, if I had to guess why my head instructor picks me to be the Uke each time I train, it’s probably because we’re the same height, I’m a blue belt so I can react mostly correctly (although not all the time heh), I weigh less than him so it’s easier to do a technique, and I’m a decent person and not a shit head. All those sound good to me. Or, he picks me because I’m the closest person on the mat to him and it’s just easier. Who knows.
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!
I did in fact get off work early and made it to GB1 Fundamentals and then the GB3 class.
We learned K guard tonight. Then k guard to the matrix back take. Now that is some advanced leg entanglements.
And as I said, I got smashed. Thought I pulled a muscle in my hand. But when I got home and showed my soon-to-be-nurse wife, she said it’s just a bruise. I’m lucky then.
The head instructor and gym owner said I was ready for the GB 3 class. He told me that after I rolled with him. He got me in a sweet arm bar and then somehow took my back with this technique called K guard.
You know what, I think I’m ready for that class too. It will be filled with a bunch of big purple, brown, and black belts but I’m ready for the challenge.
During my first year of doing JiuJitsu as a white belt I tried doing the GB 3 classes a few times, they were rough. Not only was the warm-up challenging, but the techniques they showed, usually involving the legs, are what I considered advanced and way over my head.
If I get off work in time maybe I’ll go tonight.
I expect to get absolutely smashed. Poor little blue belt.
A few weeks ago, I got third place out of three competitors at a Grappling Industries round robin tournament in Toronto, Canada. There was supposed to be seven of us, but the other dropped out, didn’t show up, or got injured earlier in the day.
The two other competitors and myself, each won one match and lost one match. But I think the medals were determined by how each of us won and lost. I think. I didn’t look into it.
I was happy with how my matches went. I didn’t get injured so that’s a win in and of itself. My main goal was to win one match, and I achieved it. Anything that happened after was okay with me. I one my first match by refs decision and I lost my second match by guillotine. The video of my matches is below if you want to see me get submitted (the match I lost was only 25 seconds haha).
With all its nuttiness and organized chaos, it’s my favorite competition to go to. You get a good bang for your buck – $90 for at least 4 matches and up to 8 matches, good deal.
Okay, that’s enough chatter. Below is a video of my two matches. First the loss, then the win.
It’s good to be back on the mats. I went twice in about 2 1/2 weeks I was sick and I wanted to let my shoulder heal. The good news is I am 100% and my shoulder feels much better. Sidenote, one thing I did to help rehab my shoulder was shoulder press using 5 pound dumbbells because I read that it’s a good weight to use, because 5 pounds just uses the rotator cuff whereas heavier weights would use the other muscles around the shoulder.
Anyway, it’s good to be back. I did 2 1/2 hours of JiuJitsu tonight, an hour of advance class, an hour and a half of Nogi. I got beat up and it was wonderful.
I got dummied by purple belts tonight. I feel so alive.
The buzzer saved me again, from a mounted triangle this time.
I practiced the outside single leg like I told myself I would, and I scooped up nine out of 10 of them. Finished zero out of 10 of them.
The last roll of the night in no gi, I had a purple belt really put me through the ringer, but he didn’t submit me and he had many times to try. I could feel his intensity, perhaps he was getting a little frustrated? That’s a win for me. He was really cool after, he said I had some good escapes. I enjoy hearing that from higher belts. Let’s me know I’m on the right track.
I definitely didn’t think I’d be doing a combat sport at this age, 38. After starting BJJ over two years ago, I have put my body through the ringer. I feel as good as ever, now that I don’t drink booze or do drugs anymore. But, I do have to remember that I cannot recover as fast after a hard training session or go as hard as I could if I was 10 or 15 years younger. Sometimes I forget that and that leads to injury.
Lets talk about injuries in jiu jitsu.
Imagine, you just showed up to class, you get changed in your nice clean gi, and head to the mat to do your warm ups and stretches. You say Hi to all the regulars. You’re feeling good. During the instructions and practice, you noticed you are understanding everything, it all makes sense. You’re hitting the techniques as if you knew them all along. So far so good.
Then the sparring starts…
You flow-roll with a purple belt, just to get a sweat going, not too hard. They even give you some advice and tips that you happily eat up. Then you roll with a new white belt, you don’t go crazy and tap them mercilessly, but you match their intensity and maybe even give them some advice after the roll and they happily listen and thank you for your tips. You feel on top of the world. But there’s one more round left. And the only partner left to partner up with is the heavy weight blue belt you were told to avoid. He never goes easy and always puts on subs like its a competition.
But, you’re feeling lucky today. Today will be different. You’re pumped and motivated, you’ll finally pass his guard and take his back and slip in a smooth RNC. What could possibly go wrong?
Fast forward to next week. You can’t train because your ego got the best of you the other day. Not only did you NOT pass that blue belts guard or get to their back, you pulled guard, all his wonderful 280lbs on top of your 160lbs. What were you thinking? Now your out for at least two weeks because you bruised some ribs.
I’ve sparred like that. Not using my head and letting my pride cloud my better judgment. Being blinded by my self-importance. Succumbing to my hubris. I was dumb. And as a result, I got injuries that put me out for weeks and months. Although, I’m lucky I haven’t had a serious injury that has kept me out for a year or more or indefinitely .
I train smarter now.
You WILL get injured in jiu jitsu. From minor cuts and bruises to tendon and muscle rips to sprains and pulls to dislocation and breakage. And it mostly depends on what happens on the mats. But what you do off the mats is just as important to keep your body from being permanently injured.
Here are some ways that I have avoided serious injury so far after two years of jiu jitsu and seven competitions:
-find the sweet spot in your training schedule -trusted training partners -have perspective (the long game) -exercise
The Sweet Spot
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before somewhere on this blog, the importance of having a training schedule that works for you. 3-4 classes a week is my sweet spot. I’m not a professional grappler and I have two jobs and a wife and dogs. I have plenty of other things to take care of and other hobbies that keep me busy everyday. Even if you can only train once or twice a week, that’s better than the people who are sitting on the couch every day (I’m writing this as I sit on my couch).
The Trust
After two years of training almost every week, I’ve learned I can make my training my own, I can customize it. For example, I can go when I want and I can train with who I want. Don’t feel obligated to train with every person who asks you to roll. Although I say Yes nine times out of ten, there are times when I simply want a rest round, or I don’t feel like rolling hard with the heavy white belt. And that’s okay. Find a training partner who you’ve rolled with often, about the same size, and a person who knows how to control their body. Trust me, I know what it’s like to let my ego get the best of me and end up rolling with the person that is rough and will probably hurt you.
The Long Game
Roll and spar with the intent to learn. You don’t “win” practice. Be smart with it. This is advice for me as well. Heck, I love a good competitive roll. You know the ones, where you and your partner are all over the mat, almost rolling into the other people on the mat. But doing that every class or every open mat can be dangerous. You might become one of those people I warned you about, the ones that are rough and will hurt you.
Don’t become a training partner that people say say No to because they’re afraid that you might go too hard and hurt them. We all want to be able to go to work the next morning and show up to training the next day as well, in one piece. Think of the long game. Hopefully you’re committed to jiu jitsu for many years to come, I know I am. As long as we’re smart with our training we’ll make it to black belt without any serious permanent injuries. Hopefully.
The Crew
I asked people on X/Twitter, “What are some ways you have learned to avoid serious injuries in BJJ?”
So far I got over 30 responses. I’ll share them with you here:
“Stretching daily and lifting weights to build up that armor. Tap early, drink water, and sleep good.”
“Tap early early. Once they get it locked, its over. You fucked up a long time ago.”
“Tape up & Tap quick!”
“Consistent strength and conditioning has allowed me to be stronger and more stable in many different ranges of motion regarding joints. It has also helped improve my mobility. Conditioning helps too, because it’s easier to prevent injury when you not completely gassed.”
“I’d like to emphasize two things: – Sleep – Hydration”
“Train more and if you don’t feel good, stay away make sure you get a lot of good stretching and then ice up when you come back maybe you have to just stretch again and then tape”
“Lift weights”
“1) always stretch and warm up 2) tap early and often| 3) very careful with body weight in free fall (no jumping guard etc)”
“Tap big guys fast or tap before they tip it off”
“Choose training partners carefully. Don’t be afraid to say no to the heavyweight white belt with a massive ego.”
“Roll slow and avoid scrambles. Make tucking your chin a reflex if you go airborne. Listen to your body.”
“Study anatomy and physiology”
“Tap quick, don’t be tough in practice”
“Not every roll is ADCC finals”
“Had a purple belt almost break my wrist and elbow today. Some guys never drop that ego. Guy had 100+ lbs on me and asked how long I’d been training. When I told him, he said “ah I don’t feel bad then..” Avoid those dudes like the plague”
“The first “invisible jiu Jitsu” skills I learned were to never c grip in bottom. Monkey grip or lose your thumbs!”
“Defaulting to a chill/flow-y rolling style is a big one. I still get in hard rounds when I roll w/ certain ppl, but I default to being calm & technical. Also, having a strength & conditioning routine. My body feels better now at 33 than it did in my mid-20s.”
“Know when I need to avoid rolling that day, instead of feeling compelled to roll every single time I step in the gym. If my body doesn’t feel right I just do class”
“Tap early. Stretch. Good nutrition.”
“Avoid training or sparring lol. On a serious note: 1) strength and conditioning (legs and back in particular) 2) don’t start from standing when the gym is too crowded 3) Rest and don’t overtrain – don’t be too hard on your body”
“Every roll doesn’t have to be a competition. Sometimes you work on defense & if they’re real spazzy control the position until they get tired. Then have some fun”
“Lifting weights helps too”
“say no when asked to roll with a spazzy white belt”
“Warm up. Tap early.”
“Tap Get stronger”
“Train calm and slow”
“Tap early. Avoid people who spaz out.”
“Overtraining causes slot of injuries. Take days off.”
“Avoid big white belts, avoid big blue belts, avoid competition guys, tap immediately on leg locks, skip competition classes, don’t roll when cardio is cooked.”
“Don’t talk politics or religion in class lol”
“Avoid new people, avoid heavyweights, avoid your ego”
Some good advice there, I agree with most of it.
How about you, what have you done to help you prevent injuries in BJJ?
Here are some A.I. generated images from Adobe Firefly, using the prompt, “Jiu Jitsu man in pain injuries crying on the mats laying down”
I got saved by the buzzer twice today at open mat. My partners had me, it was just a matter of me tapping. But in the allotted time which is five minutes, I survived. Barely.
___
My head instructor asked me to spar today, black belt in JiuJitsu and black belt in judo, 60 years old, about 5’7, 180 pounds and built like a brick shed. I was a little nervous, but ready to roll.
What can I say he’s a black belt and I’m a blue Belt. He made his 180 pounds feel like 230 pounds. He stuck to me like glue, and didn’t give me an inch. The only thing I can say is that I didn’t get submitted, thank goodness so that’s a win in my books but I’ll never know for sure if he was going easy on me. That’s okay because I think I put up some really good defense.
____
I rolled with a gigantic blue belt with an accent, who doesn’t take it easy on anyone. It’s my own fault. I got smashed and smushed. Before rolling with him I told myself “don’t get underneath this guy” and sure enough I did and sure enough it hurt. I also saw him rolling with a new white belt and he had him in a head and arm triangle and it didn’t look like he was going easy on him. He’s got maybe 100 pounds on the kid. But he wasn’t completely mean because he was giving advice to the young white belt after.
____
I also rolled with a tall purple belt who is strong. I don’t know if it’s just me, but he seems like he has something to prove or he’s just very competitive. Either way it’s always a tough role with him, but I put up some good defence and he was definitely trying to submit me hard but I survived. We both had a good laugh after. Until next time purple belt, until next time.
____
Here’s some cool news, a fellow blue belt just got a bunch of new mats at their house and they want to start a fight club that’s not a fight club. A place where we can go and drill outside of our regular scheduled classes. They thought I would be a good addition to their extra mat time group, and I said I would love to join them. We’ll see if it actually happens, getting a bunch of people to coordinate and schedule time for it, could be challenging. You never know, maybe this will help us all get better faster, a bunch of blue belts and white belts teaching each other techniques. What could possibly go wrong?
Here are some A.I. Generated Images from Adobe Firefly 2.0, using the prompt, “JiuJitsu practitioners, sending in a circle laughing all wearing blue belt around their waist”
A brown belt was on the side of the mat and gave me a thumbs up after I rolled with a white belt. Felt good because I’m a bit intimidated by him because he’s so cool and Alpha.
A fellow blue belt caught me in a Canto choke and I held out for too long before I tapped. My ego was hurt more. I almost got mad, like I wanted to retaliate. That is not a good thing. I didn’t. He proceeded to pass my guard like it was nothing. I must be doing something wrong, gotta figure out what it is. Or I could just bring a weapon next time and hide it in my Gi.
I was hand fighting with another fellow blue belt and hurt my pinky. Had to tape it up. I never tape my fingers. Am I at that age already?
It was a tough day at open mat. It was one of those training sessions where you think, “did I somehow get worse?” No, everyone else is getting better and harder.
One thing that didn’t get worse was my recurring shoulder injury, thank goodness. But it has been bugging me for a few weeks now, and I’ve been training through it and it looks like it will not be fully healed before the competition in two weeks. I’d rather not have to pump myself full of Advil while I compete, I think I’ll just tough it out.
Here are some photos from Adobe FireFly A.I. Text to Image generator.
A young man, a fellow blue belt, said I would be deadly in my Nogi competition. That definitely put a pep in my step.
I may or may not have accidentally cut a rolling partner of mine while rolling. He’s fine.
To switch things up today, our head instructor divided the mat into weight classes. So we got a chance to have rolls against people who are around the same weight. I didn’t ask, but I think he did that because there’s a few competitions coming up and it may have been a way for people who are competing to get a feel of what they’re in for. After the head instructor left, I slid over to the other side so I could roll with heavier people because I like a challenge.
I got caught and submitted in a guillotine by a purple belt and I got caught and submitted in a nasty rear naked choke. I think I lean in with my head too much sometimes. I’ve mentioned this before but it’s another bad habit, leaning in with my head, from my wrestling days.
I rolled with a white belt. He was about 10 pounds heavier. He had good wrestling. It was a tough roll. If he keeps up with bjj, he’s gonna be hard to beat. Come to think of it, there aren’t many rolls these days that come easy, even if they are white belts.
There and Back 