i was wondering if anybody has ever experienced this before. i train with a dude who is about my weight, a few inches shorter and a bit chubbier... but the kids numbers on all the big lifts make me look like a child. his 1rm for bench press is approaching my 1rm for the deadlift (~165 kg). all of the weight training he does is functional for mma (deads, squats, c/j, bench etc) and yet when we train together i smoke him.
now, i will admit that even though he's been training for way longer than me my technique (on the ground at least) is better than his. BUT, when we roll, i can literally use nothing but strength with minimal technique and overpower my way into submissions. it has been this way for a long time. i was powering out sloppy kimura's and americana's after a few months (note - my technique was nothing special then, and he wasn't/isn't a slouch by any means)
is there a name/reason for this phenomenon? is there something i might be missing? it seems that somebody who can put up such impressive numbers in comparison to me should have some sort of functional strength but like i said, i just outright overpower him
Yes there is a name for it, he is a bad grappler.
We have known for a while that being strong in the lifts doesn't always translate to mat strength. Many reasons could contribute to this.
That's why I prefer bw exs and lots of hard grappling will build the type of strength needed. Also technique is important.
he's not a bad grappler by any means. it's just very strange to me that none of that strength translates to strength on the mat.
Some guys with big numbers have great leverage for certain movements in a given plane of motion and appear strong but in a dynamic environment where leverage is not always on your side they are weak. In addition it sounds like his grappling is garbage. If all things are equal in terms of techique and body weight a stronger man will prevail. He's either weak (outside of linear movements), shitty on the mat or both.
You can train for years and still get surpassed by (relative) newbies; how often does he train?
If he's going twice a week for a few years and never practices or thinks about it outside of class, somebody who trains 6 days a week and spends half his time out of the gym daydreaming about ways to set submissions up is going to surpass him pretty quickly.
There's also really strong dudes who try to use their strength every single time they roll, which means they never develope any sensitivity towards their opponent's body movements.