Wsup yall...i currently left a school that a had a ton of blues and purples...due to some personal stuff i had to transfer to a different school...my problem is that this new school only has white belts...can my game improve only rolling with white belts on a consistent basis..
oh yeah, i train 4-5xs a week at the new spot instead of 2xs a week at the old place.
You can improve, but only to a certain extent. You can work on your attacks, but you'll have a tough time developing good defense because almost everything you do will be enough to defend or counter against whatever the white belt is trying to do to you. It gives you a false sense of timing, energy, and confidence.
Can you roll with the instructor?
thanks andre...yeah, i can roll with the instructor but not consistently because he is busy with the newer students most of the time.
Well I'm 160 lbs and have grappled for 4 years and if I let these athletic 200 lbs whitebelts settle a good mount or sidemount on me then I have a hard enought time to escape to feel improvement while I do it. Not to mention if I mentally force myself to move constantly (not to possum them into making a mistake and then using my superior timing) then it's a blast of a cardio workout as well.
You might want to let the white belts put you in some bad positions and work your way out. Give them things then find ways to counter etc. Atleast until some more advanced guys join.
Thanks,
Ask every Brazilian that came to America and began by teaching white belts. It is not optimum, but with creativity it can be done. The good news is that, if you treat them right, they will soon not be white belts.
John
i improve from training with big strong white belts. im small though. i guess i improve with the smaller whitebelts too,but i have to restrict myself. im only a 3str blue though so im not sure about if you are a higher level guy. im pretty sure fabricio werdum moved to spain he was a blue belt and got his black belt by training with his guys there and going to brazil every so often to train.
"People ask me who I train with for competition; I tell them I train with my students."
- Jean Jacques Machado
"Well I'm 160 lbs and have grappled for 4 years and if I let these athletic 200 lbs whitebelts settle a good mount or sidemount on me then I have a hard enought time to escape to feel improvement while I do it. "
Like I said, its good to an extent. I dont think it is useless when it comes to escaping and defending, but it is very limited no matter how creative you get with the training.
Let's use sidemount for example. You can show a heavier white belt how to lock you down in sidemount, let him get the position and settle his weight, and then try to escape. That will help you develop your escape against that type of pressure, even if you are later rolling with a higher belt.
However, as you know, the key thing that makes a higher belt difficult to handle is the transitions, and that is exactly what a white belt can never duplicate. In other words, while the white belt can hold you down, he cant make fast transitions to a choke, taking your back, or switching to another control like a higher belt can. The timing and rhythm are totally different and it takes time to adjust to, imo.
We have two guys in our organization who got to blackbelt that way. John Kavanaugh in Ireland and Karl Tanswell in UK. It's certainly harder. It takes a more active learning style. I've seen guys who come from gyms without a blackbelt instructor and they have a wonderful training ethic. They are great at breaking things down and don't wait for an instructor to spoon feed them everything.
andreh has submitted the correct.
Well said, andre.
thanks everyone for the input...i've been doing alot of drills and putting myself in bad positions...im a blue belt, so im not that advanced.
I probably sparred more white belts than any other color on my path to black belt. It's important to spar with all types of people to progress at an optimal level.
Very cool to hear from so many upper belts on this question!
ok, so today a bunch of blues and purples came into class...i actually did alot better against the higher belts than in the past...i think when i was consistently rolling with higher belts i became too defensive and almost conceded to passive positions and positioning..however, rolling with white belts helped me improve in my attacks and aggression and thus transferred over to rolling with the higher belts...i didnt dominate, but i wasnt as passive as i use to be.
Very good point, dirtstyle. I've noticed the same thing myself. But you can get similar results if you regularly train with higher level belts who are willing to lower their skill level and not just kill you, so you can get something out of the roll, too.