41 y.o. BJJ BB, been out of action for a few years. Back to training recently, and damn, I took a beating. I’ve been casually following the rise of the leg lock game while I’ve been gone, but had no idea how big a part of bjj it’s become. It seems like the game has become a race to pull guard, get inside and underneath, elevate and go after the legs. Was disheartening, to put it mildly, to discover that I have no answers for this, even against guys several belts my junior.
Any other old(er) school guys in this situation? Should I concentrate on learning the leglock game from the ground up, or stick with ignoring 50% of the human body like the stubborn man that I am and try to defeat these youngsters with old man BJJ?
Both. You don't need to become one of them, but you need to have some understanding of that game so you can kill it.
James
Yeah that makes sense. Right now I’m just relying on intuition to kind of fend off heel hooks for as long as I can before getting caught, but I’d like to not get dragged there in the first place. Just feel so far behind in any kind of leg attack position. Feel just as lost as if I had completely ignored the mount, or the back, or side control for years and years. I’ll just swallow my pride and keep at it I guess. Even with tapping well before anything popping though, I’m feeling it in my joints. Sucks
Find the best leg lock guy at your gym and keep working with him. It will just kind of start to make sense after awhile. At least you are working on them and not hating on them. The entries to the leg lock positions are really creative and take a bit to make intuitive sense.
I'd just youtube leg lock defense and start applying some of the broad principles for that in your game. A lot of the defenses are relatively simple and once you get comfortable with those you will start to understand when you are in major danger and when you aren't. I think I needed to learn the defenses first before the offense started making sense to me. There's a few pretty good vids that hopefully will help.
Does Zhahibi’s cross ankle escape seem counter intuitive to anyone else?
Not at all, because it basically all about creating space, breaking the attacker's connection, and getting your knee past the line of the thigh/groin/hip. Once you can get past that line the leg being attacked is free. He's just using the free leg to help create that space and break connection.
Just my opinion, but I don't think "chasing" whatever is hot the moment is necessarily the best way. to go --especially for colored belts.--I know OP is not a colored belt. This isn't really aimed at him.
But, BJJ is very fadish. It's like a big school of fish that change direction in unison and everyone is always persuing the same quarry at the same time. People are trying to get an "advantage" over opponents by adopting the exact same tactics as one another.
This is in fact WHY BJJ is so faddish; soon as everyone is trying to do the same stuff, it loses it's magic. So the crowd moves onto the next thing.
Sure, you DO need to learn how to prevent, shut down and/or counter certain things, but playing exactly like everyone else doesn't do much more than keep you firmly in the middle of the pack.
Spending years working on strategies and tactics that work for YOU specificlly is more beneficial than trying to adopt a new guy's game every 6 months.
Ironically, that's exactly what the real BJJ "innovators" do. They're working on their own games and being true to what works for them. A guy spends years working on developing his unique game, puts it on DVD and the entire BJJ consumer crowd all thinks in unison, " Cool, I'm gonna do this now!"
Long term you would probably be better off copying the innovator's work ethic & methodology to improve, rather than his specific game.
Just my opinion, but I don't think "chasing" whatever is hot the moment is necessarily the best way. to go --especially for colored belts.--I know OP is not a colored belt. This isn't really aimed at him.
But, BJJ is very fadish. It's like a big school of fish that change direction in unison and everyone is always persuing the same quarry at the same time. People are trying to get an "advantage" over opponents by adopting the exact same tactics as one another.
This is in fact WHY BJJ is so faddish; soon as everyone is trying to do the same stuff, it loses it's magic. So the crowd moves onto the next thing.
Sure, you DO need to learn how to prevent, shut down and/or counter certain things, but playing exactly like everyone else doesn't do much more than keep you firmly in the middle of the pack.
Spending years working on strategies and tactics that work for YOU specificlly is more beneficial than trying to adopt a new guy's game every 6 months.
Ironically, that's exactly what the real BJJ "innovators" do. They're working on their own games and being true to what works for them. A guy spends years working on developing his unique game, puts it on DVD and the entire BJJ consumer crowd all thinks in unison, " Cool, I'm gonna do this now!"
Long term you would probably be better off copying the innovator's work ethic & methodology to improve, rather than his specific game.
GREAT point. I was tempted to get into the new Danaher material and I’m sure I will at some point, but I’ve actually been going back over my BJJ notes from years ago and making sure I’m still staying sharp with all the techniques that have worked well for me in the past instead of starting completely new roads.
Just my opinion, but I don't think "chasing" whatever is hot the moment is necessarily the best way. to go --especially for colored belts.--I know OP is not a colored belt. This isn't really aimed at him.
But, BJJ is very fadish. It's like a big school of fish that change direction in unison and everyone is always persuing the same quarry at the same time. People are trying to get an "advantage" over opponents by adopting the exact same tactics as one another.
This is in fact WHY BJJ is so faddish; soon as everyone is trying to do the same stuff, it loses it's magic. So the crowd moves onto the next thing.
Sure, you DO need to learn how to prevent, shut down and/or counter certain things, but playing exactly like everyone else doesn't do much more than keep you firmly in the middle of the pack.
Spending years working on strategies and tactics that work for YOU specificlly is more beneficial than trying to adopt a new guy's game every 6 months.
Ironically, that's exactly what the real BJJ "innovators" do. They're working on their own games and being true to what works for them. A guy spends years working on developing his unique game, puts it on DVD and the entire BJJ consumer crowd all thinks in unison, " Cool, I'm gonna do this now!"
Long term you would probably be better off copying the innovator's work ethic & methodology to improve, rather than his specific game.
41 y.o. BJJ BB, been out of action for a few years. Back to training recently, and damn, I took a beating. I’ve been casually following the rise of the leg lock game while I’ve been gone, but had no idea how big a part of bjj it’s become. It seems like the game has become a race to pull guard, get inside and underneath, elevate and go after the legs. Was disheartening, to put it mildly, to discover that I have no answers for this, even against guys several belts my junior.
Any other old(er) school guys in this situation? Should I concentrate on learning the leglock game from the ground up, or stick with ignoring 50% of the human body like the stubborn man that I am and try to defeat these youngsters with old man BJJ?
Help. My knees and ankles hurt.
"...the game has become a race to pull guard, get inside and underneath, elevate and go after the legs."
This is why jiujitsu is such a shit sandwich. Jiujitsu was a grappling figh5ing style/system, but now is a specialized game of faggotry. Just imagine where many in jiujitsu would be, and how the style would have evolve and improved, if peope actually pursued developing a broader skillset.
not aimed at OP......But how fucking pathetic is our style where advanced belts (even black belts) cant competantly perform a decent takedown or throw, or clinch, but can do all manner of monkey-fuckery. Much less actually fight in any real sense.
Find the best leg lock guy at your gym and keep working with him. It will just kind of start to make sense after awhile. At least you are working on them and not hating on them. The entries to the leg lock positions are really creative and take a bit to make intuitive sense.
I'd just youtube leg lock defense and start applying some of the broad principles for that in your game. A lot of the defenses are relatively simple and once you get comfortable with those you will start to understand when you are in major danger and when you aren't. I think I needed to learn the defenses first before the offense started making sense to me. There's a few pretty good vids that hopefully will help.