Brothers in Arms

People who practice Bjj are unique in adulthood. Most grown men do not like to roll around in white or blue pajamas in an indoor tropical environment we call the gym or the club. If we can keep it up for a few years we become better and we note our skill differences year to year. When we do progress to the next belt the only people who truly appreciate it are our fellow brothers in arms on the mat.

Testing, Rolling and Impressing the Masters

In our club the head instructors for our association are Saulo and Xande Ribeiro. Both gentlemen come to Toronto quite often to impart knowledge and connect with students. We are taught daily by a Jorge Britto, an amazing Black Belt.

This week Xande Ribeiro, Mundial World Champion, is visiting the club for grading. Everyone is trying to impress Xande with their ability to submit.

This is a mistake.

We should be trying to impress Xande with our ability to persevere and our ability to adapt. I rolled with a guy yesterday and his main attribute was his ability to use his strength on moves that require very little strength. If you add strength to a movethat is levereage based you are not doing jiu jitsu you are now wrestling.

The end result was this guy was still submitted by a head and arm choke and when he tapped this is what he said. ” I only tapped because I am really tired”. To all the people that I roll with in the future; when I tapped it is because I am about to pass out or because I see no way out of the submission.

Roberto “Roleta” Magalhães “Helicopter”

Roberto “Roleta” Magalhães is a light heavy weight who rolls like a feather weight.  He has flexiablilty, cunning and skill. In other words he is a big guy who doesn’t play the big man game. He shocked the world in the first BJJ World Champion and beat Wallid Ismail in 1996. He also made Saulo tap in 1996. We should all have this type of game.

Small Man’s BJJ for a Big Guy

I once read a quote from Helio Gracie in which he said that it was much easier to teach a stupid person jiu jitsu than an intelligent person. He said that you always had to convince the smart person that the move was valid while the stupid person would accept it exactly as it was taught. He found a way to get around this litte problem. He discovered that if he completely exhausted the geniuses then they would have no choice but to beleive in the move. Big guys can learn from this by tiring themselves out as much as possible before “rolling” they will take out much of the strength advantage they have over others.

“You Beat Me Because of your Weight”

If you are a big man you have heard your training partners say “you beat me because of your weight”. You would like to hear that you out grappled your opponent or that your strategy was unique and precise and this lead to the submission. What you hear is that your size was the determining factor the victory.

Some technical big men are Roger Gracie, Jeff Monson and Big Mac.

This is a message to all non super-size grapplers (jiu jitsu players): Some big men can be “technical” and beat you without putting the weight down. Respect this!

I’m a Big Man….

I truly am a big man six feet 259. Everyday in my life someone comments on my size, “hey big guy, hey big man”, and that is why I named this site Big Man Bjj weblog. I am a big man who does brasilian jiu jitsu (or Gracie Jiu Jitsu). I currently train out of the gym Toronto BJJ in downtown Toronto and my instructor is Jorge Britto who is a black belt under six time world champion Saulo Ribeiro.

I write this blog because I truly believe that big men (guys of 225 lbs) must train differently. We must train intelligently to avoid standard injuries (sore elbows, staph infections and shoulder injuries) but we also must train to avoid injuries of weight and size (lower back, joint injuries). We must also understand that when two giants collide and something goes wrong (something always goes wrong) you have almost six hundred plus pounds of danger ready to damage whatever is brave enough not to yield.

That is why I write this blog.