Tonight I grappled a perfect example of a gentle giant. His name is Ryan, but we call him Rhino. He is an awesome blue belt. He is kind of gigantic, but he is methodical, and fluid while he grapples. He has ever once even come close to muscling me, or crushing me. He is SUPER tight, but I have never once felt like he was using his strength or weight advantage in a grapple, and he is one of the few people who don't crush me inadvertently. (Using your weight is part of Jiu-jitsu, so it is the nature of the game to get crushed by proper technique. And I absolutely do not mean to say that Rhino uses improper technique, but that he is so in control he can go a little more slowly, and be aware of his partner. He is extremely considerate, and does so with out sacrificing technique.)
It has been a while since I have gotten to grapple him, so I'd forgotten just how fluid he is.
Anyhow, like I said before I have been working my open guard for the past couple of weeks... trying to work my sweeps, and a few submissions from there.
While I was grappling Rhino tonight he completely controlled my legs. I don't think I had both of my legs free at the same time the entire five minutes. ...and I felt completely gimped. I have been neglecting my upper body. So, my new focus is going to be using my upper body AND lower half at the same time. lol I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing that I have been so focused on using the lower half of my body, because I didn't use it much at all before. And now I at least have one half of my body that I don't feel completely out of sync with.
This was a good eye opener. Thanks Rhino! =)
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