Tag Archives: stalling

Interval Jiu Jitsu

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To improve cardio, jiu jitsu athletes will often do interval training of going hard for 20 seconds and light for 10 seconds at whatever exercise like running, kettlebells, or bodyweight stuff over and over.

In theory that simulates a jiu jitsu match. In reality, it simulates a jiu jitsu match if your technique, confidence, and strategy are all solid. Most matches at the lower ranks seem to be balls-to-the-wall non-stop with a gradual decline in intensity as both guys become progressively more exhausted. The best guys know when to relax, so that they recover properly for the bursts of intense effort needed to improve position, finish a submission, or just win a scramble.

And I’m not talking about stalling. In fact, stalling can often take up a lot of energy as well. I’m talking about relaxing whatever body parts that are not needed in the current exchange. That sounds kind of weird, but it’s the way I think about it. For example, I try to maintain a dynamic side control where I’m very heavy but completely relaxed. If my opponent decides to go crazy, I will expend energy as well to maintain the position, moving around to north-south, knee-on-belly, or even back to a bad guard that I can pass again right away. But I always try to spend significantly less energy than my opponent.

Of course, all that is easier said than done. Relaxing requires an understanding of a lot of details involved in maintaining and improving the position. If my opponent does something that makes me nervous, I’ll tense up and use energy to hold on just like I did on the first day of training as a white belt. The more I learn, the more confident I become in the fundamentals of good base, grips, posture, etc. With this confidence comes that ability to relax amid chaos.

It’s a weird balance to try to strike between the competition intensity of “win at all costs” and the need to relax at any good opportunity.

Don’t Watch the Clock

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When I competed at the NY Open this weekend, I was twice caught in a realization that I was winning and that there was very little time left in the match. I didn’t start stalling but I was distinctly aware of the thought that I don’t need to score any more points. “Don’t take risks” I thought. What that amounted to was “don’t do anything”.

Depending on your personality, the pressure to win can be counter-productive in the long term, and for me, it very much is. Let me explain…

Looking back at the matches I lost over the last two years, I lost because I didn’t want to “take risks” or (more clearly) I didn’t believe in my technique. That mindset leads to a lot of wins by 2 points, by 3 points, by 5 points. At the brown and black belt level, that’s a solid performance. At the blue belt level, to me, that’s an embarrassment. The good guys in my division submit everyone (including other good guys), except for the 1 or 2 people with whom they have a close war. That’s who I want to strive to be.

When I’m up by 2 points, I want to strive for 2, 3, 4 more points. I want to work for the submission, even if that means I lose the match. Because if I am content to win by 2, I will never develop into the kind of competitor I want to be on the mat.

What’s needed: A supreme confidence that my cardio and guts is tougher than my opponent’s.

How to achieve it: Push myself past the limit of exhaustion often though training, through running, through anything. In other words, refuse to quit. It’s easy to say, hard to do. But I can say that I’ve begun seriously working on it, and will be ready for Worlds.

Osoto Against a Kneeling Opponent

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When your opponent goes to his knees in judo, the ref will usually call “matte” and give him a stalling penalty. Otherwise, it’s considered that they entered newaza (ground work). There’s a little hazy area (in terms of the refs having to make a judgement call) here if the opponent is on his knees but starts standing back up. The two videos below show cases when the refs give an ippon for an attack in such a situation. I can see an ippon for Tony in the second video, but I honestly can’t see an ippon for Anai in the first video. Either way, it seems wise, in general, to stay turtled up and take the penalty if your opponent still has a grip on you.

Avoiding the Penalty for Stalling in Judo

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I’ve been watching videos of judo matches from the Tokyo Grand Slam. As my own judo gets better, I start to notice more and more details in these matches about gripping, footwork, strategy, timing, etc.

One of the things I’ve noticed, especially in the female divisions, is the use of what are essentially a succession of quick kicks that are supposed to look like footsweeps but don’t involve much upperbody commitment. The most popular of these is the kouchi that would never throw anyone but is designed to give an appearance of attacking. I’m talking about attacks that look something like this (except of course with good posture, etc):

The key observation I made is that the ref’s are buying these non-committed attempts as positive judo. The players that were putting together these combinations were not being penalized for stalling.

I need to utilize this strategy more often, especially against stronger defensive players that don’t open up. In order for me to throw, I need them to open up, and a pretty good way to do that is to get a yuko lead through penalties. Of course, the story is a little different in randori when people don’t get penalties, but such combinations just might frustrate folks enough that they try to throw (thereby opening themselves up to be thrown).