When I roll, I’m not trying to win as much as I’m trying not to get injured.
My default mode is defensive driving. I’m trying to get to my destination without getting in a wreck on the way there.
In this clip, I counter the waiter sweep early because I’m sensitive to my knee locking up. If my leg gets bent some type of way, my meniscus catches and locks up, so I react early. Not necessarily because I’m trying to stop the sweep, but because I’m protecting my body.
That sensitivity actually becomes good defense. Keeping my leg straight stops the waiter sweep before it starts.
I feel this way about MMA grappling. It’s more intuitive because the main priority is obvious: don’t get hit. That removes a lot of decision fatigue. In sport Jiu Jitsu, there can be too many options, too many techniques, and too much thinking.
That’s one of the traps for Jiu Jitsu nerds. If you get too deep into the tech, you can end up frozen by choices. The other solution is to systematize everything, and that kills creativity. Just protect yourself and everything else will fall into place.
Learn Jiu Jitsu.