Having trouble in Newaza (Video)

**judokarl** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 1:02pm

So my main partner in my Tuesday Friday judo classes is giving me some difficultly in Newaza. he out weighs me by over 150 pounds and so my favored method of pulling guard and going for a sweep into a pin is basically a suicide mission. But so Is me trying to go toe to toe with him. I almost get a choke at around 3:19 and I was positive I had it in but he gets out of it. This was after a rather long judo class so both of us are tired and not going 100%. Now that I have thrown up and adequate amount of excuses. Let me know what you think and what I could have done better/ Differently. All feed back is welcome even just a "Oh my god you are a massive idiot why did you do bla at *Insert time here*" is helpful.

I am the "small Guy" I weight around 192 He weights 350+ should that matter. Yeah I know that the size diffrence is big but I have pinned him a few times so I feel theres hope.

**Hedgehogey** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 4:53pm

Problem number 1 is that you're knee wrestling. This is clear in the first ten seconds: you try to headlock each other (that's the only way to describe it) then think "oh, he's got me going over, might as well go to guard". Because of this, your guard was useless.

Before you do anything else in ne waza, you need to abandon this habit. You need to pull guard, not as a last resort, but with fucking authority. Don't give me any excuses: he's too big, it's the only way I can get anything going, christmas is only eight months away, the world is changing so fast right now, I prefer to play top, etc. STOP KNEE WRESTLING. Don't argue with me on this. I've heard every possible sop on the subject dozens of times. I won't quoteblock war with you about it because life is so precious, slipping relentlessly into the arms of that cold lady, entropy, and thus I can't spend time convincing judoka of something that should be obvious.

You should also abandon tapping out from pins. You're cultivating stiffness for the both of you. You're at the stage in newaza where you need to learn good habits, not worry about comp rules for it.

I can say one thing for you. You correctly center your weight when he tries that gator roll at 1:10. But then you're holding on to his arm like you're doing seoinage. You need to swim through his arms and make a big belly down hip shift.

The backroll escape at 1:35 failed because you didn't tuck your head out of the way or help yourself with your hands.

At 1:55, you're not clueless in maintaining a pin. Congratulation! However you got there again by knee wrestling so you're back to point zero. Also, perfect omoplata opportunity at 2:07. Learn when to let go of a pin.

At 3:19, fatty's head looks like a damn california raisin but you lose backmount because your hips don't shift.

Also don't be nice to guys who turtle. That **** is negative judo and you need to Mutual Welfare And Benefit your knee on his skull.

***jnp*** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 5:09pm

Early in the match you let him get on top of you in the turtle position. You need to work hard to avoid that if possible. You carry his weight in this position and that is no good for you. I also recommend learning how to perform a sit out and the Gramby roll to escape from under his turtle when you do find yourself there.

At 1:18 he rolls you on top of himself. Your right arm is pulling on his tricep from the outside. If you worked your hand and arm inside the crook of his elbow instead and used the leverage gained to move his elbow away from his ribcage you would be able to make enough space between you and he to turn back down to your belly.

At 1:58, switch your hips through to kesa getame briefly and then go back to belly down to get overcome the way he is bracing his arms against you.

At 2:09-10 he starts to make space between the two of you and you try to hold onto what you have. Next time try transitioning to his back when in that position.

When you start to lose position on a guy significantly bigger or better than you it is often beneficial to transition to another position of control. A simple way to look at this is, assuming you're already in a dominant top position (being in someone's guard doesn't count as dominant in pure grappling), orbit around the head, not across the chest when looking to transition to a different dominant position in order to maintain control. Keep your elbows or knees close to his head to maximize control while transitioning. If your upper body is raised, the knees need to be close. If you torso is low to the ground, keep your elbows close.

I'm out of time for now.

**judokarl** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 5:37pm

Originally Posted by Hedgehogey

Problem number 1 is that you're knee wrestling. This is clear in the first ten seconds: you try to headlock each other (that's the only way to describe it) then think "oh, he's got me going over, might as well go to guard". Because of this, your guard was useless.

Before you do anything else in ne waza, you need to abandon this habit. You need to pull guard, not as a last resort, but with fucking authority. .

You should also abandon tapping out from pins. You're cultivating stiffness for the both of you. You're at the stage in newaza where you need to learn good habits, not worry about comp rules for it.
.

Thanks for the extensive response! It really means alot when someone cuts out abit of time so that I can improve and suck abit less. Going to take what you said to heart and going to stop knee wrestling and authoritatively pull guard then try to sweep/sub instead.

**CrackFox** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 6:29pm

Originally Posted by judokarl

Going to take what you said to heart and going to stop knee wrestling and authoritatively pull guard then try to sweep/sub instead.

Pull guard or snap them down and start working on the turn-over. Just don't knee-wrestle. You'll never do it in a match, you'll never do it in a real fight, so why waste time practicing it?

**Muerteds** · Posted On: 2/01/2013 11:41pm

I am ambivalent to knee-wrestling. I.e. I've done it in competition. Surprised the poor guy ;). That's not what my biggest concern is. My biggest concern is you not using your advantages properly. If you pull guard, you'll be putting his weight on top of you. Why would you do that? That's why you're tapping to kesa gatame and juji gatame, I assume. That extra 150 pounds changes things. 350 pounds can turn a pin into a choke by virtue of your inability to breathe. But if you ARE going to knee-wrestle, quit gripping the guy like you're both pro wrestlers. Get your grip and throw him like you should. Otherwise he'll just muscle you to where he wants you. And he is doing just that.

So, if he's willing to knee-wrestle, why aren't you getting behind and around him? Check it out at 0:39. He's working the hadaka shime in front, and you're trying to power through him by grabbing his obi. Never going to happen. You should be pushing into his grip, working to slide under his arm and out the other side. Where he pulled up to begin to roll was your chance. Instead, he rolled and got his weight onto you, preventing you from escaping.

At 3:06, you started to get the right idea. If you're going for hadaka shime, though, you have to use your legs. Get your hooks in. He's a big fella, and it's obvious he was on your leg, trapping it with bulk. But you can't let him roll on top of you. You must use your legs to keep him on his side so you can choke him with your back, not your arms. You choked that big neck with your arm, and he powered through it. No wonder- he's huge! Use your whole body to pull, but you can't do that flat on your back.

At 4:00 or so, you go to roll the turtle over. Quit that. He's huge. If you don't have the ability to worm a leg in there to pull his arm out to attack it, change tactics. You almost got yourself in back mount. Man, that's where your money is with a huge guy. Ride him like a rented mule, and if you can't move his head for hadaka shime, get ryote shime from behind. If nothing else, you're climbing him like an angry little monkey, and he's not squishing you.

Size matters. No question about that. Just realize that with this guy, you're not the big one. You can't out-muscle him. So out-maneuver him. Have fun with it. I've played with huge guys- it's like fighting a glacier!

**Hedgehogey** · Posted On: 2/02/2013 2:16am

Originally Posted by Muerteds

If you pull guard, you'll be putting his weight on top of you. Why would you do that? That's why you're tapping to kesa gatame and juji gatame, I assume.

You don't know how guards work.

**Hedgehogey** · Posted On: 2/02/2013 2:25am

Also, OP, invest in armdrags like it was tornado season.

**Muerteds** · Posted On: 2/02/2013 3:42am

Originally Posted by Hedgehogey

You don't know how guards work.

I do. I also know how judo and fat guys work. You've got roughly 10 seconds to make something happen on the ground till they stand you up. And if judokarl can't get his legs around his big training partner to control him with legs and hips, it's not going to do him a bit of good.

Simply put, my suggestion is to focus on getting in a position that won't allow that big guy to stack up and smush judokarl like a bug.

**CrackFox** · Posted On: 2/02/2013 5:35am

Originally Posted by Muerteds

I do.

Seriously, you don't. Look how high that guy's hips are. You could take grips, drop in, and flip him before he even knew what was happening.

I'm 70kg, I've had no problems in the past holding guys who weigh 150kg in butterfly guard and tipping them over. On top of that, if you know how to sink a decent choke from under guard, you can make sure that he has a very unpleasant time whenever it hits the ground, and is completely exhausted if the ref stands you back up again.