The Gentle Art

Doesn’t feel that gentle when I’m against a resisting opponent.

This is the crux of a great deal of issues for a lot of problems.  What’s the point of dominating a live roll if you are exhausted at the end of it.  I completely burned myself out in a roll the other day.  Against someone who is very strong and fairly well versed in not doing anything stupid like exposed arms etc.

So for me,  I feel totally inadequate.  I don’t have sharp technique to take advantage of timing.  I get into strength battles.  I’m currently trying to improve my arm bars.  I’m now finding people see the setups coming and defend like crazy.  I’ve fallen into the trap of trying to fight through it.  Perhaps my setups aren’t correct, or I need to adjust to  essentially make the setups impossible to defend regardless of the action.  Monday and Tuesday I resorted to brute strength – and failed.  The thing is, I see lots of other people do this too…it seems like it is the accepted norm. Especially when you get the big guys walk in wanting to learn MMA.  They progress fast for awhile because of their size.

So I wonder,  how do you train using the gentle art?  Where things look and feel effortless.  It’s doubly hard when someone is technically more proficient than you or at least close to equal.  I don’t know the answer to this question. 

I do however want my game to be based on the gentle art.  I think that requires that I just use whatever it is an opponent gives me. This requires good timing, understanding of small details for leverage.

For my current skill set – that seems like a pipe dream.