Private Lesson Notes: Defeating Strength and Resistance, Part 2

How the "Foundations" are supposed to work

Good morning to all of my fellow Jiujitsu practitioners who are not the strongest at their academies. There is hope for us yet.

Today I’m writing to you about strength and how to overcome it, part 2. It’s a continuation of last week. If you missed it, you can catch it here.

At the end of this article, you’ll learn

• Some tactical thoughts on dealing with resistance (if you’ve ever been bench pressed off someone, this is for you)

• How the Foundations of Jiujitsu are “supposed” to work

• Understanding and implementing Balance, Leverage and Connection to counter strength.

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I remember as a blue belt I attended a Romulo Barral seminar. I had a question about one of his techniques so he offered to show me. He entered into the X guard, and there I was, standing and completely feeling unstable. He was not moving at all. 

I felt the strength of his legs and the connection to mine and said to myself “Jesus… this guy is strong”. 

This was the beginning of how my mind changed about strength in Jiujitsu. I realized that strong people are strong, but the real outliers in Jiujitsu were the ones who could integrate whatever strength they had into their technique.

That strength doesn’t matter has been one of the biggest lies ever told in Jiujitsu… sort of.

Strength matters but not in the way most people think it does.