Learn the name of the positions and techniques. Most of them are English and are not to hard to understand. You can watch some relevants you tube videos and read our training report.
Go to Judo classes and learn how to throw. You have the unique opportunity to attend up to 4 classes per week. It is free for our members.
Do not midget wrestle, once we start rolling also called newaza, we expect one person to play guard and the other to attempt to pass. We stars from our knees but it does not mean we fight for take from our knees. If you to fight for takedown, just enter tge 3 rounds of tachiwaza which is usually done at the beginning of the one hour of sparring.
In our club, we do not bother matching up sparring partners.
It has its pro and cons.
However, due to the increase of members I need people to train smart.
We have sometimes over 20 people training and can only have a maximum of 6 pairs on the mats for rolling.
Try to partner with people of similar weight and skills as often as possible.
I do want light guys wasting their rounds rolling with heavier guys if they can find someone else of similar weight instead. You need to be self fish and look after your own improvement.
Now we don't let newbies roll against each others for safety reason. So we expect the higher belts to invite them for a roll. Please remember that everyone was a beginner and be a good role model.
Once you start rolling, usually the more advanced player will play guard and your job is to pass and try to score some points. Once again, try to learn the points system and try to keep the scoring points in your head. I know it is easier than done, but it the most efficient way to improve. Do not be that headless chicken spazzing all over the mats. Roll with a purpose.
Once you score your guard pass, hold it for 20 seconds and look to either improve your position by getting to a more dominant position and score or just attempt a submission.
If your training partner is clueless and less advanced, just work on your B game and defense by putting yourself in a bad position.
Do not coach during rolling, keep it quiet and wait until the end of the roll to talk and give a few pointers if you feel like. We have limited rolling time and mats space so take to the side on the mats after your roll.
Do NOT coach from the side on the mats. You can give some words of encouragement but that is it.
Give way to higher belts when your roll. However, if you are higher belt, I would still expect to use common sense and reset accordingly if you can see some empty space on the mats.
We also give to our female training partners regardless of belt rank.
Learn a guard system. It is simple. Just find one guard that you like. It is usually linked to a sweep. I will give you an example. My first guard was closed guard and hip bump sweep. It took several months of attempt and failure until I started getting good at it. I became so good at it that my training partners became aware of it and started developing counters to it. It sharpened that particular technique but also led me to develop another sweep to surprise my training partners.
Technical warfare.
If everyone is improving, you are improving.
As a good training partner, it makes sense to let your team mate set up his favorite guard or whatever he/she currently working on.
To be continued.
