When training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, one of the biggest challenges can be sparring a much larger, bigger opponent. The reason for this is obvious. Weight can crush you, use up your energy and the simple fact of gravity also lessens your chance of success. Perhaps more importantly, bigger guys are almost always stronger too.
As you may know all too well, strength can make up for lack of technique so when you’re facing a much bigger opponent, you will have to play it smart and use your own advantages. By playing their game, you can get crushed easily which isn’t nice and may even cause injury. Here’s how to roll and defeat bigger guys when training BJJ.
Table of Contents
Don’t get flattened out on your back
Whether you’re trying to play closed guard or half guard, don’t go straight on your back. The issue with this is that gravity will start to take its toll and you’ll pay the price. Your muscles will tire, your breathing will get sloppy and you’ll start to get passed as a result. Because of this, you will need to play guard at an angle, and use frames.
In brief, it’s important to create a structure for your body to preserve as much energy as possible. Remember, if the opponent gets to your head and is able to crossface you, then you’re in big trouble. Until then, you should be able to keep them at bay.
Attack the legs
Specifically talking about the ankles (toeholds, Achilles locks, and heel hooks) – these are ligaments that can’t be defended by strength. In other words, if you’re able to access your opponents feet then you can cause them trouble.
A good way of getting to the feet is by digging under the opponent and then elevating them up to attack one leg. Sometimes, this is done so by using butterfly guard or half guard. Here, it’s good to combine the previous lesson of frames to set up your guard position, then when there’s an opening, you should start attacking the legs. Obviously, off-balancing is key and you’ll have to win grip fighting before you start your attacks.
However, once you’re then, bigger opponents are no better at defending their legs compared to smaller opponents. If anything, they’re less likely to scramble or use speed. Here, you can slay giants by targeting their feet.
Get on top, and stay on top
Getting on top against a big opponent is not always easy and can take a lot of effort and energy. Usually, this is done by a sweep rather than a takedown but do whatever works. One issue of being far smaller than your opponent is that even from the top – the stronger practitioner can use strength to remove you.
Sometimes, you’ll see smaller practitioners get bench pressed from side control if the strength gap is too big. Similarly, if you’re weight is distributed poorly from the top then that also means you can get swept or reversed easier.
Therefore, if you’ve fought hard to get to a top position, solidify it and treat it like your life depends on it. Make sure your pressure is tight and make sure you close the space correctly. With this in mind, you should have a better time on top rather than bottom. When passing a bigger opponent, usually they feel much easier with you on top, as opposed to them being on top.
Watch out for ‘big guy’ moves
So, what are big guy moves? We’ve all been there, a big guy pins you in side control and then slowly bends your arm back for an Americana. It may not be that graceful, nor may the arm be pryed out with much technique…but it’s still something that you have to worry about and be mindful of.
Similarly, you may experience similar with a Kimura from the top. Again, that doesn’t mean that Kimura’s aren’t technical because they are. However, if you’re trying to defend one against a stronger opponent then it suddenly becomes far harder.
Similar big guy moves include cradles, crossfaces and stacking. It’s not nice stuff but is effective and works. Because of this, it’s good to know what you’re up against and what to look out for. The likelihood of a huge guy doing a Gogoplata or flying Triangle is slim, whereas the previously mentioned stuff is relatively common.
Tap to cranks early
This advice works well for all weight classes – especially if there’s no escape in sight. However, it’s even more important when training with a big guy. For example; they may be applying the crank at 50% of their strength. If you don’t tap, then they could up it to 80% within a second. This could go from mildly painful to a potential injury.
Similarly, if you feel a straight arm lock sinking in, then it’s best to accept defeat and tap sooner rather than later. There’s no shame in this but the point is against bigger guys, things can get much worse, very quickly.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s tough sparring a much bigger guy. Even if you’re technically better than them, that may not be enough and you can still get beaten if the size gap is too big. Further, even if you do well in sparring, you may end up exhausted by their sheer size.
Having said this, the easy way is to simply spar people your own weight. This may be good for avoiding injuries but in the long run it will also make you weaker against bigger guys as you’ll lack experience. Further, one of the founding ideas of BJJ was to be able to use it to defeat bigger opponents.
As a result, you may want to take on the bigger guys and see where it takes you. It may not be easy or particularly enjoyable, but it will certainly improve your technique and mentality.
