because they end up there so often. The get their legs squashed and guards passed, and they are forced to spend a lot of their time in these positions, and so, they get very good at escaping them. The last general trend that I’ll touch on is the little man’s propensity towards the back mount. Why? Well, when they can’t hold opponents flat in side control and other dominant positions, it often opens up opportunities for back takes. Not to mention, holding back mount doesn’t require as much weight or strength as side control and other positions. It also requires much less strength to finish a rear naked choke or gi choke, generally, than a kimura or keylock, especially on someone much larger. So what does this add up to? It builds little guys to naturally excel in guard, be great at escapes, and have killer back attacks (generally). Also, most little guys don’t get to spend a ton of time in top side control or mount (at least not against very skilled opponents and training partners), and so those often don’t become their best positions. Most bigger guys in a BJJ academy (lets say 185 lbs) spend less time on their backs, generally, and more time in top side control and mount, and so their skill development gets molded by the situations they are in most often, too.
Rafael Freitas (left) battles with Felipe Costa at the 2011 Pan Am.
When two high level little guys roll, this contributes to the dynamic you see. A lot of guard pulling (or double guard pulling, which is cool to watch), sweeping, and closed guard / back mount are the only places where
action slows down and anything close to a “consolidated position” comes into the picture. Joe calls these matches “insect wars,” because they look like two bugs flailing their limbs and tumbling about.
THE REALITY OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH
I
n the Olympic lift known as the “snatch,” athletes of all sizes aim to lift a bar off the ground and overhead, dropping into an overhead squat and coming up to a standing position before dropping the weight. Let’s look at how much weight people of different weight classes can lift (this data pulled from www.wikipedia.com, in their article on Olympic lifting world records):
ATHLETE: 120lbs, LIFT: 300lbs (Ratio: 2.5 times body weight) ATHLETE: 140lbs, LIFT: 340lbs (Ratio: 2.43 times body weight) ATHLETE: 150lbs, Lift: 360lbs (Ratio: 2.4 times body weight)
ATHLETE: 190lbs, LIFT: 410lbs (Ratio: 2.16 times body weight) ATHLETE: 210lbs, LIFT: 410lbs (Ratio: 1.95 times body weight) ATHLETE: 230lbs, LIFT: 440lbs (Ratio: 1.91 times body weight)
ATHLETE: 123lbs, LIFT: 639lbs (Ratio: 5.20 times body weight) (Need I mention all the middle categories? The tend is identical with the snatch) ATHLETE: 308lbs, LIFT: 992lbs (Ratio: 3.22 times body weight)
Okay, okay, what about the bench press? Surely the big guys have to do just as well in that one? ATHLETE: 123lbs, LIFT: 392lbs (Ratio: 3.18 times body weight) (Same trend...) ATHLETE: 308lbs, LIFT: 701lbs (Ratio: 2.28 times body weight)
So, now we see the trend, but what does this mean when it is “translated” to the world of grappling? Well, first of all it makes settling into dominant top positions (like side mount, mount, and knee-on-belly) that much harder, because the little-guy grappler on bottom can create greater pound-for-pound force to create space from the guy on top, both by pushing himself away and pushing the opponent. This greater generation of force in a smaller area makes it exceptionally tough to get the chest-on-chest snugness that might be more common at other weights.
Mind Games6.indd 2
Reading this makes me want to drop 50lbs.
ATHLETE: 170lbs, LIFT: 380lbs (Ratio: 2.24 times body weight)
Anybody notice a trend? As the athlete weights go higher, the pound-for-pound amount they can snatch goes...down. Some people might argue that the snatch is suited for smaller guys because it involves speed, and maybe this provides an unfair advantage. Let’s instead look at a pure power lift... something simple and one-dimensional, the squat (statistics taken from www. powerliftingwatch.com/records/raw/world):
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12/27/11 4:08 PM