When What Used to Work Stops Working

The martial arts journey never ceases to amaze me. The continuous cycle of learning is a true joy.

You put your time and effort into something that simply cannot be mastered. You can train techniques and become very good and efficient at them, but the true test comes when it’s time to use them against someone who is resisting with all their might.

Can you combine the right technique at the right time?

When you don’t get it right, it can be humbling.

I’ve been having trouble lately when sparring with larger or stronger opponents. The techniques and chains I’ve relied on in the past aren’t working as well anymore.

As I get older, I’m losing some athleticism, speed, and strength.

I have to change and adapt.

There is no other way.

The hardest struggle lately has been from defensive positions—bottom side control, mount, and closed guard.

I’ve changed some things from mount and side control, and I’m at least surviving rounds—which is sometimes all you can hope for.

Guard has been the biggest problem.

I’ve been playing closed guard against bigger and stronger opponents and trying to sweep from there. I’m spending too much time underneath them, working too hard, and wearing myself down.

I need to change my strategy.

I was talking about this with my son. He’s smaller than I am and spends much more time training with larger opponents. He confirmed what I had been thinking.

Against bigger opponents, I need to get out from underneath them and work around them using more angles.

That means playing more half guard and open guard—using butterfly, stretch, cross grips, two-on-ones, and other ways of creating angles and movement instead of trying to control someone much larger from underneath.

This hasn’t traditionally been a strong part of my BJJ.

Which means I need to work on it.

And strangely enough, I’m excited about that.

I have a plan. Now I get to put in the work, make the change, and see what happens.

Maybe that’s one of the best things martial arts teaches us.

Eventually, something that worked for you stops working.

Maybe your opponent changes.

Maybe the game changes.

Maybe you change.

You can become frustrated trying to force the old solution to keep working, or you can accept where you are, become a beginner again, and learn something new.

Sometimes growth starts with admitting:

This isn’t working anymore. I need to change.

Have there been times in your training when you had to drastically change how you approached something?

What did you change?

And how did it work out?