Do you have problems hitting submissions? If you’re anything like most blue belts and even many purple belts, then yes. You were hitting arm bars and kimuras all day during drilling, you felt like you had the moves down perfectly, but then when you tried to pull them off during life rolling — nothing!
So what can you do about this?
Tristar grappling coach Firas Zahabi — most famous for being the coach of former UFC Welterweight and Middleweight Champion Georges St-Pierre — has an excellent solution to this problem: roll with lower belts.
No, it’s not so you can satisfy your sadistic pleasures by bullying people below you (though that may be part of it — joking). Instead, it’s — as Zahabi puts it — “target practice.” You’re honing your skills and your combos by practicing them on someone less skilled than you are. This will help you hit those submissions on people who are as skilled or more skilled than you are.
You can listen to Firas Zahabi’s views on rolling with lower belts below:
