u/Epic-zombie-kitty

Yesterday I had the humbling experience of no-gi sparring a pretty high-level judoka. Usually, because I come from a judo background myself (just far less experience than this guy) I play an overhook game because it allows for a lot of hip throws. However, this felt completely futile. He just kept yanking my shoulder up which forced me to stand up straight and negated all shoulder pressure for my side, turning my overhook into a shallow whizzer.

So I decided to try some lower body takedowns via underhooks, however his over hooks felt so strong that I could never even punch my underhooks in deep enough. He took me down by just pressuring my shoulder to the mat.

I also noticed that while I was fighting this battle I constantly gave up a lot of hip positioning. He feinted a couple of times to let me know he could send me flying, he was nice enough not to.

I asked him about it afterwards and he did briefly explained "with an underhook, you pull up, and with an overhook you punch down to control their posture."
I know this though, this is pretty basic knowledge I guess, but I just couldn't for the life of me pull it off with this guy.

So my question is what 'smaller' battles (concepts/ techniques) win the exchange between the overhook and underhook?

I have an hour/ week mat time, luckily with really good trainings partners, and I have time at home to study and to do short S&C work. But, it feels futile because I simply can't get enough technique reps in to really progress.

Apart from S&C, what can I do to make the most out of this situation?

My general conditioning is fine but I just notice that my technique is getting slow and clumsy.

I'm quite down in the dumps to be honest, I was finally getting out of shitty whitebelt territory and feeling good about my progress, but now with the lack of training I'm already getting rusty and noticing guys that I used to go toe-to-toe with surpassing me.

Trying to G10 every titan and am now at Northstar, but kinda bored if just peeking at the back of the map. Any tips for a more aggressive playstyle with her?