Small tweaks for big pay off
White belt here.
I was doing some stand-up and closed guard drills at training this week. My stand-up game is basically non-existent and the arm drag is pretty much the only weapon in my arsenal.
At some point I saw a detail where, while controlling your opponent’s arm, you reach for their lead leg (same side as the arm you’re controlling) with your free hand. As they step back to defend, that’s when you hit the arm drag. Apoligies if thats a shit explanation, but that tiny adjustment massively increased my success rate.
Another small tweak came from a Gordon Ryan closed guard video. When stuck in someone’s closed guard, just stand up and instead of desperately fighting the double ankle sweep, just accept the sweep and pinch your knees together as you fall. Slowing their movement down, controlling their feet and I often end up recovering into a better position.
Walked away from training realising both of these were such small details, but they’ve had a pretty noticeable impact on my rolling already.
Curious what other small tweaks, concepts, or details people picked up that unexpectedly levelled up their game in a big way