Many practitioners assume that going faster means being more effective, or that high tempo is the key to exhausting opponents.
But as John Danaher explains, elite grapplers use pace in radically different ways – and both extremes can be equally devastating:
Very different types of pace are equally effective. Dorian Olivarez regularly exhausts even much bigger opponents with his speed, but Gordon Ryan also exhausted his opponents while barely moving.
If speed alone isn’t the answer, then what is?
What really exhausts opponents is making them work in an inefficient manner for extended periods of time.
When they are forced to carry bodyweight from mechanically broken stances, or forced to follow fast movement from positions where they can’t catch up – that’s what exhausts people.
Different athletes require different approaches.
Some opponents crumble when the pace spikes.
Others break when pressure slows everything down and makes them carry weight:
Different opponents move and hold stance in different ways.
Some will be easier to exhaust via speed, some via weight, some via tension.
He also acknowledges that individual attributes naturally shape preferred styles.
Light, explosive athletes will gravitate toward speed-based approaches, while heavier, slower grapplers can weaponize weight distribution and tension:
We all favor one method.
If you’re light and fast, speed makes a lot more sense as a method, if you’re slow yourself, weight placement makes more sense.
His final message is to remain adaptable, not married to one pacing philosophy:
Play around with each.
Make sure you adapt their use to the opponent, and soon you’ll be able to use pace, or lack of, as a weapon.
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