Let Me Hold This for You

You finally pass your partner’s guard and settle into side control. They try to get an elbow back inside. You shift your weight, and they have to start over.

You glance at the timer. One minute left. You’ve held this person in side control before. You could probably hold them until the bell, so why try anything risky?

Why go to mount when your mount attacks suck? Why try knee on belly when the last three times you tried it, you ended up back inside your partner’s guard? And why go for that submission when the person underneath you is better at defending it than you are at finishing it?

Those are all fine reasons to stay put if you love winning your sparring sessions.

So you stay there. Your partner tries to get out a few more times. The timer goes off, and your mount is just as good as it was when the round started.

Go Be Bad at Something

Sometimes side control is exactly what you came to work on. Maybe this is the first time you’ve held that partner down for more than a few seconds. Maybe your side control is already good and you want to see how little effort it takes to keep it. There’s plenty to learn right where you are.

Other times, the opening for mount is there and you can see it. Only, you stay put because you can already picture what happens next. You get to mount, they trap your foot, and you spend the rest of the round trying to pass the guard you just spent most of the round passing in the first place.

Maybe it goes exactly the way you pictured. But this time you feel them catch your foot before your knee even touches the mat. You thought you were losing mount. Maybe you were losing it on the way there.

Or maybe you try knee on belly, your partner turns away from you, and for the first time you see why someone would want to take the back from there.

It happens in closed guard, too. Maybe you keep it closed because every time you open it, your guard gets passed. Or maybe you keep going back to a position because nobody can stop you there. I’ve done my fair share of both. For what it’s worth I’m still trying to get better at the positions I suck at most.

Maybe you can hold side control for another minute.

Is winning sparring that important to you?

See you on the mats.