Move or Sit?

Sitting on your favorite chair is comfortable.  It feels familiar.  It’s easy.

Holding your favorite position in grappling is comfortable.  It feels familiar.  It’s easy – so long as your partner cooperates.  Trouble is, they usually don’t.  They don’t like your favorite position like you do because your favorite position usually involves you crushing them with your body weight.  Imagine your favorite chair had feelings – it probably wouldn’t like the way you sat on it and if it further had the ability to move, it might try to reverse the position and sit on you (remember, you started it).

Since your partner isn’t cooperating, you’ve got a few options.  One, you could bear down with all your strength and try and hold your favorite position.  It is, after all, your favorite and you like it with good reason.  Two, you could change to another position that keeps you on the top and your partner guessing as to what you might do next.

Option one might work.  Or it might (despite your massive strength) give your partner the opportunity to figure out the position and reverse it.  Option two might work.  Or it might (despite your wily ways) give your partner an opening in which to escape or reverse the position.

Despite the fact that neither option is flawless, I humbly suggest option two.  Keep moving.  Attempting to move and adapt is a recipe for learning.  Bearing down and using your strength to hold a position isn’t a recipe for learning.  Moving slightly and adjusting a position in response to your partner’s attempts to reverse you… is also a recipe for learning.

So don’t just sit in your favorite chair.  Move.  Check the whiteboard to see the lesson plan.